I’m back! I promise that I have been reading lots since the last time I posted. I’m going to try and give a quick go at my favourite things that I’ve been reading over the last few months and then hopefully get back on track for next month 🤞🏻
Manga
The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-be Wife is an absolutely adorable manga series. Set in a fantasy world full of different types of magical creatures, the story centers on a detective agency run by an invisible man. The office manager is a blind woman who isn’t bothered by his invisibility because to her, he feels just like every other person she meets. There is a really fun cast of characters and the mysteries never get too intense.
You Can’t Bluff the Sharp-Eyed Sister was a bit of an unexpected ride for me. I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t expecting the fantasy aspect. I thought I was getting a mystery-solving nun, and I was, but this nun-in-training spends her nights gambling and is solving the two-year old mysterious death of noblewoman. She’s chosen to go undercover because of her supposed magical abilities, but in reality she’s just quick-witted and sharp-eyed. This series comes from the creator of The Apothecary Diaries, so you know it will be full of interesting mystery and great female characters.
Novels
The Proposal is a Korean sci-fi story about a somewhat near future where the earth is at war with some unknown army that has arrived in their solar system. Do not be fooled by the description of romantic space opera that the English language publishers have put to it. This epistolary novel reads more like a series of essays on the nature of humanity and space travel than it does a traditional space opera. I found it very interesting, albeit dry at times.
City of Others is an urban fantasy story about a branch of the Singaporean government dedicated to dealing with magical beings. The department is understaffed and underfunded and has a bad reputation amongst many magical folk due to their violent overreach back in the 70s. The story centers around Benjamin Toh as he tries to juggle his elderly father, his new boyfriend, and his overworked staff all while saving the world from something that threatens to pull their city into a magical undersea pocket realm. It was a really fun read and I’m hoping that there will be more books set in this world in the future.
The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish is a quirky light novel about a young man who transmigrates into the book series he is reading. Only he transmigrates in the form of a fish. Initially, he arrives in the form of a fish slated for the dinner plate, but through a series of videogame-like challenges, he levels up to become the pet fish of the villainous main character of the book. By the second book in the series, the fish is spending more time in human form, and a romance develops between him and his tyrant pet-owner. While I initially found this story cute (and I am assured that the romance is very adorable), I got bored about halfway through the second volume when the fish stopped being a fish and the story started just being regular Chinese historical court politics.
Strak’s Bad Day is a silly little novella about aliens, bureaucracy, babysitting, and sugar. I found this story to be a lot of fun. Strak tries to escape his boring job and mundane life, and winds up on a wild series of adventures while trying to transport a mobster’s daughter home for her birthday. It is a quick, easy read and I hope to see more from Stephanie Y. Yang in the future.
Well, that’s all for this month. It’s not everything that I’ve read over the last few months, or even everything that I’ve read by Asian authors, but it is the ones that I was the most excited to share with you. I’d love to hear what other folks have been reading so drop me a note in the comments if there’s a title or author that you think I should check out!
