Title: The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Vol. 2: Plus Ultra
Series: The Saga of Tanya the Evil
Author: Carlo Zen
Genre: Light Novel
Publisher: Yen On
Release Date: March 27, 2018 (English); May 31, 2014 (Japanese)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 406

 

Like the first volume, Plus Ultra is long for a light novel. None of the books in The Saga of Tanya the Evil are quick reads. They take about as long as a standard western novel. For readers who watched the anime first, Plus Ultra goes from partway through Episode 5 to partway through episode 11. There is also a side story at the end which the anime shows at the end of Episode 2. This is where The Saga of Tanya the Evil differs from many other anime adaptions of light novels.

Typically, an anime adapted from a light novel tries to match pace with the books. This series does not do that. The end of an episode does not necessarily coincide with the end of a chapter. The pacing is readjusted for the anime adaption and while that is not necessarily a bad thing, it is unusual. That being said, it could even be viewed in a positive light depending on your outlook. The alternate narrative techniques used by the anime tell the same story, but in a different way. While the book has more focus on geopolitical analysis, the anime more focuses directly on fighting and warfare.

With all that in mind, Plus Ultra continues to be an already impressive series. This is the point in the story where WWI and WWII analogies start to mix. The first book showed more of the WWI side of things with notions such as the geographic location of the Not-Europe nations and trench warfare. Plus Ultra starts driving WWII-era points home, such as the application of new technology and tactics on the battlefield. All of this is obvious to Tanya, who is from Earth and has knowledge of WWII history. But to everyone else in the world, this is all new.

The Empire is newly established as a potential world superpower. However, they are surrounded by other countries on all sides. While their country is not landlocked, areas the size of the English Channel are the only waters between them and other nations. Some of these other nations are superpowers and want to prevent the Empire from becoming one as well. This is where The Saga of Tanya the Evil differs from real history. The Empire (Not-Germany) is always the defender (thus far). They have yet to attack first. And their military leaders 100% expected any potential wars to happen that way. How their plans of national defense will ultimately turn out in the face of a reacting enemy remains to be seen.

Title: The Rising of the Shield Hero, Volume 3
Series: The Rising of the Shield Hero
Author: Aneko Yusagi
Genre: Light Novel
Publisher: One Peace Books
Release Date: February 16, 2016 (English); December 21, 2013 (Japanese)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 344

 

Volume 3 of The Rising of the Shield Hero is where things start to pick up. While the last book did not 100% wrap up the intro sequence, readers start to see that here. For you anime watchers, Volume 3 covers episodes 9 to 13. This time around, existing character development and plot advancement take precedence over introducing new characters. Volume 3 primarily revolves around the Heroes fighting the next wave, including prep work and the aftermath of the battle. Readers also get to see the first hints at behind-the-scenes politics going on within Melromarc, and their influence.

But that is not to say that the plot-lines from Volume 2 are all wrapped up. Naofumi continues (to his frustration) to clean up the messes left by the other heroes. And his relationship with Melty, the newest member of the group, continues to develop. Moreover, Raphtalia begins this book still cursed following the battle against the zombie dragon. Suffice to say, the group is kept busy prior to fighting the next wave. But the wave does come and this time around Naofumi is properly prepared and ready for a real fight.

The wave itself is one of the best parts of Shield Hero up to this point. Naofumi has gained a lot of experience, both personal and as a leader, since the last wave. And it shows. Whereas the other heroes do what they did last time (run off seeking glory), Naofumi marshals what forces he can and rallies a defense. And does this job well enough that he starts to outshine the other heroes. By the time the battle is said and done, it cannot be denied that Naofumi played the most pivotal role. Between that and his travels, public opinion is starting to sway in the Shield Hero’s favor.

That is not to say that everyone is happy with this outcome. The Shield Hero still has many powerful enemies who want public opinion of him to stay as-is. People who care more for their own personal power than the safety and survival of the citizens under their rule. Or even of the world. Once again Naofumi finds himself falsely accused without so much as a chance to defend himself. But anyone who thinks he will go down without a fight this time is a damn fool. Despite everything, he persevered once and is damned determined to do it again. How that turns out will be revealed in Volume 4.

Title: The Honor of the Queen
Series: Honor Harrington
Author: David Weber
Genre: Sci-fi
Publisher: Baen Books
Release Date: June 1993
Format: Paperback
Pages: 422

 

The Honor of the Queen takes place three years after On Basilisk Station. In that time, Honor has used her command to hunt down space pirates and protect Manticore’s ships. Now she has received new orders to join a small fleet headed for the world of Grayson. In the three years since the first book, Manticore’s relations with Haven have continued to worsen. Both sides know that the prospect of war is a matter of if, not when. With that in mind, both sides are seeking alliances with star systems near their territories for tactical superiority.

And this is the part where certain people may get offended by the ideas presented in The Honor of the Queen. Grayson, simply put, is sexist. Their people are descended from a Christian, Luddite-type culture. While the reasons for their sexism are fleshed out further in later books, in The Honor of the Queen it is very blunt. Their culture views women as delicate and needing protection. This creates one of the central conflicts in the book in the form of Honor. Manticore sends her on this mission for political reasons as much as her skills. To show Grayson that working with Manticore means viewing women as equals.

Anyone who read the first book should have a rough idea of how this turns out. Honor is a badass and far, far from needing anyone else to protect her. That being said, the people of Grayson are aware of the limits of their culture and planet’s technology and acknowledge that allying with a more powerful nation like Manticore will require them to adapt and change rather than digging in their heels. On the flipside of that, Grayson’s sister planet and enemy Masada takes the sexism and turns it up to 11. They are also more religiously extreme, viewing non-believers as infidels who deserve only slavery and death.

When The Honor of the Queen came out 25 years ago, sexism and religion were starting to become touchy subjects. The social developments of the last 25 years have made these problems in our society much more apparent. It would be a bit much to claim David Weber was ahead of his time for addressing these issues when he did, but he was up to bat a lot early than most other people with a following and influence.

While the story, characterization, and other literary aspects of The Honor of the Queen are on par with the first book, modern readers may ignore those factors and only focus on the real-world applications of the subject matter instead. If you are an individual sensitive to those types of things, even when the heroine comes out on top, this may not be the book for you. For those readers who want to read one of the best military sci-fi series out there, Honor Harrington continues to impress.

Title: The Skull Throne
Series: The Demon Cycle
Author: Peter V. Brett
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: March 31, 2015
Format: Paperback
Pages: 681

 

In fantasy series, the 2^nd-to-last book always seems to be the weakest installment. Usually, authors have the spend the majority of these books setting things up for the grand finale. Big events are usually kept at a minimum before the final battle. While The Skull Throne does this somewhat, Peter V. Brett toned it down compared to many other authors. Most of this novel is spent getting all the ducks in a row for the last book, but it is not without excitement. Minor characters see their development beginning to wrap up and the loose threads of side plots start being sewed up.

The biggest difference between The Skull Throne and the previous three books is the lack of flashbacks. Readers know everything they need to about the major characters at this point. A new character introduced in this book gets some flashbacks, but that is it. Everything else is focused on the present and advances character development. Mind you, it is more character development than plot that is advanced in this book. While the key main characters and a few others are off doing…things…most of The Skull Throne focuses on everyone else. The Daylight War is still in effect with humans warring on humans, but the demons are just about done sitting still.

That being said, the characters that this installment does focus on get some good development. Leesha has been a bit of a hectic character but really finds her footing too. Rojer also gets a lot of focus, which is great since he did not receive much in the previous book. But these events do make The Skull Throne feel a bit slow at times. There are less demon butt-kicking scenes and more to do with politics, strategy, and people’s love lives. Not quite the same excitement of life-or-death battles, but these are things that need to happen narratively, which Brett understands.

While the action is scarcer, it is also more intense. At the start of the series, the demons were basically just animals. Animals that are very hard to kill, but essentially just vicious, hungry animals. Now, they are strategizing. They are beginning to move like armies and fight like soldiers, testing the mettle of the humans who have grown overconfident as they have become drunk on the power of magic. They know their ancestors have fought this war before, more than once, and failed to vanquish their enemies. The final book will show whether they can accomplish what the heroes of their myths and legends could not.

Title: The Rising of the Shield Hero, Volume 2
Series: The Rising of the Shield Hero
Author: Aneko Yusagi
Genre: Light Novel
Publisher: One Peace Books
Release Date: October 20, 2015 (English); October 24, 2013 (Japanese)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 300

 

The Rising of the Shield Hero, Volume 2 starts off shortly after Volume 1 ended. For people who watched the anime, Volume 2 covers episodes 5 through 8. Despite coming out of his shell a bit and newfound trust in Raphtalia after the end of the previous book, Naofumi is still in a dark place. But this is still the beginning phase of his journey, as Naofumi and his allies rise into becoming true heroes. While Naofumi and Raphtalia and still a key focus here, they pick up a third party member in this book: Filo.

Filo is a creature called a filolial, a large, intelligent bird creature that is totally definitely not a chocobo. Basically, filolials are this magical world’s equivalent of horses. But they can also be trained to fight monsters and whatnot. Having a large creature that can also pull a wagon quickly puts Naofumi on the next track of his journey: becoming a trading merchant. With the kingdom still ostracizing him, the group journeys around the countryside fighting monsters for experience and selling medicines, food, and other needed goods to the poorer areas who see little trade. But Naofumi is not the only one having adventures.

Over the course of this book, Naofumi’s group hears rumors about the other three heroes. And all three of them are very much still treating this new world like a video game. But Naofumi realizes that this world is no game and that in the real world, actions have consequences. The group’s journey soon develops a pattern of cleaning up the other heroes’ messes. The actions of the other heroes inadvertently lead to Naofumi becoming stronger. While the other heroes “know what they are doing” from their video game knowledge, Naofumi continues to learn from scratch and pick up on things the other heroes remain unaware of.

Is Volume 2 of Rising of the Shield Hero particularly exciting? Not really. This is a story full of side quests. These are the mini-missions you have to do in games to get the experience/loot to tackle the big story. But while the main plot crawls along here, the character development continues to expand. Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo all grow as people from these experiences. Both individually and in their relationships together as a team. Even characters who are not always directly involved, like the other three heroes, get some development via the actions Naofumi knows they have taken. Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 2 is very much a stepping stone, but it seems to be moving the series in the right direction.

Title: Doctor Sleep
Series: The Shining
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Scribner
Release Date: September 24, 2013
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 531

 

Stephen King sequels are a rare thing. While all of his books do have a shared multiverse, most of King’s stories allude to his previous works rather than directly interacting. Doctor Sleep is only the third time King wrote a direct sequel (which he has done one other time since). And The Shining came out in 1977, a good 36 years before Doctor Sleep. If you have not read the Shining in a while (like me), a brief reminder of how it ended: 5-year old Danny Torrance, his mother Wendy, and caretaker Dick Halloran scarcely survived the destruction of the Overlook and death of Wendy’s husband Jack, who had been possessed by the hotel’s ghosts.

Doctor Sleep begins a bit after the end of The Shining. The very beginning of the book covers parts of Danny’s childhood as he copes with the events at the Overlook. Not to mention his newfound awareness of his powers with The Shining. But life goes on and Danny the child becomes Dan the adult, someone in the real world with grown-up problems. And if you go into Doctor Sleep having only seen The Shining movie, it is drastically different from the book. While the movie is great in its own right, many changes were made from King’s original work.

The premise of this book involves the adult Dan meeting a young girl, Abra, who has The Shining. Like Danny, Abra loses bits of her childhood innocence early because of her powers. This time around, Dan takes on Dick Halloran’s role as he attempts to help this young girl with her gifts. But The Shining is not the only thing Abra and Dan have in common. Like Danny before her, supernatural enemies want Abra’s abilities and plan to take her life to get them. These “people” have killed children before to claim their Shining and are more than happy to do it again.

There are so many parallels between Doctor Sleep and The Shining. Despite what Dan and his mother went through, there is a lot of his father in him. Dan makes the same mistake as his father, alcoholism. He knows he is doing it. He knows that it is bad for him and the wrong thing to do. But he does it anyway in that moment of weakness and it destroys him for years. Despite the premise involving Abra and the danger she is in, Doctor Sleep is just as much Dan’s story as The Shining was Danny’s. His story features a battle between good and evil on the inside as much as on the outside. And every step of the way, King delivers a story on par with the first book.

Title: The Daylight War
Series: Demon Cycle
Author: Peter V. Brett
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Random House Del Rey
Release Date: February 12, 2013
Format: Paperback
Pages: 639

 

The Demon Cycle continues in The Daylight War, marking the halfway point of the series. This book is a bit different from its predecessors, showcasing once again how Peter V. Brett is not afraid to mix things up a little. The Warded Man was the opening story, introducing his world and the characters and magic it contains. The Desert Spear expanded on character development and hammered home the point that humans will fight each other even with the ever-looming demon threat. The Daylight War still focuses heavily on the characters as the gears their actions put in motion continue to turn.

Whereas the first book began with the perspectives of main characters, readers get to see more POVs throughout this series. Even relatively minor characters get a chapter here and there to enhance their characterization. But the main characters are still facing challenges themselves. Arlen must make hard choices as people begin to deify him after years spent on the road alone. Old relationships will be tested as new ones are forged and his faith is tested as events force him to wonder whether some people are worth saving. Without spoiling anything, it is nice to see some characters from book 1 return instead of being forgotten forever.

While Arlen is an amazing character, the others are not sitting idle during his adventures. Leesha finds herself thrust into a leadership position and all of the responsibilities that come with it. Rojer learns more of his own talents and the impact they could have in combating demons. The Krasian characters continue their crusade, determined to unite humanity (by force) under a single banner before waging a true war against the demons. In particular, readers will learn more about Inevera and her fellow Dama’tings. Outwardly, Krasia may seem like a male-dominated culture, but events behind the scenes are rarely the same.

Characterization is clearly one of Brett’s strong points as a writer and it shows throughout the series. In the first book, mere months before The Daylight War, humans could do almost nothing to demons. The Krasians were fighting a losing war and everyone else hid in their homes nightly. Now, demons can be killed as easily as game animals can be hunted. These people can suddenly fight back for the first time in centuries, let alone within living memory. For the first time in eons, they have hope. But with the power that brings that hope about, so too will they find hardship, pain, sadness, love, joy, and more than they ever expected in this brave new world.