God Bless the Mistaken, Vol. 1 by Nio Nakatani, Rachel Pierce, Eleanor Summers
coming of age
fantasy
iyashikei
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The most remarkable part about this manga is that in the hands of most storytellers, the tale of GOD BLESS THE MISTAKEN v1 would be a low sci-fi exploit, a pre-apocalyptic adventure, or a mind-numbingly burdensome exploitation of poststructural surrealism. But it's not that. It's the opposite. It's iyashikei.
Here, readers lounge about a low urban fantasy with such confidence that one tends to forget that manga like this even exist. Alas, how many creative teams would manipulate the narrative hook of otherworldly glitches bending the fabric of reality for weeks at a time? How many artists would go wild imagining the so-called "bugs" that permit wild plants to grow, allow people to walk on air (as high or as far as they wish), or twist around humans' perception without them knowing? GOD BLESS THE MISTAKEN v1 isn't about how humans survive a curious fantasy world, it's about how humans adapt and how they learn to help each other despite the challenges associated with said survival.
Kon is a middle-school student bunking at a small apartment complex. Fellow tenants include a few students, a part-timer, and the landlady. This is a fantasy manga, but it takes place in a peaceful urban milieu; all of the characters are good-natured and sensible, and much of the drama is limited to easily resolved internal monologues native to worrisome young folk.
Kasane Himesaki, the landlady, is a rather peculiar sort of scholar. In a world where these so-called "bugs" throw things out of whack for days or weeks at a time, and reality warps in amusing (though not particularly deadly) ways, Kasane appears wholly immune to their effects. The fact that Kasane is an author and researcher of so many of these events is an even wilder thought to ponder. She's a kind woman, but she thrives on asking difficult questions, always hopes for the best for her tenants, and is true to her word. Kasane is the type of person who feels better about herself and the world when someone she cares for succeeds following an honest and earnest effort.
GOD BLESS THE MISTAKEN v1 is a chill urban fantasy book. One might remark on the overplayed hand of Kon as a middle-school student who is clearly more intelligent and dynamic than average, but the manga's cast is delightfully diverse. For example, Kousei is a part-timer who looks rough around the edges but genuinely cares for his friends, while Akira, a sleepy film student, often shies away from conversation but won't neglect a great opportunity to invite others to join him when he spots something cool or fun.
The manga tiptoes around, but doesn't entirely ignore, deeper or more emotional subplots. Readers don't know what happened to Kon's biological family. Readers don't know how or why Kasane is immune to the effects of the bugs. Readers may certainly have their own suspicions, but the genial style and easygoing narrative of GOD BLESS THE MISTAKEN v1 likely means one won't find out for a good long time.
Scarred from war and bequeathed a broken and incomplete mythology, the hapless peoples of GODKILLER resort to willful ignorance, pride in human law, hostile pilgrimages, and all other sorts of accidental and back-alley acknowledgements that the king's war against the gods came at a rather high cost.
GODKILLER is a clever and fun ride, if beset with an overwrought narrative structure, boring characters, and a preponderance of awkward and archaic grammar. The novel is also a whirlwind of adventure that leans heavily into the awestruck disposition of a cast whose experience with a duly fragmented mythology yields mixed results, some good and others tragic.
The gods pepper the continent in ways big and small, tangible and abstract, personal and communal. All manner of people pray to the gods of beauty, gods of wine, gods of luck and fortune, and "gods of ways" (presuming the adherent is lost). People also pray to the gods of rivers, gods of broken sandals, gods of arts and learning, and gods of safe haven (again, if one is ever in need of such). In GODKILLER, there is word of differentiation among these dozens and dozens of gods (e.g., "Old gods, new gods, merchant gods, wild gods," page 214), but there is no hierarchy, order, or conscientious structure to their materializing or their behaviors.
The lack of organization among the gods means a lack of organization among those who revere them, those who obeys them, and those who pledge war with or against them. First, the gods fought among themselves. Then, humans fought against the gods. Then, further still, the humans convinced some of the gods to align with their needs, ultimately setting humans and gods against other humans and their gods. Later, or now, humans have turned against all gods. And while much of the fighting is over (e.g., Mertagh, the god of war, is dead), countless other gods still simmer beneath the gaze of the warrior king.
But it's a complicated fight made all the more so because readers enter this remarkable conflict on the shoulders of four characters in a multiple-point-of-view novel.
GODKILLER is good fantasy, but drags its feet on character development. For example, Elogast, a former knight with some form of post-traumatic stress disorder, is a baker who cares too much and thinks too much; he is insurmountably boring. Inara Craier, age 12, is the last scion of a noble who deals more in whispers than in proclamations; however, as a shut in, the girl is far too haughty, ignorant, and inconsolably witless when she should know better. Regrettably, that's half of the main cast.
A frequent problem with multiple-point-of-view books is that their stories very rarely require more than one perspective character. To be blunt, if most or all of the characters are in the same location, possess interrelated goals, and must surmount the same enemies or obstacles, then why bother with switching perspectives every 10 or 12 pages? Further, since the novel is written in third person, readers do not learn anything new or unique in any given chapter (guided by any single point of view) that they could not also have learned in any other chapter. It's a waste of energy.
Kissen, an amputee whose trade is killing deities for coin, is a woman with a grudge against the gods. Hergruff nature and keen individualism rubs everyone the wrong way, which makes her a great character to position opposite the wild and fantastical, war-torn grievances of the gods. Kissen is bruised, scarred, and often left for dead; she has fought to break curses and sunder a thousand shrines; she is a godkiller. Want to clean out a corrupted river god? Want to break into a forbidden city? Drop some silver for a professional godkiller.
To wit, Kissen is the title's most vibrant character, but is cleanly robbed of much of the story's focus due to the unasked-for desire to balance the story with, for example, the heedless anxieties of a penitent baker who longs to be forgiven for sins that aren't even his.
Kissen is the novel; the book's dynamism runs parallel with reader interest in this character and this character alone. Absent Kissen, GODKILLER isn't worth the time.
The beauty and danger of Kissen the godkiller is what drives this novel forward. Readers trace her story, her regrets, her wayward ambitions, and her unending fatigue. Regrettably, genre conventions occasionally sideline this inside-out exposure, and the novel's preoccupation with half-resolutions (as is often the case with part-one books) promptly pushes its functional themes out of their proper place. To a point, Kissen isn't the loner she projects, she's actually a person who has made a new home and a new family for herself despite a multitude of past trauma. But the intrusion of a sister-character, a friendly-rival character, and a romantic-interest character, all at the same time, unnecessarily complexify Kissen's story to the point where readers actively forget why they should be invested in this character in the first place. That's not good.
These complications are not isolated, and mirror other storytelling affectations that seek familiarity in awkward spaces, only to engender unequal narrative footing. For example, when a cobbler and his wife cross paths with Elo, Kissen, Inara and others, the two claim to seek an audience with a deity associated with the birthing process, after having been granted a "fertility blessing" of a kind. The twist? The midwifing god is dead, and Berrick and his wife, Batseder, "mean to have [the blessing] removed" (page 94). Such a desire is respectable within the fantasy-frame of the story, but premise doesn't make much practical sense. The presumption that childbirth will go wrong because the god of midwifing is dead is one thing, but presuming the whole birthing process will go doubly wrong because of a long-past blessing? Is that because a dead god cannot consecrate or make good on the premise of a past promise? Nobody clarifies the boundaries (or evidence) for why this is the case; as such, the logic doesn't really hold, and readers are left to pick up the pieces.
The vague curse-speak and histrionic nature of a nonhierarchical god-talk doesn't always succeed when toeing the line between original fiction storytelling and the downright weird and inexplicable, context-deprived nonsense of fantasy literature writ large. Relatedly, readers can't always tell whether the author is being hyperbolic and metaphorical or being curiously specific. Does a character have a literal nest of twigs for a heart, with a little flame inside, or is that a decidedly eccentric application of figurative language? Does that river god have actual physical limbs, or is she described as a supple creature with "flesh" just for readers' imagination? Hard to say. Often, the context is not immediate and delayed by one hundred or so pages.
Other, more technical headaches arise from the novel's tenuous relationship with diction and syntax.
One can never be too certain what goes on in the mind of an author drafting a work of fiction that may or may not pull language, culture, craft, and religion or mythology from any one or more periods in world history.
The author's frequent use of Middle English variance for singular verbal phrasings, for example, strikes one as messy and odd, if not out of place. In such cases, the author uses span as the past-tense phrasing of the verb "to spin" (e.g., "They span to face the sound," page 125; "Kissen's head span from the force of her fall. . ." page 273; "She smiled and span so fast with her spear. . ." page 275).
Elsewhere, the use of markedly obscure definitions for exceedingly common descriptors obfuscates meaning. Specifically, the author relies on an obtuse definition of close that aligns to "hot," "stuffy," and "uncomfortable" (e.g., "It was a close, damp day, and the little breeze they had was refreshing," page 113; "It was hot, close, and sweating, smelling of river fish and pickles," page 147). One example of which is particularly vexing (i.e., "hot, close, and sweating"), considering that "sweating" isn't even an adjective. (Unless, of course, the author means to say the walls of the Inn were literally sweating.)
Incongruous or neologistic applications abound. Sometimes, GODKILLER shifts into readers' view with terms that become clear with context: "She released her arrow, and it silvered the air. . ." (page 184); "He took wing to Inara. . ." (page 243). "Silver" and "wing" aren't common verbs, but they function appropriately here.
However, other times, readers aren't so lucky: "Inara grabbed his reins and was almost picked up bodily as he reared" (page 122); "Kissen wasn't going to let him stupid that easily" (page 196); "Kissen worried at her gold tooth" (page 223). Denominalization is very common in this novel, as are the self-same practices of modifying adverbs, coopting verbal phrases, or privileging dialectical word variations that can leave one scratching their head over misplaced modifiers and wayward appositives. For example, the sentence: "She poured herself an ale as Kissen rubbed the sleep from her eyes, then passed her some as well" (page 72), isn't wrong, structurally speaking, but is undoubtedly the bane of professional editors everywhere.
GODKILLER is full of characters with unearned arrogance and mythologies too fractured to know their place, but perhaps that's how things go for a densely-written fantasy story that deliberately leaves more unspoken than it dares reveal (Kissen: "Can you explain why a knight is travelling to the city he helped destroy?" page 128). It's an intriguing book. But the excess in character perspective and the abundance of fragile egos can leave one weary.
Alas, one trundles through chapters focused on boring characters and speeds through chapters on more dynamic characters.
This novel is also a good example of a contemporary author who worked extraordinarily hard to provide diverse literature to diverse readers. Notably, pantheism is not uncommon, and the stridently unbalanced and complicated nature of this book's multi-god world is best left unqueried, for everyone's sanity. Beyond that, however, the book contains characters with myriad skin colors, characters with disabilities, polyromantic relationships, bisexual relationships, and so forth. Although readers are a little bowled over at having all of this shoved at them within the first 30 pages, things eventually settle into a more genial pace. The only conceivably egregious errors occur later in the novel, when one character shames another into coaxing her into having sex as means of pity (only, it's not the rebuke that's egregious, but the fact that the character reverses her position and blatantly gives in only a half-page later).
Altogether, GODKILLER is a bumpy and stubborn read. The wild fantasy at the book's backbone leaves more questions than it answers and very few of the characters feel as destined for the scale of the narrative as they should be. (One also ponders when the publishing world will rid itself of needlessly fanciful maps that don't tell the reader anything.) Still, the book hones its themes and conjures its curses with an ambition and a curiosity that matches the strange, god-agnostic world its characters readily inhabit.
How much of a problem do you think it would be for an author to get agented and traditionally published if they have their own cover artist they really want to work with?
This is in the land of hypotheticals, but I am close with an extremely talented artist. One who has worked professionally and knows and understands how to make good covers in my genre. I'd really like this artist to do my cover. I get the feeling that going the tradpub route will make this pretty rough, but does it border on impossible?
The fact of the matter is, no publisher will make promises or decisions about cover artwork at the time of acquisition. Your cover might not even get discussed for six months or a year after you sign the contract. So they are just not going make the deal contingent on hiring this one artist for the cover a year from now.
Now, when your cover IS discussed, you can certainly suggest your friend for the cover art. And they might agree that this artwork would be perfect for the book and hire them! (I have had this happen many times, where an author really likes such-and-such an artist, and the publisher agrees and hires them. GREAT!)
However, if the publisher thinks a different cover direction would sell more copies, they will want to go in that direction. (And honestly, you should want that, too -- they have a lot more experience selling books than you do!)
Ultimately, while the publisher will usually consult with the author, and they want the author to be happy (or at least, not miserable) -- the final decision about the cover is the publishers, and you'll have to be OK with that, as it will be in your contract.
So if you are OK being flexible on that, perhaps there is a work-around. For example: The publisher decides they want a cover that is not really art-focused, but title-focused; that's what's in fashion right now for your genre, that's what people are gravitating to. Therefore, they don't hire your artist. That doesn't mean the artist can't do ANYTHING. Maybe YOU hire them to create special limited-edition artwork for fans, or to create artwork for your website, or special tarot card bookmarks you give away at events, or, or, whatever. Maybe the publisher hires them to make maps for the interior. Or, who knows what. There are all kinds of ways they might be involved besides just the cover.
But if the only way you will possibly be happy with your book is if this one cover artist makes the cover, and absolutely nothing else will do, you should just self-publish.
Working with professional illustrators before, during, and after book acquisition. Book-cover trends tend to make be a little ill, but alas, could be that I'm in the minority of readers who buy a book based on its description and not on what the shelf looks like.
"I like to think of genre categories as expanders, not constrictors, and Iâve always had a fondness for the stories that refuse to be contained, that insist on being horror and romance, or fantasy and literary, or suspense and satire."
V.E. Schwab ("V.E. Schwab's Desert Island Book is...", The New York Times)
BookCon is a beloved event where the invisible boundary between authors and readers finally falls away, and everyone gets to share their mut
"Itâs no longer enough for authors to simply write their books."
-- Kit Aldridge
Social media is a darkening whirlpool of contested arrogance. And while I fully grasp and acknowledge how essential online engagement may be to bolstering fandoms, sales, and more, the idea that these facets are now more essential to publishing (or to being published) than the an appreciation for literature on its own is galling.
Slayers Volumes 13-15 Collector's Edition, Vol. 5 by Hajime Kanzaka, rui Araizumi, Elizabeth Ellis
adventure
fantasy
magecraft
magic
swords and sorcery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
All good stories come to a turning point, which, if not possessing a proper ending, will surely contain moments therein that provide genuine delight. And so, SLAYERS Omnibus v5 pulls readers deeper into Lina and Gourry's demon-hunting mayhem.
This omnibus appears to wrap up the light novel series, and to that end, the results are horribly mixed. As the conclusion of the current story arc, SLAYERS Omnibus v5 is wildly entertaining; as the conclusion of the whole light novel series, SLAYERS Omnibus v5 is woefully anticlimactic and incomplete. However much the author felt it serviceable for readers to piece together their own extended tales of Lina and Gourry following the events of the current omnibus, so much goes left unsaid, untethered, and unaccounted for that it seems irrational, much less awkward, for the story to just . . . end.
Alas, Book 13, Presages of Incarnation gets things rolling with some very heavy, old-school spellcasting. Milgazia, the dragon elder, and Memphys Rhinesword, his young traveling companion, a prim elf, join up with Lina and Gourry when it becomes clear that a spate of regional demon spawnings might not be so accidental.
The end of the previous volume saw the heroes fighting off Sherra, General of the Dynast, out in Gyria City, the capital of the Kingdom of Dils. Sherra is dead, but if that's the case, why is Gyria City still the locus for mysterious weather patterns and assorted demon appearances? Sherra may be toast, but the Dynast's plot probably isn't.
"The way that Sherra had smiled in the moment of her defeat . . . Perhaps it was satisfaction knowing that she'd played her part perfectly" (Lina, page 105).
This installment produces a good bit of lore and old magegraft. Milgazia wields a bevy of fancy draconic magic that Lina's never seen before, while Mephy wields what she terms Ritual Armor, called Zanafa Armor (apparently produced by the knowledge of the Claire Bible and capable of establishing a connection to the astral plane). Both Milgazia and Mephy's skills are much-needed round these parts, since most of Lina and Gourry's foes are pure demons. If King Wells Xeno Gyria is so dangerous and corrupt that he must be taken down by tools of such a high caliber, then perhaps Gyria City is more doomed than the heroes realize.
Hatred in Selentia represents a substantial emotional shift. Lina searches for an old friend, treasure hunters Luke and Mileena return to the fold, and readers witness a major character death. Slayers has generally done well to keep pace with episodic villains whose danger largely do themselves in, but in this instance, someone finally falls.
Lina and Gourry find themselves in Selentia City, called the "city of temples" in the Kingdom of Ralteague. Apart from being a worship center of Flare Dragon Ceifeed, Selentia is home to numerous subordinate faiths, each of which is constantly feuding and vying for power. The problem? All that jockeying for position is leaving head priests dead. In terms of worldbuilding, this volume grants readers an incredible, incisive view into the political dynamics (balance) between regional clerical regimes and local sorcerers' councils. Lina's not above acknowledging any one of the two might be more rotten than the other, but she draws the line when outside forces corrupt them both to their individual benefit.
In the end, Selentia burns at the hands of a few sad, chaotic individuals. Lina and Gourry struggle to strike down a seemingly benign ally.
And when the battle turns grisly, a quiet moment in an abandoned chapel leaves one whispering for calmer times: "Just . . . Just one worthless little demon did all thisâŠ" (page 214).
Those strange weather patterns? Those recurring demon spawnings? Those unlucky towns prone to chaos sown at the hands of a few reckless demons? Volume 15, The Demon Slayers! pulls together a few intriguing threads, exposing for readers a horrible but very compelling "what if" scenarios concerning powerful spellcasters who might one day lose their way. Following a few rogue encounters with pure demons terrorizing random villages, Lina and Gourry find themselves on the road back to Sairaag ("the world's unluckiest town," page 251), in Empire of Lyzeille. Fortunately, they've reunited with Milgazia and Mephy, who could help in a pinch. And, wait, is that Xellos? For yet another highly questionable reason, the priest of Greater Beast Zellas Metallium briefly reappears (and apparently still owes Lina two coppers), pledging his trademarked non-involvement style of involvement.
The final volume checks all of the boxes in terms of producing excellent tag-team action, as Lina is thrown into a subdimension infused with magic (i.e., zero spellcasting lag) and Gourry can finally let loose the full power of The Blast Sword (i.e., no more power limiters). The result is bittersweet, though. On the one hand, the duo must confront an old ally, belay known weaknesses, and sacrifice something they hold dear. On the other hand, if the demons have succeeded in completing a "ritual" to locate the next host of the Dark Lord, then by all means, anything goes.
By the book's end, Lina shows remarkable maturity: she weeps for lost allies, she demands clarity from overpowered foes, and she refuses to be taken advantage of by those with too much time to spare (e.g., amazingly, backtalking Xellos never felt so good).
Similarly, Gourry steps up: he knows when to leap in to protect Lina and when to hold back and let her take the lead, and he never permits the darkness of humanity shade his hope and opportunism for what the future may bring (Gourry: "No matter how heavy the burdens we carry, being human means we have to keep moving forward," page 314).
SLAYERS Omnibus v5 produces some fine character development, some of which feels slightly overwrought in the moment but eventually plays well as the narrative unfolds. Lina learns (and casts) a handful of new spells, and doesn't hide her surprise when things go slightly awry (e.g., in a magical subdimension, she casts ra tilt for the first time). Importantly, she finds an epic use for those demon blood talismans she conned off of Xellos way back when. And who could shrug their shoulders at Gourry's level-up? Milgazia initially claims Gourry's new blade isn't good enough against pure demons, so the old-timer inscribes dragonic magic, in dragon's blood, on the blade (and that was before they realized it was the infamously sharp Blast Sword). Combined, Lina and Gourry's boost in maturity and battle presence make them a fearsome duo, particularly when combined with draconic magic and astral magic, as backup.
The omnibus's author notes articulate why Zelgadis and Amelia never reappear in the novel series, but one's heart breaks for the numerous opportunities that certainly would have been appropriate. Zel and Amelia, after all, specialize in shamanistic magic, which is highly affective against demons. Lina and Gourry face almost nothing but demonoids, demidemons, and pure demons for the series' final five volumes.
And while the story arc focusing Luke and Mileena reaches a fair conclusion, the open-ended ending, insofar as how Lina and Gourry move on from the emotional tumult of that encounter, feels a bit off. Not bad. Just off.
Did Lina and Gourry really stave off another Incarnation War? Did these two adventurers truly quell the rage of Dynast Graushera on the mortal plane? Could they really partner with the hunting parties, holy knights, and special forces of neighboring nations to slay demons writ large (including aiding Lina's sister, the so-called Knight of Ceifeed)? A lot has happened in the last two years "and change," according to Lina, but one feels this non-conclusion conclusion is a considerably rough landing. Even a brief cameo from Greater Beast Zellas Metallium and Deep Sea Dolphin, the final two of the Demon Lord's five lieutenants, can't quite clear up the sideways smile and heartwarming finale that sees Lina and Gourry off on a miniature vacation by the time the credits roll.
Dress Silhouette - the overall shape that a dress creates when it hangs on your bodyâin other words, itâs the outline of the dress rather than all the little details.
Types of Dress Silhouettes
Whether your wedding day is coming up, you want to start sewing your own clothes, or youâre just trying to experiment with new dress styles for your body shape, here are a few of the most popular types of dresses, plus a few fashion tips, to help you find (or make) the perfect dress:
A-line. First coined by fashion designer and stylist Christian Dior, A-line silhouettes are among the most popular dress types because they look great on almost every body shape. The A-line silhouette features a fitted bodice and flares out at the waist to form a triangle shape like a capital A. A-line silhouettes emphasize a defined waist and broader hips. A-line dresses can range in length from above-the-knee to full skirts (maxi). Occasionally, the term A-line may describe any dress that has a hem much wider than its shoulders, regardless of a fitted upper body, cinched waist, or corset-style top.
Ball gown. Ball gown silhouettes are similar to A-line dresses in that they have a fitted top and flared skirt, but they feature a much more dramatic flare. While A-line dresses usually rely on your hips to create the âAâ shape, ball gowns include additional embellishments to accentuate the shape further and create a much more dramatic fairytale silhouette. These embellishments include layers of fabric (like tulle) or even structural pieces (like hoops, ruffles, petticoats, or other undergarments).
Empire waist. Empire waist dresses are fitted through the bust but flare out immediately under the bustline, rather than at your natural waistline. This shapeâs effect is slimming; the cinch creates a high waist and a longer silhouette than if the dress cinched at your natural waist, elongates the wearerâs frameâgreat for petite women or women who want to draw attention away from their waist.
Sheath. Sheath dresses are form-fitting at every pointâfrom your neckline to your armholes to your hem. The sheath silhouette emphasizes your curves (especially useful for curvy or hourglass figures) and will often feature slits for freedom of movement.
Shift. Shift dresses flow from your shoulders, straight down along your body, with only slight differences between the measurements for bust, midsection, hips, and hem. Also known as column dresses, this silhouette is especially popular in the summertime because its boxy shape hangs off your body, giving your skin ample room to breathe in hot weather.
Mermaid. Mermaid dressesâmost common as wedding dress silhouettesâare form-fitting for most of the dress, then flare out at the knees to create a dramatic hourglass shape in the lower half, similar to a mermaid tail. The mermaid dress will typically feature a long zipper to help you get in and out of the dress. Also known as the trumpet dress, this silhouette emphasizes your curves and creates a dramatic statement. The exaggerated lower body can help balance out broad shoulders.
If youâre looking for the best silhouette to flatter your frame, simply decide your best features (whether youâre an apple shape, an inverted triangle, or an hourglass), and choose dresses that emphasize those features.
From gowns to evening dresses, different silhouettes aim to emphasize or flatter different body types or parts.
For instance, certain silhouettes (like A-line dresses or ball gowns) emphasize a small waist, while others (like shift or empire) draw attention away from the waist.
Silhouettes are helpful features of indirect environmental storytelling or of secondary facets of character description. Knowing the type of dress a certain character of a certain status is wearing might be important, but of greater importance, the author might be better served by balancing knowledge or description of the impression, shadow, or shape that same dress or evokes.
I don't play a lot of PC games, but I suppose somewhere on this planet there exists a theory of social psychology for which the games we play constitute a rather potent reflection of our stresses, our idiosyncrasies, our traumas, and our lives more broadly.
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