獣の奏者 (1)

A good choice for a first novel

This was the first Japanese novel I read, and I loved the story. エリン is an interesting character, and her journey was very compelling.

I tried reading 鹿の王 (Deer King) by the same author first, but bounced off of it hard due to the difficulty in the first chapter. Since エリン is a child at the start of the book, her problems are simpler, and it makes the early chapters of the book easier to break into. The book does a great job of easing you into the world in this way, so the later chapters with their more complex conflicts don't feel as difficult as they would if you were thrown straight into them.

The writing style feels a bit formal and literary, without many contractions, and with very little slang outside of one minor character's dialogue. I think this is an advantage for a language learner. It makes the writing style feel more consistent with itself, and it makes it easier to look up words or grammar constructions that you may not know.

This is a fantasy novel, but the fantasy elements are very light, with very few made-up fantasy words. The author also does a great job of putting furigana over the made-up words in katakana every time they appear, so you can instantly spot them.

The difficulty is pretty steady throughout the book. There are a couple of chapters where the perspective shifts away from エリン, and focuses on some political machinations, and those chapters are more difficult. The first time that happened I felt so lost during the chapter that I re-read the entire chapter the next day, and it made much more sense.

You should plan to also read Book 2

A warning to anyone who reads this: books 1 and 2 are two halves of the same story, and book 1 ends abruptly in the middle with no conclusion whatsoever. (Funnily enough, the English translation is actually one combined book that includes both 1 & 2).