lite reading

New and New-ish Haikasoru News

kelakagandy — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:04:01 +0000

Simon and Schuster updated sometime recently with the Viz books through next September, a few of which are certainly of interest here. There’s a relisting of Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriot, which was listed for sometime this year, but then disappeared on Amazon and other sites, but is now scheduled June 2012.

There’s also an image now for The Future is Japanese: Stories From and About the Land of the Rising Sun, which is now definitely a Haikasoru title, based on the font used on the cover. I wasn’t really sure what this title was before, so I never mentioned it, but it’s now obviously a Japanese Sci-Fi compilation. Here’s a summary from S&S:
“An ancient culture, immense social transformation, terrible disasters, and economic booms makes the island nation of Japan a laboratory for how we’ ll all live one day, and a muse to science fiction writers and fantasists from around the world. Both sci-fi masters and hot new up-and-comers have seen the future…and it is Japanese. “

Finally, the NEW stuff! There’s a listing on S&S for Genocidal Organ by Project Itoh (author of Harmony and Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriot) Currently scheduled for August 2012, here’s a summary from S&S:
“The war on terror exploded, literally, the day Sarajevo was destroyed by a homemade nuclear device. The leading democracies transformed into total surveillance states, and the developing world has drowned under a wave of genocides. The mysterious American John Paul seems to be behind the collapse of the world system, and it’s up to intelligence agent Clavis Shepherd to track John Paul across the wreckage of civilizations, and to find the true heart of darkness—a genocidal organ.”

Any thoughts? I haven’t read Harmony yet, but it looks like it must have sold pretty well for 2 other of Project Itoh’s book to have been licensed now. I’m going to have to get on that! Anyone else interested in any of the titles?

Random Fun

kelakagandy — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:52:52 +0000

One of the DMP editors posted this tweet earlier:

“Just learned a new Japanese word: ラノベ (ranobe) – short for Light Novel ライトノベル (raito noberu) ..Hmm..”

I figured it was relevant enough.

JManga to Add Light Novels?

kelakagandy — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:33:25 +0000

The following was tweeted by the JManga twitter account earlier today, “Question of the Week #2: If you would to read manga/light novels in a language other than English/Japanese, what would you prefer?”

So, ok, they were talking about non-English-language publications, but seeing as they have yet to publish any light novels on the site (that I’m aware of), I’m hoping that this is an indication of the potential of light novels being added to the site.

More Kikuchi from DMP

kelakagandy — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:56:08 +0000

ANN is reporting that DMP announced at Yaoi-Con that they licensed Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Maohden. Honestly, I’m not sure that it’s a novel and not a manga, but based on the proposed cover that ANN included (to the left here) it looks like it will be a novel series (seeing as the DMP logo is on the left side, while it’s always on the right for their manga). The article lists a volume 1 and 2, though translator Eugene Woodbury’s site lists a third volume as well (though I can’t find anything past this about the series, so I’m unsure if there are more volumes).

Mobile Suit Gundam reprint

kelakagandy — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:36:50 +0000

Stone Bridge Press tweeted earlier a plea for fans to not pirate Mobile Suit Gundam because a new edition will be out early next year. I thought this was the manga version, but according to their site, the only Mobile Suit Gundam work they’ve published is a novelization of the series, so it looks like we’re getting a nice new novel of the series. I haven’t seen the original Gundam (only Wing and Seed), but I have a feeling there’s a reason that the series keeps getting new versions. I certainly intend to check it out.

edit: It’s up for preorder on Amazon here. MSRP is US$15.95, but Amazon has it on sale for US$10.63 currently. Looks like it’s going to be a whopping 560 pages! Release date is currently April 10, 2012.

Yen Press News

kelakagandy — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 03:32:40 +0000

While they didn’t announce any new light novels at SDCC, ANN says in their write-up,

“When asked about light novels, Yen Press head Kurt Hassler said that his company has no new light novel to announce, but it is looking at some properties and hopes to have something to announce in the not-so-distant future. “

Looks slightly promising. :]

New novel from Vertical

kelakagandy — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 20:13:50 +0000

Vertical released a new novel, Akira Arai’s A Caring Man today.

From TRSI:”When a baby box opens in Southern Japan, an infant boy is deposited with lacerations from head to toe. Hanging on to life by a hair’s breadth, the child is taken in by a local hospital and named Yoshio Iizuka. (The characters for Yoshio mean “a caring man.”)

As an adolescent, Yoshio appears to have overcome his traumatic start and become an exceptional youth residing in Tokyo. He even founds a non-profit organization to represent abused youths. It is with this work as a front that he is able to fund and devise a plot to topple the city’s most iconic structure, Tokyo Tower.”

Interview with Cathy Hirano

kelakagandy — Tue, 31 May 2011 01:04:04 +0000

There’s an awesome interview with Mirror Sword and Shadow Prince translator Cathy Hirano located here. Hirano has also worked on Dragon Sword and Wind Child, Guardian of the Spirit, and Guardian of the Darkness. The interview is super interesting, and I highly suggest giving it a read!

Tokyopop=Dead

kelakagandy — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:40:22 +0000

Tokyopop announced today that they’re closing North American publishing operations as of May 31, 2011. They haven’t done too much light novel publishing lately (the only exception being the most recent volume of Full Metal Panic!), but it’s still moderately sad to see them go. Honestly, they haven’t done much I’ve loved in a long time, but it’s still upsetting to see a manga/light novel publisher go down in flames.

New Haikasoru License

kelakagandy — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:56:56 +0000

New Haikasoru license found on Amazon today: MM9 by Hiroshi Yamamoto (of The Stories of Ibis), with a release date for next January. Haikasoru posted about the title last May, while talking about The Stories of Ibis, so I’m guessing it was already in the works then. Sneaky. ;]