Specs
Reviews
(4.25/5)Van, formerly the leader of a rebel group, is enslaved in a salt mine. Wild dogs attack the mine, spreading a strange plague. Only Van and a child survive, and he manages to flee. A young doctor, Hossaru, is sent to investigate, and to find a cure, he needs to find Van.
If this was in English it would be a 1,100 page edition the size of a phone book, but instead we have 4 volumes. It’s well written, and detailed and slow. We take 50 pages to meet one character. We learn about the history of the kingdom, and historical incidences of this plague. It’s the leisurely pace of a doorstopper fantasy rather than a fast series with many volumes.
The most challenging thing here IMO is the amount of vocabulary. There are a lot of fantasy-book words for the scenery and politics of an ancient-style kingdom, as well as some medical vocab. Not all of them are real words, and you just have to figure them out based on kanji and context. I read the Tsubasa Bunko version with full furigana and was really glad to have it, because I had so many words to look up and remember.
However, I thought the grammar was less difficult in comparison. (The level at time of this review is 35, and I’m assuming if you’re considering this book you have prior experience reading books in the 30+ range and can handle N2/N1 grammar) That’s helpful when you have a sentence with multiple new/fictional words.
This is very much a single book in 4 volumes, not a four-part series. The last chapter of my book was more like the first chapter of volume 2. This whole volume was just setting the stage and the story has hardly begun. If you like to read stories which have a proper conclusion at the end of each volume, this probably isn’t the book for you.
I gave it 4 stars for now since the system requires a star rating, but since volume 1 is just the beginning that doesn’t mean much. I expect I may change it later as I read further.
(EDIT) I’m now on volume 4 and having trouble keeping track of the characters and tribes. My edition has a character list in the front and I thought that would be enough. But characters kept popping up who weren’t on the list. The tribe names seem confusingly similar, and that made-up katakana next to the kanji was confusing and made it harder to tell the tribes apart or remember who did what. I’d recommend making your own chart of characters, and sorting it by tribe or family. And include some notes about each tribe, like where they live, and any distinctive customs or features they have. (crops, animals, historical alliances, etc)
Great Books for Fans of Fantasy
If you're looking for high fantasy in Japanese, then this is the novel for you! Well...novels for you.
鹿の王 is a story told over four novels following two protagonists, Vaan and Hossaru. Vaan was a deer rider and warrior until an invading army killed everyone he knew and loved and made him a slave in the salt mines. Hossaru is a doctor close to the royal family of said invading country who took over Vaan’s homeland.
Both stories have very different feels but both are slow burns that slowly reveal a complex world of science, politics, and (sort of) magic.
In terms of Japanese this is a difficult book with N1+ grammar and vocabulary. If you've read a lot of fantasy then the grammar might not be that difficult, but discussions of politics, natural sciences, and history on top of unique fantasy terms, makes this an interesting challenge.
I wrote a longer review here (https://jtalkonline.com/an-amazing-fantasy-novel-shika-no-ou-the-deer-king/), but recommend anyone who wants to read more high fantasy give this series of books a go.