The Book of Heroes Kindle Edition

After reading Miyuki Miyabe's "Brave Story" and now her newest, "The Book of Heroes," Miyabe has firmly established herself, in my mind, as one of the best fantasy novelists writing today.

Eleven-year-old Yuriko adores her older brother, Hiroki. An eighth grader, Hiroki excels in academics and in sports, and is popular with his fellow students. But suddenly Yuriko's world is shattered when she learns that Hiroki has killed a classmate, injured another, and then disappeared. As the community searches for her missing brother, Yuriko finds out that her brother is in thrall to the Hero/King in Yellow and that only she can save him. With the help of a talking dictionary named Aju, a hunter named Ash, and her servant monk Sky, Yuriko sets out to find her brother and confront the Hero.

Miyabe's strength is in world building and in introducing philosophies without bludgeoning readers with them. Miyabe creates three intertwined worlds (with the hint of many more) that are each important to the concept of stories and how they shape humanity. Miyabe also brings up interesting ideas regarding cause and effect, being at peace but still having to pay the consequences, and when "heroism" is actually the wrong course of action. Unlike the thought in so many current stories, "being a hero" is not a black-and-white issue, but a myriad of shades of gray. There are not necessarily easy, happy endings, because in Miyabe's novel, the journey is definitely more important than the outcome.

"The Book of Heroes" is a deep, intricate story that will linger with you long after you've finished the last sentence. Highly recommended.

Every now and then, it's good to break away from the mold and try something different. I don't often read adult sci-fi/fantasy, but walking through the aisle one day, Miyuki Miyabe's The Book of Heroes caught my eye. The novel's concept intrigued me. Plus, it had something else going for it from the get-go: I always enjoy a good hero story.

Eleven-year-old Yuriko Morisaki is an ordinary fifth-grade student until her older brother Hiroki does the unthinkable. After a bad altercation at school results in his disappearance, Yuriko embarks on a journey to save him. The most interesting thing that drew me into the story was this: the "hero" is not as good and virtuous as our society allows us to believe. Only one part is. No matter how magnificent the hero, there is always a darker side that we overlook. The hero has two sides to him, and the darker side of the coin is often referred to in the novel as the King in Yellow. It's hard to explain the concept, but for example, think about Hercules. He performed a lot of heroic deeds, but also did some pretty vile stuff that would seem more like what a villain might do. This dual look at heroism was interesting to me, especially since it's something I've been studying in order to flesh out my own characters. I love the concept that there's more to a hero than what meets the eye. Things aren't always black and white.

The part of the hero that is the King in Yellow likes to wreak havoc on our world as much as the hero likes to save it. He needs vessels to break out of The Book of Heroes, where he has been imprisoned in the Nameless Land where all stories are born. Yuriko's brother Hiroki finds The Book of Elem and uses it to unknowingly become the last vessel and release the King in Yellow from imprisonment.Read more ›

I say this because at the at the beginning of the book it has a slow plot but it gets faster faster and it's really good ending

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