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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
highly satisfying continuation of the story, May 6, 2009
This review is from: Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness (Hardcover)
I enjoyed reading the first volume in this series - Guardian Of The Spirit (Moribito) - but as a fan of the anime version, I couldn't help comparing the author's original story to the expanded and sometimes rearranged narrative of the anime. This second volume suffers no such distraction. We now follow Balsa to her native Kanbal, where she hopes to clear the name of her deceased guardian and teacher, Jiguro. King's Spear Jiguro had abandoned his position, his family, his country to protect her from assassins sent to eliminate the last dangling threads that might unravel the truth behind the death of a king. This much we learned in the first volume.
Balsa's return threatens the status quo, which has been built on the lies that ambitious and powerful men wove to cover their crimes and obscure their plans for the future. Balsa might take the practical route and retreat back to her life in New Yogo, but those events from her childhood have disrupted more than just the political future of Kanbal...
The narrative unfolds nicely, revealing new allies and antagonists, interconnections, mystical creatures, and another daunting ceremony that resonates with the release of the egg in the first volume. The writing flowed much more smoothly for me in this volume, partly because I was no longer distracted by comparisons to the anime. The story is deep and satisfying, layering new truths and revelations onto what we learned in "Guardian of the Spirit". Jiguro - long dead in the first book - takes on new life here, as the recollections of those in Kanbal who had known him best add real dimension to a character that even Balsa did not know as well as she had thought.
I highly recommend this to anyone who's watched the anime or read the first book and wanted more. It closes the circle of that first story, and leaves me looking forward to the rest of the series (seven titles in all) - and a return to familiar characters like Tanda, Torogai and Chagum. Don't dismiss the series because of the "Young Adult" label - just as Pixar makes "kids" movies that delight adults, these books make for pleasurable reading that transcends marketing categories.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book - hard to believe it is a translation!, July 9, 2009
This review is from: Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness (Hardcover)
I have to give kudos to the editorial team that handled the translation of both the Moribito books. I find translated books tend to be stilted and clunky in general. Not the case here! You'd never know this wasn't an English book in the first place.
I loved the first one, but I have to admit that the second book is even better than the first. More satisfying, more sympathetic, more engrossing - and I loved the first one! Moribito satisfies with a tremendously rousing story that grips you and keeps you on the edge of your seat, and takes you to a completely different world that feels so original and fascinating. And I have to tell you, I had no clue what to expect in the grand finale. It was so original and impressive - and I tend to be the type of person who guesses everything that is going to happen. They say there is no original ideas - well, when you aren't familiar with another culture, it becomes original to you. And this book is fascinating for that reason.
Balsa is also one of the best kickass heroines I've had the pleasure of reading. She was a bit stiffer in the first one, but in this story everything becomes personal for her, and we really get to see her true personality - and she rocks! I honestly can't wait for the next in the series.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, September 10, 2009
This review is from: Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness (Hardcover)
This second book of the MORIBITO series follows female bodyguard Balsa as she returns from the land of New Yogo to her ancestral homeland of Kanbal, a land she has not seen since she was a young child. At the age of six, Balsa's father discovered a plot to murder the current king of Kanbal, and as a result, her father was murdered and his best friend fled the country with the young Balsa. This man, Jiguro, was responsible for protecting and raising Balsa from childhood into adulthood, eventually dying of an illness under Balsa's care.
Although Balsa only intends to return in order to find personal peace, her entry into Kanbal sets off a series of events destined to plunge Balsa back into the same kinds of plotting that led to her father's death years before. Balso quickly learns that, during her long absence from the land, her mentor Jiguro has been wrongfully accused of great crimes. His younger brother, Yuguro, has become a hero for supposedly killing Jiguro and returning the symbolically important golden spear rings that Jiguro was framed for stealing. The new king is entirely under Yuguro's control. And once again, it's up to Balsa to work her way through the deception and trickery in order to save her homeland before it's too late.
GUARDIAN OF THE DARKNESS adds new depth to Balsa's character by allowing the reader to see her in a new setting, one that is both familiar to her and strangely foreign. Her own inner turmoil about the death of Jiguro and the lies that have been spread about him provide the novel with its emotional power.
As with the first volume in the series, Uehashi's worldbuilding is stunning. It's obvious that the author knows everything about this world, right down to the different foods people eat and the reasons behind their cultures and traditions. Kanbal is utterly different from New Yogo, a unique place in its own right, with its own legends and elements of the fantastic.
Overall, I found this book even more exciting than the first one. The combination of Balsa's outward strength and emotional searching made her a very complex character. I also appreciated the large cast of secondary characters who helped flesh out this world, in particular the young spearman-in-training Kassa, whose subtle development plays out alongside the novel's grand conflict.
I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who liked the first novel in the series, and even to those who haven't read it!
Reviewed by: Candace Cunard
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