Twelve Kingdoms (japanese)

Pretty much everything you might want in a high fantasy novel: political intrigue, serious monster slaying, heroes and villains galore, and a number of complex, very well written heroines who lead the show.Japan has long had a strong literary past. They also produce some of the best stories through the medium of anime and manga (see our bestanime.org site for anime recommendations). As such, you can find a remarkable amount of strong, character driven narratives in Japanese literature, especially their science fiction and fantasy works. The Japanese have a tendency to know how to tell a damn good story – full of complex characters, intricate plots, hard choices, and surreal situations. The same goes for Fuyumi Ono's wonderful Twelve Kingdoms (which an outstanding anime series by the same name Twelve Kingdoms used as the source material)And Fuyumi Ono’s marvelous Twelve Kingdoms is an outstanding and thoroughly entertaining novel to read if you want to breach the body of compelling Japanese work that’s finally being translated into English. This one is perfect for the young adult audience with a sassy heroine who takes destiny into her own hands, navigating the dark landscape of an ancient fantasy landscape that's as foreign to her as it is to you.Twelve Kingdoms is a story that uses fantasy to tell an epic tale of the human condition. While the lead character may be a teenage girl, this is a complex story with complex themes, and it's absolutely entertaining the whole way through -- regardless of your age or genre.Most interesting though is that this is fundamentally a Japanese novel and retains that essential 'Japanese' feeling to it (if you've ever watched anime or read manga, you will understand what I am talking about). As such, it's a good fantasy novel to familiarize yourself with Japanese literature and culture -- fantasy tale though it may be.