Usurper of the Sun
When I think about science fiction, the hard variety, I think of it, like, drinking a shot of aged Scotch whisky. I sort of expect some familiar kind of punch when I down the fluid in the first instance, like that “umai” feeling that takes you to seventh heaven like a character from Yakitate Japan! or some such, except it’s some delicious food or beverage that you are actually consuming.
The author of Usurper of the Sun, the next SF title from Haikasoru, Housuke Nojiri (野尻抱介), is probably most notable to the average anime guy as the author of Rocket Girls light novel series. Nojiri is a multiple-award winner with several short stories (Seiun) and his other stuff has won random things that doesn’t mean very much to a guy like me. But his writing, I believe, speaks for itself.
Ok, granted a show like Rocket Girls probably does little to inspire confidence, but the science presented in Usurper is definitely way more solid than far majority of science fiction that I’ve ever read. Granted it’s also rather near-future… Well, that’s his niche/subgenre. Think about it for a second–how well can hard SF carry through in an anime? The juicy science discussions are hard to translate into a moving medium that is suppose to capture people’s attention spans without going into an Index-like TL;DR, right?
At any rate, if you dig near-future space sci-fi, this is a book for you. I don’t know how strongly I can push this angle for Usurper, because while it’s definitely good for that, I’m not sure how it measures up with its peers in this narrow category. If there was one main weakness in Usurper, it was the whole xenopsychology/AI mashup. Whatever, it’s not that important. I think the whole “wish-fulfillment of seeing near-term tech materializing” thing worked well in the book.
As for people who don’t particularly care about that aspect of science fiction, Usurper might blend in with a lot of the other SF Haikasoru offerings. On a side note, what’s up with all these non-SF works on the label now? Boo. I guess I’m not particularly thrilled about reading Brave Story at all. Zoo at least has Otsuichi, whose writing style I really like. I suppose they definitely don’t blend so much…
As a consequence of appealing to that genre niche in space SF, Usurper follows the footsteps of some more recognizable names in SF that you may be familiar with. I’m fine with that. It also means it follows the footsteps of other Haikasoru SF books in a sense, but I don’t think that sort of categorical distinction that we find in modern American and European SF is per se a desirable attribute. I mean, after all, the near future only has so many plausible alternatives when it comes to tech.
I wonder if Japanese readers just don’t read these western classics or what? Or are they kind of like me, who generally do not read them but is nonetheless familiar with them in some way?
One other thing I liked about Usurper is how it is very no-nonsense. It isn’t to say it’s particularly plot driven, but it’s very…how do I put it? Single minded? It’s a feeling like you’re in the zone, you’re getting work done, and nothing is distracting you from the task at hand. Our protagonist in the story is precisely that kind of a person, and the story is told in a similar manner. It isn’t to say there’s no character development, romantic side plots, subterfuge behind our backs, or surprises, but this is the 180 degree opposite of floundering harem protagonists who can’t decide which girl to go after or the whiny female lead that calls her favorite name over and over and over.
Not that there is anything wrong per se with all those things.
Our protagonist is the emotional and mental equivalent of the physical powerhouse that is Saya from Blood the Last Vampire. Girls + Swords is a genre/trope, but it isn’t when you’re a driven Japanese workaholic whose life is not empty on the inside because you are saving the world from an alien threat, and because that is your sole calling in life. I mean, what the heck, can this get any simpler than that? It evokes a sense of “1337,” I guess.
Take it as a criticism or complement, but all that means there is more space in the book dedicated to describing alien geography, technology, and rocketry business. Nojiri is pretty good at those things. And despite like how previous Haikasoru novels also skim on some commonly-found aspects in non-light novels, Usurper still manages to read differently. Kudos to the translator, maybe.
For what it’s worth, Usurper is a serialized prose in its first print run, divided into 3 “chapters.” The first chapter acted like a pilot episode and the subsequent chapters only got written when the first one scored well with the readers. Such is a huge difference than how a typical novel is written (you NaNoWriMo guys take note), but I guess that stopped nobody from publishing it in the US like a novel. This one clocked in over 300 pages, which is definitely the longest SF piece on Haikasoru so far.
And it is possibly the best one so far, too.
I mean, 30 years ago they would have read them. They talk about that kind of stuff in things like Notenki Memoirs.
It’s obvious that all these authors have read them. Much less obvious about their readers…
Well, I’m sure I’m just scratching the surface of a bigger issue that producer-types in Japan have insight into.