One of Viz's newest ventures has been their Haikasoru line of Japanese pop fiction books. In the sci-fi/fantasy vein, these titles bring us a taste of Japanese culture that we haven't seen much of in the past. Up until now, Vertical has been one of the biggest sources of pop fiction from Japan.
But, the big question is: how does The Lord of the Sands of Time by Issui Ogawa hold up? It's one of Viz's debut titles on the line, and so there's a bunch of pressure riding on it, at least in my mind.
A time traveling adventure where humanity's lives are at stake isn't a bad place to start, really. There's plenty to be done here, so let's just get right into the book.
The Lord of the Sands of Time
Creator: Issui Ogawa
Publisher: Viz Media
Release Date: July 21, 2009
MSRP: $13.99
Humanity has pissed off an alien race. Badly. It's enough so that the aliens are going back in time in order to prevent humanity from ever doing whatever they did by wiping them out of existence. So enter the androids. They were created to go back in time and fight the alien menace.
The twist? These androids were released into society for a while before the actual day of shipment back in time so that they could go around and interact with humanity, learning from them and even falling in love. You can imagine the heartache for someone whose memories are recorded on a hard drive, where they can't forget anything. And that follows them back into time.
The majority of the plot takes place in 600s Japan, where Messenger O must help Japan defend itself from these aliens that are attacking the common folk. Throwing caution to the wind, their directive includes introducing as much future technology as they can to help the humans defeat these creatures.
Put together in 198 pages, the book doesn't waste much time in what it does. We have only two characters who I would call main, followed by a cast of minor characters who I would describe as written with a few broad strokes, and that's about the sum of their development. All the energy is put into moving things along and letting the action tell the story.
Which really works for this title. There's a lot left to the imagination, in terms of setting, relationships and everything going on in the background. The writing gave enough information to get things across, but also kick-start my mind into wondering just what the setting would look like.
By the time I finished the book, which really doesn't take all that long, I enjoyed it, despite the bitter taste of some deus ex machina slipped in there. I don't want to put too much weight on this title, because in the end, it's nothing more than a beach read. That being said, it does give you something that is different from most reads that I've done in the sci-fi genre.
Not a bad choice by Viz, but the $14 price tag is a little much for something that doesn't have much staying value.
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