Summer of the Ubume

Totally forgot this was out now. Anyone grab it?
A lot of us are big fans of the Moryo no Hako anime, for good reasons, and I can attest to the original novel being every bit as impressive. The novel was actually the second in a series, and The Summer of the Ubume is the first. It's a rougher, more imbalanced work than Moryo no Hako, but definitely worth a read.
Vertical's website mysteriously calls Natsuhiko Kyogoku the Neil Gaiman of Japanese mystery novels, which is hilariously wrong; he's the Neil Stephenson. He does a fuckton of research, and tends to put it all into the books, which can make them a bit dry at times, but nonetheless fascinating.

Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness (aka Yami no Moribito)

"Back under the mountain, when the Herders had finished their sacred hymn, they made the warriors vow to keep silent, and the warriors had agreed, knowing that words could never adequately describe what they had just seen or experienced."

One of my favorite lines from the book, and one that aptly encapsulates my feelings about it. Guardian of the Darkness is something I can praise, but not really something I can describe too well.

Anyway, fucking sensational read. Guardian of the Darkness is beautiful, badass, dazzling from its awesome cover to its last page. The penultimate section of the book is a spectacle to visualize and behold in your mind, a smorgasbord of imagery. If anything, read this book for the most glorious physical/metaphysical spear fight ever featured in any literary work.

Buy/read/love this thing now if you enjoyed watching/reading Seirei no Moribito. I loved this continuation even more than its predecessor. I hope Scholastic keeps on releasing more volumes by the way and keeps Cathy Hirano at the translating helm. She's once again put out some fantastic work. Andrew any little tidbits on what happens in the later volumes of Moribito, if you've happened to read them?

Zerozaki Magashiki no Ningen Ningen

Third in the Zaregoto spin-off Zerozaki Clan series. Like Zerozaki Kishishiki no Ningen Knock, this one is a handful of short stories that bounce back and forth over the timeline. The first of these introduces Magashiki; standing in the middle of a crowded amusement park, holding a contra bassoon, and wearing a coat and tails. Fighting a woman in a cartoon bear costume armed with nunchucks.
The second involves the infamously red Aikawa Jun, with the greatest entrance line of all time. "Whoops, I was accidentally dead for twenty four hours." She follows this with, "Man, I haven't been killed since I was a baby. I thought I was never coming back to life."
This is, needless to say, a hard act to follow. The third story is largely down time, and contains some quite forgettable chunks, but all is forgiven - I had been desperately curious what the fuck happened to Iori after Zerozaki Soushiki no Ninken Shiken. After all, she did lose both hands over the course of the book, and it ends with Aikawa Jun kicking their train off the tracks.
I would totally be up for the Zerozaki Iori adventures, despite his seeming reluctance to attach the name to her - despite doing so at the end of the first novel, he's still using her pre-awakening name here. She also fails to kill anybody, but this is probably because she didn't have new hands yet.
The final story pitches Magashiki up against the Orange Violence, a bit of behind the scenes stuff from the three part final to the Zaregoto series. It was a pretty satisfying bit of fanservice.