More on Jay Kristoff and Stormdancer

[karenhealey]

A brief follow up to my previous post, because dammit I really do have lots to do today:

From this interview:

How much research did you have to do with regards to authenticity?

Less than people seem to think. It's kinda odd - I've had people ask if I did a degree in Japanese studies, but the closest I've come is reading all six volumes of AKIRA in a week. Maybe I'd picked up a lot of detail through film and manga that I've consumed down through the years, but Wikipedia was really my go-to-guy. I have a friend who lives in Japan who I bounce ideas off too. I pay him with the promise of booze.

Good lord.

From a review that talks (among other things) about some of the misuse of Japanese language conventions, which would bounce me right out of the book even if the rest of it were superb and I had never read these interviews:

Let's start with my primary nails-on-a-chalkboard issue, the usage of the words "hai" and "sama", shall we? Here are a few examples of these words in action in Stormdancer:

Sama:
"That is more than fair." [...] "Ameterasu bless your kindness, sama."
"I want for nothing. Thank you, sama."
"He slew Boukyaku, young sama. The sea dragon who consumed the island of Takaiyama."
"Honor to you, great sama."
"What is Raijin song, sama?"
"Forgiveness, sama."
"Apologies, sama."

So. Yeah.

Comments

[hawkwing_lb]

Unasked, St Martin's sent me a review copy. I have been side-eyeing it for over two months, wondering whether my instinctive "..." reaction to "Japanese-flavoured" steampunk by non-Japanese guy was justified.

Yeah. Yeah, I think now probably it is, in this case.

[kateelliott]

Sadly, there is probably some non Japanese guy who can write an interesting. thoughtful, well researched, and not particularly appropriative Japanese steampunk book. Maybe one question is: would that guy get starred reviews if it doesn't fall into preconceived notions of and exotification of Japan? While the other obvious question is: will a Japanese guy even get an English language publication with all the push this guy is getting?

[drcuriosity]

I'd love to see Japanese-authored Steampunk. The only stuff I know of going on over there at the moment is the band Strange Artifact, though.

[hawkwing_lb]

Sigh. Yes, and I can't help thinking that the answers to those questions are going to be on the dispiriting side.