The Fall 2023 Light Novel Guide

The Deer King

What's It About? 

Van, a former soldier made slave, toils away endlessly in a salt mine. An expected chance at liberation drops in his lap when a pack of infected dogs pass through, killing everyone but him and a young girl called Yuna. Van hopes to make a peaceful life for himself now that he's escaped. However, the disease that cleared out the mine is rapidly spreading, placing him and his ward at the center of a conflict greater than any the world has ever seen.

The Deer King has a story by Nahoko Uehashi and illustrations by Masaaki Yamamoto. English translation by Cathy Hirano. Published by Yen On (October 3, 2023).

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

The Deer King may be published by Yen Press' light novel imprint, but it reads more like a straight fantasy from any country you care to think of. Set in a fantasy version of what feels very much like Central Asia, the story follows two sets of characters: Van, whose people are indigenous to the region, and Makokan, who is related to the conquerors. As of this first volume, they don't cross paths directly, but both of them are following the same incident, a mysterious wild dog attack on a salt mine that left everyone except Van and a toddler dead. Van's trajectory is about him trying to figure out both why he and little Yuna alone survived and how the disease carried by the dogs has changed them; Makokan and his master Hoshalle (a doctor) are looking to understand the disease in the first place, as well as why those native to Aquafa don't die from it when everyone else does.

Divided into chapters with subchapters, the dual plotlines both inform each other as we try to piece together the greater mystery of what the wild dogs are and why they suddenly appeared after last being seen hundreds of years ago. Van was enslaved by the Zolian invaders and put to work in the salt mine where the beasts appeared; he's never heard of the disease that they transmit and that kills everyone around him. He and Yuna (whose mother hid her in an oven) have developed strange abilities after recovering from their wounds, and it feels like the author is playing with various werewolf mythos in crafting the story. But in the Makokan segments, it reads like a fantasy version of the nonfiction book The Ghost Map, about efforts to discover the root cause of cholera. Epidemiology and vaccine theory form the central theme there, and Hoshalle is very interested in tracking down Van to see if his blood can be used to create a vaccine, or at least a more effective one that he's developed from the corpses of victims. Underlying all of this is the question of what the conquerors have done, and are doing, to the Aquafaese way of life, and there's a definite feeling that perhaps the disease has resurfaced as nature's way of putting man's hubris in its place. After all, if only the Zolians are dying, doesn't that suggest that the gods are displeased with their conquest?

How all of this will come together isn't clear, but it's going to be a fascinating journey to follow. This is one of those books that you could give to your friend who doesn't care for light novels but reads fantasy, and it's worth picking up.