Title: Mimus

Author: Lilli Thal (translated by John Brownjohn)

Genre: Fantasy, medieval history

Rating: A

Blurb: Who is the fool and who is the fooled?

Prince Florin and his father, King Philip, attend a banquet in the court of their former enemy, expecting peace at last for their war-torn kingdom. What greets them is a devastating betrayal. The king is humiliated and imprisoned, but Florin's fate is far stranger.

Forced to live in a stable, at the mercy of Mimus, the wily court jester, Florin is close to despair...until he uncovers clues to a secret plot. There may be hope, but can he entrust his life to the whim of a manipulative fool?

An intense medieval adventure story, highly acclaimed for its almost unbearable suspense.

Opinion: If I'm reading fantasy, I'm the one that goes more for dragons and magic and swashbuckling adventures. I have little to no interest in books labeled 'fantasy' but having not a hint of magic in them. That was what I'd thought when I randomly plucked this book off the shelf.

Having nothing else to read, I settled down to try this novel.

It's only when I really start to get into the novel then I realize that I really am enjoying it, magic or not. The characters started to become more and more alive - I felt as if I was there with Prince Florin himself, sharing his shame and his humiliation and his despair at his seemingly hopeless predicament. I winced when he was forced to perform jester tricks (he was, after all, apprenticed against his will to Mimus, the court jester, and was given the pet name of Little Mimus) in front of the people who betrayed his kingdom. I read about how he was forced to conform to his new role, unwilling as he was, and the way his quick, sharp mind sought for ways of escape. I read about how he thought his end was inevitable - until he found a shred of hope.

Prince Florin - or little Mimus, during his time as a jester apprentice - is a very lively character indeed. I was enthralled by him even before the book was finished. I hate the thought of confinement and the stifling of freedom, which was why I sympathized with Florin throughout his captivity. I cheered for him when the rescue mission went off smoothly and he was able to go home.

I was particularly intrigued with his relationship with Mimus, the court jester. At first read, I disliked the jester - he spoke of flippant things in a quick, loose tongue, and was highly irritating and annoying. As the novel progresses, however, I saw little sides to him that seemed to flash past - the way he was comforting Florin when the boy was having a particularly bad nightmare (making up an excuse for it afterwards, of course, complaining that the boy was being too noisy during the nightmare and that was the only reason why Mimus was stroking his brow anyway), his quickness to speak up to aid Florin when the boy bumbled in his act before the king, the way he helped Florin save his father...

By the end of the novel, I couldn't help but like Mimus as much as I did Florin. I found the old fool affectionate when he chose to be, and he did, after all, take care of Florin. The character interaction in the novel is excellent, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. :) I even found myself rereading it!

Little Queen

Title: Little Queen

Author: Yeon-Joo Kim

Genre: Manhwa, fantasy, magic

Summary: June is a candidate in the running for the selection of becoming the Queen of Light, the most revered position in the land. The Queen of Light’s duty is to keep the King of Darkness at bay as well and reign over the kingdom.

June has a rival, however. Lucia is widely considered by many to be the perfect candidate for the position – cool, poised and calm, Lucia is the epitome of grace and elegance while June is wild, brash and rough when compared to her. It seems clear that Lucia, and not June, is much more suitable for the position.

But as with every heroine in manga/manhwa titles, the protagonist must triumph over the enemies, so to speak. June appears to be a master at acting (even if she isn’t much good at anything else) and is able to charm her way through the judging panel, at least, and puts herself in the lead for the position of Queen of Light. Why she wants the position when all she can do in economics is to blow things up, but murky reasons lie deep beneath her scary exterior. June is determined – that much can be said for her – and for reasons of her own, she is dead set on protecting her childhood friend, Sejuru, who is said to be, in reality, a demon. And when June wants something, June will get it, no matter the means.

This manhwa is also a little of a love triangle as June finds Lucia liking Sejuru, but the problem is: Sejuru follows no other than June…for the time being, at least.

The manhwa sports plenty of action as well as demons crash into the Academy in the second volume, and if you enjoy pretty boys + action + a reasonably good plot, then try Little Queen. June, Sejuru and Lucia are characters not to be missed…not if you want June’s boot in your face. ^^

Opinion: Well, haven’t I said enough in the summary? Shojo manhwa with lovely characters. Is it just me, or are all manhwa so prettily drawn? Most of the ones I’ve read, anyway. It’s not as diverse as manga where I can find a million and one different styles of drawing. Korean manhwa seems to adhere to a basic rule of drawing – and I’m not complaining much yet because it’s really quite pretty and pleasing to the eyes.

I find Sejuru to be the typical ‘pretty boy’ although I would prefer it if he did away with that headband thing that he wears…he would look much nicer without it, methinks.

All characters have that bit of angst within them, and Sejuru is no different. By the end of the volumes, you might want to squeal and huggle him a little. ^_^

Oh dear, this isn’t supposed to be entirely about Sejuru. Pretty boy-ness has taken over me~!

I think that Little Queen’s plot is confusing in the first volume (it abruptly jumps back in time without much of a warning) but then it evens out and gets better in the next three volumes. You might be confused a little at some points, but generally you’ll understand everything perfectly. June is a refreshing character who does things her way and manages to bulldoze through everything and everyone except Sejuru, who seems to obey her every whim. It’s rather heartening to see these two stick through everything together (although Lucia does get jealous!).

Yuki, another character who is on the judging board for the Queen of Light, is determined to prevent June from holding the revered position. He instead chooses Lucia as the ideal candidate, but as the judging board is made up of many other people other than him, will he succeed…?

(It helps that Yuki’s a sweet ass too, doesn’t it? All cute and lovely boys. Priests who smoke. Hmm.) ~rage-chan

Rating: 4 out of 5 for the whole series, and 3.5 out of 5 for the first volume.

Loveless volume 1

Title: Loveless volume 1

Author: Kouga Yun

Genre: Shounen ai, slight fantasy

Summary: While most manga artists choose to depict girls or females as having cat ears and tails, Kouga Yun draws ears and tails to show a sign of 'immaturity' or as a way of showing that one is not yet an adult (ie. one has not has sex before. -.-''). When one becomes an 'adult', he or she loses their ears and tail. This is a very interesting and a rather new concept on the old method of using cat ears and tail to emphasize sexiness.

The story starts off with Aoyagi Ritsuka, the main character of Loveless. His older brother has recently died in an 'accident' – burnt to death while sitting in Ritsuka's very own seat in school. Seimei was a very polite and clever person – or so everyone else says during the funeral. What had really happened to cause his death? Was it an accident?

Or was it murder?

Ritsuka first starts unraveling the mysteries when he meets Soubi, who claims to be Seimei's Fighter unit. As explained in the manga, Fighter units fight and protect their Sacrifies – in Soubi's case, he is the Fighter, and Seimei was the Sacrifice. However, Ritsuka soon finds Seimei's last will – he hints at a murder conspiracy and tells Ritsuka (via the will) that Soubi, who once 'belonged' to Seimei, would now be passed on to his little brother, Ritsuka.

Opinion: I know, my summary sucked. I bet I got you all confused, didn't I? ^_^'' I'm not very good at explaining (which is why whenever someone asks me, “What's that book about?” I just shove the blurb under their noses. XD).

Yes, Loveless is a shounen ai themed manga, and although it might not be as explicit as Gravitation, I still believe this is much much better than Gravitation is. The art is neat and messy at the same time – it looks slightly messy, but it's a coordinated mess, if you get what I mean!

Ritsuka is adorable with his flattened ears and tail that sticks out. Apparently, there is some issue within Ritsuka – he has little to no memories of himself beyond the two years he has with Seimei (hence making Seimei a very important person in his life) and is slightly obsessed with taking pictures in order to retain those 'precious memories' that he has.

Another character that appears frequently in the manga include his friend, Yuiko. Yuiko is tall for her age, and likes Ritsuka very much, despite her once telling a would-be boyfriend that she would never date someone shorter than her. ^^ (Ritsuka is shorter than her!) Yuiko had a habit of referring to herself in third point of view, until Ritsuka made it a condition that she had to refer to herself as 'I' if she really wanted to be Ritsuka's friend.

Loveless also has an element of fantasy that includes spell battles. This is where the Fighter/Sacrifice pairs come in. They initiate and fight a battle using words. The more complex and well-strung words the sentences are, the more effective the spells. This is a very unique sort of battle indeed, and extremely interesting. See? You need more intellect than brawn to fight properly in Loveless!

Sacrifices take the damage for the team while the Fighter tries his or her best to protect their Sacrifices while using word spells to restrain the other team's Sacrifice. For every damage the Sacrifices receives, he or she is dealt a 'restrain' (read, in other words, kinky bondage! ^^) and once the Sacrifice is fully bound, the battle is lost. A team can only consist of two people who share the same 'name' (ie in the beginning of the manga, you will be meeting teams named Breathless, Sleepless and Fearless). Seimei Aoyagi and Soubi's 'name' was Beloved, but after Seimei died, Soubi joined Ritsuka (whose 'name' is, apparently, Loveless, the complete opposite). It is unheard of for a Fighter whose Sacrifice has died to join up with another Sacrifice. Their two 'names' clash with each other, thus effectively halving their power, but since Soubi seems to have almost unlimited power, they win most of their battles. =) ~rage-chan

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Ptolemy's Gate

Title: Ptolemy's Gate

Author: Jonathan Stroud

Genre: Children's novels, fantasy, magic

Blurb: Two thousand years have passed since Bartimaeus was at the height of his powers - invincible in battle and befriended by the great magician Ptolemy.

Now, trapped on Earth and treated with disdain by his master, Nathaniel, Bartimaeus finds his energies are fading fast. With Nathaniel preoccupied by the problem of a failing empire, and more rigid and insensitive than ever, the long-suffering djinni's patience is finally at an end.

Meanwhile, undercover in London, the fugitive Kitty Jones has been stealthily completing her research on magic and demons. She has a plan that she hopes will break the endless cycle of conflict between djinn and humans - but first she must uncover the secrets of Bartimaeus's past.

This extraordinary conclusion to the Bartimaeus Trilogy moves across the centuries and into unknown worlds. With disaster threatening everyone in London, the destinies of Bartimaeus, Nathaniel and Kitty are entwined for a final time. Together, they must defeat treacherous magicians, uncover a chilling conspiracy and face the most dangerous threat in the history of magic.

Worst of all, they must contend with each other...

Opinion: Ptolemy's Gate is the third and final book in the series Bartimaeus Trilogy. Although quite some time had passed since I'd read the second book and the third book, I still managed to enjoy the story completely. The Bartimaeus Trilogy is unique in the way that the author puts little notes at the bottom of the pages if he feels the need to note something. For some, this might prove to be intensely annoying, because although you don't want to be distracted by random little notes slightly irrelevant to the story, but being a true reader, your eyes can't help but to skim them.

Usually, I would have hated these notes. But oddly enough, I found them quite interesting and mildly humourous. Stroud writes with deft cleverness and light wit, and although the book is in first POV (I dislike first POVs) I enjoyed it tremendously.

The ending saddened me a little, though, with character death....

XDD No more spoilers! Go and read, and make sure you grab the first two copies too - The Amulet of Samarkand (book one) and The Golem's Eye (book two).

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Pretear volume 1

Title: Pretear volume 1

Author: Kaori Naruse

Genre: Slight romance, fantasy, shojo

Summary: Himeno has always thought that she was an ordinary high school girl. Her mother passed away quite some time before, and Himeno and her father were never the rich family.

Until all of a sudden, her father remarries to a rich lady, and Himeno finds herself steeped in wealth and money, along with a stepmother and her two stepsisters.

One unexpected day, a boy accosts Himeno and leads her to an entirely new place, where she is surrounded by an almost illegally sexy group of guys and told that she is, most assuredly, the Pretear, and that she is their last hope to stop the Princess of Disaster who is hellbent on corrupting the world with darkness and, possibly, red snow. XD The Pretear is their leader and the guys are her Leafe Knights, each of whom control a certain ability (ie wind, snow, water etc) and are in charge of destroying the Princess of Disaster's dark seeds.

The Pretear is in charge of protecting the Leafe, the source of all life, and only the Pretear can create more Leafe. To protect the Leafe from the darkness, she has to merge with one of her knights, and thus borrow the knight's power to use in battle.

Opinion: Pretear is shojo through and through – a girl surrounded by pretty boys, changes her outfit with every different knight she merges with, with glittery art? Definitely shojo, and pinkishly so.

However, any shojo fan will like this, I think, although it doesn't appeal to me as much. I mean, Himeno changes her outfit every time she merges with someone different, and with seven different knights, she has eight outfits – including the one she's wearing. It's a classic story of girl being surrounded by hot guys, perhaps conveniently orphaned as well (some anime characters have their mothers dead, for some reason) with a rag-to-riches plot.

Himeno also annoys me sometimes (to admit it...) so it's not entirely the first book I would pick up from a pile of manga. Still, if you like classic plots (classic is cliched) do find some time to read Pretear.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

D.Gray Man volume 1

Title: D.Gray Man volume 1

Author: Hoshino Katsura

Genre: Fantasy, exorcism

Summary: D.Gray Man is set in a fictional 19^th century England where the Black Exorcists exist and roam the earth to find Innocence, a mysterious substance that is used to create weapons for the exorcists to destroy Akuma (demons) created by the Millenium Earl, the ultimate bad guy of the manga.

Allen Walker is the 15-year-old protagonist and apparently, he is a parasite exorcist, one of the rarer types who can change their bodies into weapons instead of relying on items such as swords. Allen's left hand is the weapon which, initially, could change into a huge claw (which looks rather out of proportionate most of the time XD) but later evolves into more sophisticated weapons including a light sword and a cannon of sorts. (I swear, this all sounds very Gary-Stuish but I still like him anyway!)

In this volume, we see Allen meeting the Black Order for the first time – he is sorely tested by the gatekeeper who declares him as an Akuma because of the cursed pentacle on his left eye (you shall find out about the curse in due time ;) ) and fearing an attack, the head of the exorcists sends out Kanda Yuu to destroy the 'Akuma' (who is actually poor Allen!).

Kanda is the typical Japanese samurai – he totes around a katana which he calls Mugen (if memory serves me) and is, incidentally, Japanese. He is an inch away from skewering Allen in the head when the head of the Order finally finds a letter of recommendation from one of their top generals regarding Allen Walker.

(And so, Allen was spared death. Phew!)

Kanda and Allen gets off on rocky terms, and Allen ends up with Kanda's nickname for him – bean sprout, or moyashi.

Opinion: The first volume isn't too bad overall. The art can be slightly...awkward (for lack of a better word) in some parts, but generally, it is excellently drawn. The plot is also well contrived with some exciting little bits thrown in. However (this is getting beyond volume 1) I feel that the characters turn into Gary Stus or Mary Stus (people who are too glorified for my liking). The exorcists seem to be almost undefeatable – as per usual shounen mangas, Allen loses his left arm (and therefore his Innocence weapon), but he miraculously manages to restore his left arm and not only that, he obtains a more powerful weapon.

Which is quite incredulous.

But I still say D.Gray Man is a manga worth reading (and an anime worth watching) if you enjoy shounen titles. Allen's experiences with his master (the general who recommended that he join the Black Order) is absolutely hilarious. Do not miss his account of how he learnt to cheat at cards! ^_^ ~rage-chan

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Links:

Anime News Network

Wikipedia's page on D.Gray Man

Want to buy? Try Amazon's D.Gray Man manga!