デルトラ・クエスト 1 沈黙の森

Fun Children's Fantasy Book

デルトラ・クエスト is a translation of the original English series, following young リーフ as he sets out to save the kingdom of Deltora from the Shadow King by finding seven magical gemstones scattered throughout the land. It's a fun, fast-paced book with a dark atmosphere, fun monsters, and a main cast that are exciting to adventure along with.

I picked up this book in order to work on my listening skills; the Japanese is standard, and audiobook-wise likely the most difficulty will come from the echo-y sound effects applied to some character voices. The narrators, male and female, were generally clear, and I appreciated the ambient sound effects used throughout. The book itself has full furigana, and despite being a fantasy novel doesn't have too many fantasy-specific terms, making it a good first choice for those looking to step into the fantasy genre.

Deltora Quest - A Great First Epic Fantasy Series for Japanese Learners

Summary & Overall Thoughts

• Deltora Quest tells the tale of Lief, a blacksmith's son who has to recover the 7 gems of Deltora in order to defeat the shadow king and save the world. This is the first book in the series (of 8).
• I read this series when I was in elementary school and it was what started my love for fantasy novels, so these books hold a special place in my heart. Reading the first one in Japanese was quite nostalgic and I plan to continue the series.
• Similar to books like Harry Potter, while this book is aimed at kids, it can also be enjoyed by adults.
• Due to the relatively easy language and quick pace (see notes below), I'd highly recommend this as a first epic fantasy series for Japanese learners.

Language Learning Thoughts

• Pros: Probably the lowest level epic fantasy novel I've found. Plot tends to move more quickly than other fantasy novels I've read. In general, vocabulary is quite easy for a fantasy novel (but will still be difficult if this your first one!). I tended to look up maybe 5-10 words per page while reading on my Kindle (note that I'm one of those people who looks up 95% of the words I'm uncertain of). Chapters are short (~10 pages each), and each one ends in a cliffhanger, motivating you to keep reading!
• Neutral: Furigana for almost every word. If a word is repeated shortly thereafter, furigana is omitted.
• Cons: Many words (especially verbs) are written in all hiragana. This was a con for me but I could see it being useful to those who are still working on building up their kanji knowledge. This is also a translation (originally published in English), but it has decent reviews on Amazon, and one of the reviews said the translation was good (翻訳も良好 was the exact wording) - but it is just one review so maybe keep that in mind. I didn't notice anything unnatural but also my Japanese likely isn't at the level to notice a lot of those nuances.