Author: Kaoru Kurimoto
Illustrator: Naoyuki Kato
Translator: Alexander O. Smith and Elye J. Alexander
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781934287194
Released: May 2008
Original release: 1980
Awards: Seiun Award

Prisoner of the Lagon, with illustrations by Naoyuki Kato, is the fourth book in Kaoru Kurimoto’s heroic fantasy light novel series The Guin Saga. Immensely popular in Japan, The Guin Saga is over one hundred volumes long. In 2010, Kurimoto even won a Seiun Award for the work as a whole. The Guin Saga hasn’t met with as much success with English-language audiences. Only the first five volumes which make up the first story arc of the series, “The Marches Episode,” have been translated by Alexander O. Smith and Elye J. Alexander. Originally published in Japan in 1980, Prisoner of the Lagon was released by Vertical in 2008 as a paperback. Prisoner of the Lagon is the first volume of The Guin Saga not to receive a hardcover edition from Vertical. Although I wasn’t overly impressed by the first novel in The Guin Saga, I have since become quite fond of the series and so was looking forward to reading Prisoner of the Lagon.

The deadly battle for Nospherus and for control of its secrets is a long one. The Sem continue to harass and ambush the the Mongauli troops. Despite its superior numbers and resources, the invading army’s morale is steadily declining. General Amnelis must take decisive action against the Sem and turn the tide of war before her troops lose all confidence in her leadership and their mission. Her foe, the mysterious leopard-headed warrior Guin, knows that the Sem won’t be able to hold out much longer. Their familiarity with Nospherus has given them an important advantage against the Mongauls, but no mater how dirty the Sem’s tactics they will eventually lose. Guin believes they only have one chance for success. Leaving the Sem to fend for themselves, he heads deeper into the wilderness of Nospherus, hoping to find and enlist the aid of the Lagon, a race of giants who are only rumored to exist.

While Guin has always been a prominent player, the saga is named for him after all, many of the previous volumes in the series have heavily featured other characters. Prisoner of the Lagon turns much of the focus back to Guin. More and more is revealed about him as more and more is revealed about Nospherus. But even now, very little is actually known about Guin. Both allies and enemies, not to mention Guin himself, wonder who this god-like warrior really is, what lurks in his past, and where his destiny lies. None of these questions are definitively answered in Prisoner of the Lagon, but the hints that Kurimoto drops are becoming less subtle. The convenient restoration of Guin’s memory when needed for the story still bothers me, but it bothers Guin, too. At least this means Kurimoto is aware of the issue and Guin tries to come up with a satisfying explanation.

A few things stand out for me in The Guin Saga. Kurimoto writes fantastic fight scenes. In Prisoner of the Lagon, Guin in particular has a few excellent solo battles in which he is revealed not to be all powerful even if he is an incredible warrior. While the conflicts in The Guin Saga are engaging, I wouldn’t say that the violence is glorified. Strategic errors made during war have brutal and fatal consequences; Kurimoto doesn’t shy away from horrifying outcomes. Morality is a complex issue in The Guin Saga. The protagonists are capable of truly terrible things that are made no less horrible because they are in the right. On the other hand, Kurimoto doesn’t demonize the saga’s antagonists. In fact, the characters are often sympathetic. Count Marus, commander of Mongaul’s Blue Knights, is a good example of this in Prisoner of the Lagon. He has a family that he misses, close friends and comrades that he worries about, and he genuinely cares for the men who serve under him. The Guin Saga gets better and better with each book. I’m looking forward to reading the final volume of “The Marches Episode,” The Marches King.

Author: Kaoru Kurimoto
Illustrator: Naoyuki Kato
Translator: Alexander O. Smith and Elye J. Alexander
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781934287064
Released: March 2008
Original release: 1979
Awards: Seiun Award

The Battle of Nospherus, with illustrations by Naoyuki Kato, is the third volume in Kaoru Kurimoto’s epic light novel series The Guin Saga. In Japan, the novel was originally released in 1979. Vertical first published The Battle of Nospherus in English in 2003 in hardcover and then again in paperback in 2008, translated by Alexander O. Smith and Elye J. Alexander. The Battle of Nospherus is the third book in the first major story arc in The Guin Saga, often called the “Marches Episode,” which is the only part of the novel series currently available in English. The Guin Saga has been at least partially translated into six other languages. I don’t know how it has been received in other parts of the world, but the English version hasn’t been nearly as successful as the series is in Japan. At well over a hundred volumes, The Guin Saga even won the Seiun Award for long fiction in 2010.

With General Amnelis and the Mongauli army in pursuit, the leopard-headed warrior Guin and his companions retreat even further into Nospherus, seeking shelter among the Raku tribe of the Sem. Amnelis’ actions are unexpected. Normally, Nospherus and its dangers are avoided at all costs, but she has brought what amounts to an invasion force, much more power than is needed to simply capture the escaped heirs of Parros and those who aid them. Amnelis is determined to take Nospherus and any secrets it holds despite the tremendous risks involved. Meanwhile, the Sem are struggling to band together their tribes, normally at war with one another, in order to protect themselves and their land from a common foe. Vastly outnumbered, outclassed, and out-equipped, the Sem place their hope in the very capable hands of Guin and in Nospherus itself.

Although The Battle of Nospherus is the third book in the series, there isn’t much character development that hasn’t already been established. Guin is still mysterious, Istavan is still a likeable ass, Amnelis is young and ambitious, Rinda is fortunately slightly less annoying, and her twin brother Remus is…well, Remus is often easy to forget that he’s even there and is frequently eclipsed by his sister. However, throughout the books there has been heavy foreshadowing indicating that he will become very important later on; I’m just not sure that it will happen by the end of the “Marches Episode.” One notable exception, The Battle of Nospherus does give more insight into the character of the love-besotted Captain Astrias. In fact, a good portion of the novel is seen from his perspective. This is one of the things that I really like about The Guin Saga: the story is also seen from the Mongauli’s side. While they are most certainly the antagonists, they are not inherently bad people. Particularly the lower ranking soldiers who are only in Nospherus because they have been told to be, not because they want to be.

I actually found The Battle of Nospherus to be rather slow going for the first half or so of the book. The narrative, especially the dialogue, felt very stilted to me in the beginning. I have a feeling this may have been the case in the original Japanese as well and so don’t blame the translators for it. But by the end of the book, it has settled into a more natural cadence. I was also troubled by the opening sequence and found myself coming up with excuses to cover for what I saw as inconsistencies. And while clever, I wasn’t entirely convince by our heroes’ solution to their immediate problem. However, if there is one thing that Kurimoto has done well since the beginning of The Guin Saga it’s writing a good fight scene. The last half of The Battle of Nospherus is filled with just that—a string of exciting battles and skirmishes. Kurimoto is able to capture the chaos while preventing it from becoming confusing or overwhelming for the reader. The fight for Nospherus continues in the next volume, Prisoner of the Lagon.