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Mainichi Shinbun corporation has just started up a new light novel imprint called "μ Novels" that looks like it'll be focused on bringing older stuff back into print.

I picked up the first volume of Hoshino Ryou's 1999 series "The Third" (the source for a 2006 anime series) last night; I know little about the series as yet, but the copious illustrations by Masamune Shirow are incredible, and depict just the kind of gritty, frontier sci-fi setting I like. Second volume is slated for December, with a third in February.

Amazon page is here. You can at least see the cover.

There are a couple of other publishers resurrecting series like this from the 80's and 90's now, often in revised omnibus editions with new cover art and a new short story added here and there. Examples include Yumemakura Baku's "Chimera" (action/horror) and Chiba Satoshi's "Wares" (mecha); I'd imagine there's a decent number of fans out there who were left behind by the rush to moe, and long for the days when things tilted a bit more toward science fiction.

I watched the anime adaptation of The Third recently after it was suggested in another thread here and thought it was definitely worth the watch. Shirow wasn't involved in this show at all as far as I can tell, nor is he listed as having worked on the original manga adaptation.

I hope that somebody will license and translate this before too long.
I will go nicely with the anime and the two-volume manga that Tokyopop published.

The illustrations might be a bit of a distraction since Shirow Masamune's style is very different from the anime or manga. I am not saying that his style is bad, just different. His female characters are not quite to my taste, but I do not dislike them. The Major is especially pleasant to look at. Smile

But generally I like his stories more than I like his drawings.

Regardless of the drawings, I would like a chance to read the novel.

vanfanel wrote:

I'd imagine there's a decent number of fans out there who were left behind by the rush to moe, and long for the days when things tilted a bit more toward science fiction.

I have read the press release by Mainichi Shimbun Publishing about μ Novels in September. The publishing firm, which is the book-publishing arm of the newspaper company, has said that the 'μ Novels' imprint is aimed at grown-ups who are in their 30s-40s. An interesting thing is that the publishing firm still says they are light novels, rather than, say, 'ordinary' popular fiction aimed at grown-ups. So it seems that the publishing firm is thinking there are people who want to read 'light novels' but are not satisfied with recent light novels, which are likely to be aimed at 'kids'. So there are オサーン who still want to read light novels?
　

hyojodoji wrote:

So it seems that the publishing firm is thinking there are people who want to read 'light novels' but are not satisfied with recent light novels, which are likely to be aimed at 'kids'. So there are オサーン who still want to read light novels?

Calling them LNs may be a misstep, although "The Third" was originally from just such a specialty publisher.

I enjoy various kinds of SF, but after reading something heavy, a rip-roaring space adventure that takes itself seriously-but-not-too-seriously is just what the doctor ordered. If that's what they're offering--stuff that would appeal to people who grew up on 80's and 90's sci-fi movies--they'll have a niche that appeals to me, at least.

vanfanel wrote:

Calling them LNs may be a misstep, although "The Third" was originally from just such a specialty publisher.

Mainichi's calling them LNs may be their manoeuvre which says to people in their 30s-40s who read light novels in their boyhood, 'Hey, these are "light". Not heavy like regular popular fiction. You can light-heartedly stretch out your hands for these books.' Wink

vanfanel wrote:

I enjoy various kinds of SF, but after reading something heavy, a rip-roaring space adventure that takes itself seriously-but-not-too-seriously is just what the doctor ordered. If that's what they're offering--stuff that would appeal to people who grew up on 80's and 90's sci-fi movies--they'll have a niche that appeals to me, at least.

In an article about van Vogt's The Voyage of the Space Beagle, science fiction author Yokota Jun'ya wrote, 'こうしてヴォクトは、いくつかの例外を除き、およそそのころ小説の形すらなしていない低俗なＳＦの変形のスペース・オペラとは、完全に一線を画す読者の待ち望んでいた理想的なＳＦを書くキャンベル門下生として衝撃的なデビューをはたした。…… 『宇宙船ビーグル号』は、スペース・オペラにもまだ残っていた、ほんのわずかな楽しめる部分だけを生かし、そこに適度の科学性を取り入れることによって立派なアクションＳＦとして成功しており、その評価はいまだに高い。'
So when a person who is accustomed to 'heavy' science fiction books tries to find science fiction books as light reading/〈箸休め〉(a side dish served between the main courses), it may be often difficult for him to find SF light reading which can gain favour with him. Also when I read your postings on the 'What are you reading right now?' thread, I think so.

Yokota 'Yokojun' Jun'ya is also famous for his studies of early Japanese science fiction and cultural stuff in the Meiji period. his essays on old books are enjoyable.
　

Yokota Jun'ya wrote:

'『宇宙船ビーグル号』は、スペース・オペラにもまだ残っていた、ほんのわずかな楽しめる部分だけを生かし、そこに適度の科学性を取り入れることによって立派なアクションＳＦとして成功しており、その評価はいまだに高い。'

For the Japanese-impaired, he's basically saying that in "The Voyage of the Space Beagle" van Vogt created an excellent space adventure by using to the fullest what (little) was still enjoyable about the space opera of his time, and infusing it with a judicious amount of Campbellian scientific rigor.

Space opera's a tricky word, because its definition has been in a gradual state of change ever since the 1940s. According to the introduction in "The Space Opera Renaissance" (David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer, eds), the term was highly perjorative at first, referring only to the worst of the worst world-saving, alien-busting, princess-rescuing tripe (although not to the more rigorous space adventure stories appearing in John W. Campbell Jr's Astounding).

Campell's influence as an editor largely killed off the sort of space opera that had come before him, but by the 50's, the term had started being used for fondly-remembered space adventures--including those that had appeared in Astounding. Nobody called their own work "space opera" (unless as parody) until probably around the 1980s, though, when the emphasis on adventure in space was about all that remained of its original meaning. "Star Wars" had become SF's ambassador to masses (Oh, the weeping and gnashing of teeth there was in the pages of "Analog" over that!), and that was where things stood when I was growing up.

Quote:

So when a person who is accustomed to 'heavy' science fiction books tries to find science fiction books as light reading/〈箸休め〉(a side dish served between the main courses), it may be often difficult for him to find SF light reading which can gain favour with him. Also when I read your postings on the 'What are you reading right now?' thread, I think so.

That's a fair enough evaluation, though looking at my bookshelf now, there's probably not all that much that could be called "heavy" in a literary sense -- a few, but nowhere near a majority. Since I'm a non-native reader, a part of how I think of "heavy" is "difficult to read." And that's a sliding scale; stuff I would've considered hard a few years ago isn't so bad now.

There's a sweet spot for me between easy and difficult, and highbrow and lowbrow; that's where I go to relax. There's plenty of stuff to read in that zone; it's just that the Japanese light novel -- in its present form -- doesn't seem to be the best place to go looking for it; although there are some exceptions, most of them are old, which is why this new label caught my eye.

Every time we have these exchanges, I end up wondering if you're somebody I might have heard of in the Japanese SF world. It's not a casual fan that can quote Yokota Very Happy

@vanfanel

I am a "native" reader and I found some of A. E. van Vogt hard to read. I think I first read his stuff back in the late 1950s. Later in a history of science fiction I had the author noted that in van Vogt, Campbell had an "inspired maniac" and didn't rein him in as much as others who wrote for him. Most of what van Vogt wrote was initially published in the form of "novellas". That is longer than a short story and shorter than a regular novel. This was done for the convenience of magazine publication. Later linked novellas were combined into published books with minor changes to make a continuous narrative.

vanfanel wrote:

...he's basically saying that...

Thank you for the translation.

vanfanel wrote:

...Space opera's a tricky word...

If 'horse opera' tends to mean the cheap part of the genre 'Western', 'space opera' tends to mean the cheap part of space action-adventure SF. So I can understand that authors didn't like to call their own works 'space opera'.
Speaking of space opera, in the 60s, when Noda Masahiro translated Captain Future books and introduced Captain Future to Japanese readers of SF, a well-known elderly SF writer looked down on those books, and it infuriated Noda Masahiro. (People who wanted to read SF as light reading/action-adventure stories welcomed Captain Future, though.)

vanfanel wrote:

...That's a fair enough evaluation...

ラノベという分野に僕にあう娯楽ＳＦを求めるのは間違っているだろうか。ｗ間違ってますね、たぶん。
Novelists such as Tsuduki Michio and Kobayashi Nobuhiko called James Bond books by Ian Fleming '大人のための西洋講談'. Kingsley Amis classed Fleming with 'those demi-giants of an earlier day, Jules Verne, Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle.' When you are in search of SF books which you can read as light reading, maybe you expect them to reach Fleming's level.
Ironically, Hayakawa and Sōgen, which published books by Fleming, seem to now make eyes at LN-ish works.

Yeah, I wonder how he nowadays finds books which can satisfy him when someone who likes and is accustomed to 'heavy' science fiction books and SF classics wants to find SF books as light reading.
Anyway, I hope you can find good SF books as light reading. ^_^

Have you already checked out action-adventure-thriller SF works by Hirai Kazumasa?
Tanaka Kōji wrote The Lost World 2, which is a sequel to Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. Tanaka Kōji's father is Tanaka Hidemitsu. Critic Hanada Kiyoteru praised Tanaka Hidemitsu for The Fruit of Olympus. Anime scriptwriter Hanada Jukki is Hanada Kiyoteru's grandson.

vanfanel wrote:

Every time we have these exchanges, I end up wondering if you're somebody I might have heard of in the Japanese SF world. It's not a casual fan that can quote Yokota :D

Thank you. ^_^　Certainly, Joe Bloggs is unlikely to read books and articles written by Mr Yokota.
Since Mr Yokota also contributed articles to a famous newspaper mainly aimed at square middle-aged businessmen, I would not be surprised even if a financial magnate knows of Yokota Jun'ya, however.
　

As to some titles to be published under the μ Novel imprint,

December of 2015
Hayashi Jōji　Shin Senkan Tanjō (temporary title)
Saeki Shinobu　Suna no Yume Mizu no Nemuri (temporary title)
Hoshino Ryō　The Third: Complete Edition, Volume 2

February of 2016
Hiura Kō　Akarui Seikimatsu no Sugoshikata (temporary title)
Hoshino Ryō　The Third: Complete Edition, Volume 3
Shōji Takashi　Dancing with the Devils: Complete Edition, Volume 1
Koike Kazuo　Yume Genji Tsurugi no Saimon
　

@Alan45

Thanks for the info on van Vogt. I haven't read any of his works, but will probably get around to him someday.

Though he came along quite a while afterward, I really got into Cordwainer Smith's works a while back. That guy was amazing, and it's too sad that he died so young.

hyojodoji wrote:

Anyway, I hope you can find good SF books as light reading. Anime smile

Thanks! I don't require light adventures to be classic literature (though I don't complain if they are), but i do appreciate it if:

-they demonstrate a decent understanding of whatever science they deal with.
-the characters think and behave like real people. This is where most recent LNs fail for me--they start pandering in really obvious ways to a demographic I'm just not a part of.

One bit of light reading I really enjoyed was Housuke Nojiri's "Fuwafuwa no Izumi," about a couple of teens who accidentally invent a material that's lighter than air and harder than diamond. The scientific explanation for this went surprisingly deep, and as the protagonists build a huge company producing the stuff, it was very inventive showing off many kinds of things their material ends up being used for. I think it's the kind of book that could even get young people interested in chemistry.

Quote:

Have you already checked out action-adventure-thriller SF works by Hirai Kazumasa?

I've read a couple of his short stories, but none of his novels. My impression is that he enjoyed exploring the "savage" side of humanity.

vanfanel wrote:

I enjoy various kinds of SF, but after reading something heavy, a rip-roaring space adventure that takes itself seriously-but-not-too-seriously is just what the doctor ordered...There's a sweet spot for me between easy and difficult, and highbrow and lowbrow; that's where I go to relax.

I have dug up the special 'The World of SF Adventure' issue (October 1979 extra issue) of S-F Magazine, which I had bought at the Shosen Grande bookshop in Kanda in 1979. As the title indicates, it is a special issue which featured action-adventure SF and fantasy fiction. Since you sometimes read Japanese SF/fantasy books as light reading, you might be interested in what action-adventure SF and fantasy fiction were like in the 1970s in Japan.
You and Yokota Jun'ya mentioned Campell's influence. In the 'Editor's Note' section of the 'World of SF Adventure' issue of S-F Magazine, Editor-in-Chief Imaoka Kiyoshi, too, talked about the influence of Campbellian 'seriousness' on space opera/action-adventure SF.

The table of contents:

The Galactic Beggar Corps (Part 1), a novel by Noda Masahiro
The Labyrinth of the Supreme Deity, a novella by Kawamata Chiaki
The Warrior of a Wild Fancy, a novella by Yano Tetsu
The Great Adventure of the Dirty Pair (Part 2), a novella by Takachiho Haruka
The Seven Sorcerers (The 1st Guin Saga side story), a novel by Kurimoto Kaoru

The Story Which I Don't Finish Telling: the Introduction to a Treatise on Heroic Fantasy, an essay by Kurimoto Kaoru
Rest of Adventurers, an essay by Kagami Akira

An SF-themed colour picture by Katō Naoyuki (Studio Nue)
Astronomical charts by Dr Ishihara Fujio
SF-themed pictures (Perry Rhodan, The Mirror of Hanzaishi, Dirty Pair, and Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights) by Yorimitsu Takashi, Fukai Kuni, Yasuhiko Yoshikazu, and Hagio Moto

The Space Patrol, a manga by Hosono Fujihiko (Studio Nue)
A mail-order catalogue in A.D.20XX
An SF-themed puzzle by Saimon Fumi
SF-themed songs (the scores and lyrics)
Letters from S-F Magazine readers to SF heroes
　

The cover art looks like Masamune Shirow's older work. These might be the original cover art. Shirow has done cover art in the past for novels. Since this cover art looks old, it probably is the original art work.

Replying five years and a pandemic late, but here goes:

Thanks for that post. It's very interesting.

>The table of contents:
>
>The Galactic Beggar Corps (Part 1), a novel by Noda Masahiro

I've got this in paperback, though I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. This series has one of the most eye-catching cover designs Hayakawa ever did IMO. Love the classic sci-fi look, and the black-and-yellow color scheme. If anyone reading this is curious, do an image search on 銀河乞食軍団.

> The Labyrinth of the Supreme Deity, a novella by Kawamata Chiaki

Don't know this one, but I've read Kawamata's "L'Or du Temps" / 幻詩狩り and consider it a masterpiece. Kawamata's an author I'm definitely open to more of. There's an English translation, titled "Death Sentences."

> The Warrior of a Wild Fancy, a novella by Yano Tetsu

Don't know this story, but I read a really good ghost story by Yano once（「さまよえる騎士団の伝説」）, and recently started reading his "Legend of the Origami Spaceship." An excerpt of this was published in Speculative Japan 1, and I'm looking forward to finally reading the rest of it.

> The Great Adventure of the Dirty Pair (Part 2), a novella by Takachiho Haruka

I've read a translation of the first DP book, and love the old anime. I've read the Crusher Joe series up to book 6 or 7...whichever one has Crushers being kidnapped and placed in a Most Dangerous Game scenario with bioweapons. It looks like Takachiho tried to end the series with that volume, but fans and/or publishers clearly didn't allow that ending to stand.

> The Seven Sorcerers (The 1st Guin Saga side story), a novel by Kurimoto Kaoru

Guin Saga is a behemoth I've avoided. I'm frankly not young enough anymore to start a series that long Smile

> An SF-themed colour picture by Katō Naoyuki (Studio Nue)

Japanese SF wouldn't be the same without Kato Naoyuki. Again, I love his covers for Galactic Beggars' Corp.

> SF-themed pictures (Perry Rhodan, The Mirror of Hanzaishi, Dirty Pair, and Ten Billion
> Days and One Hundred Billion Nights) by Yorimitsu Takashi, Fukai Kuni, Yasuhiko
> Yoshikazu, and Hagio Moto

I'd never heard of Perry Rhodan before I came to Japan, but that's a series that dwarfs even Guin Saga... Aside from her manga and illustration work, I think Hagio is a pretty good short story author, too. I pitched one of her stories (「ヘルマロッド殺し」) for inclusion in a Speculative Japan anthology once, but sadly it didn't get in.

> A mail-order catalogue in A.D.20XX

Theoretically, the order form should still be valid! Smile

Sounds like a cool magazine. Whenever I'm in Tokyo, there are two shops in Jimbocho I always visit that specialize in old SF and mystery works. Those places are treasure troves sometimes.

More recently, I've been reading Fumiko Endo's "Star of Sarafahn" fantasy series. I've read volumes 1-3, but the last one is about 1,000 pages, and split into two volumes, so I'm not as close to the end yet as it sounds. I'd like to finish the Yano book and then jump back into it. Maybe squeeze in a Shinji Kajio book at the halfway point.

TarsTarkas wrote:

Shirow has done cover art in the past for novels. Since this cover art looks old, it probably is the original art work.

No, I've seen the original versions in Book/Off before. Their covers can be viewed here: https://www.production-ig.co.jp/xebec/anime/third/novel.html

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