Japan: New YW Editions

[Lee Enfield-Burke]

DD's agent has passed us word that the Japanese publisher Tokyo Sogen-sha will be publishing the first three YW books in 2009.


ETA: and here's the first one now! Turns out it was actually published late in 2008.

Translated by Misako Tamura, SYWTBAW's new edition is published by Tokyo Sogen-sha. It will be followed by Deep Wizardry in spring 2009 and High Wizardry in autumn 2009.

SYW... is now available via Amazon.co.jp -- click here for the Japanese-language page or here for the page in English.

(Want to see a larger cover image? Click here to download an enlarged .JPG version of the cover, or here for an Adobe Acrobat .PDF version.)

(ETA: and now the cover for Deep Wizardry has turned up. Click on the image for a larger one. And here's the link to Amazon.jp.)

[Lee Enfield-Burke]

Kit looks a little... sweet in this

I don't normally doublepost, but I just felt a burning need to point this out... Check the larger image.

[alla]

Kit does look a little bit girly, doesn't he? But its a very cool cover I really like Nita and The Eldest (I'm assuming that the dragon in the background is The Eldest).

[EricG1793]

Hmm.... For some reason I never came across this thread!

I agree with Alla, it's a cool cover. To me, it does a good job conveying the overall feel of the books. Light vs dark, the way Kit and Nita seem to glow, with the darkness and the city in the background....

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Gotta say, this is the cover that most convinces me the illustrator read SYWtBaW, instead of getting pointed to a particular scene. :-) Kit and Nita look a little younger than I had pictured them, but I might have just been thinking high. I like the way Fred wasn't conveniently left out, too.

I can't remember -- did Nita have that smiley face on her vest in the original?

ETA: Hey, Diane, how about a manga edition of SYWtBaW?

[Dragon Writer]

I of course am utterly in love with the dragon, and half want to give it a thumbs up just for that.
Other than that - it's a bit strange seeing them drawn this way, and I agree with the complaints posted so far, but I also see a lot of things I like. Would have been nice if they had put the LP in, with the dark book though.

[Seina]

Novice Magic User Beginning Book, Novice Magic User Sea Spell, and... Courageous Little Novice Magic User. Awesome! Now I can combine Nihongo and Young Wizards. This is actually something I only suspected may have existed until now. I've been feeling kind of guilty reading A Wizard of Mars over the last week, because, you know, if I want to learn I'm not supposed to be spending all my time reading English books, but this works great. While I wait for the next one I can re-read both books Nihongo de. I hope they're doing up to Wizards At War and Carmela-chan. I'll get them all. When I get paid I'm so getting these.

Years ago I think I may have had an account here. I just signed up because I'm done with the book now so I can read all the spoilers.

Could you post a picture of the third book's cover?

[Space Cadet]

I have the first one. It cost me an arm and a leg to import, but I thought it would be a good idea to practice reading Japanese with a book I already knew so well. Alas, it is well beyond my nihongo reading level.

I can cope with the dialogue, though. I read the scene where N&K first met. It was translated well.

Nita has been portrayed as quite girly - copious usage of 'atashi' and 'wa'. And Kit isn't quite as bolshy as I think of him - they had him referring to himself as 'boku', while I would have thought he'd be more of an 'ore' kind of guy.

[permafry_42]

Gotta say, this is the cover that most convinces me the illustrator read SYWtBaW, instead of getting pointed to a particular scene. :-) Kit and Nita look a little younger than I had pictured them, but I might have just been thinking high. I like the way Fred wasn't conveniently left out, too.

I can't remember -- did Nita have that smiley face on her vest in the original?

ETA: Hey, Diane, how about a manga edition of SYWtBaW?

OMG a manga or comic version of SYWtbaW would be awesome! and i'd love if the movie were an animated movie rather than a live action movie (though i'd love it either way ).

[dorotheia]

I actually like that idea. SYWTBAW as a manga or graphic novel! The rest of the series would do fine, too, but I think the first book in particular had a lot of interesting spectacles. I mean spectacles like the predatory helicopter, the statues-come-alive, the Book of Night with Moon, well, anything that happened in the LP's world, actually... Things I'd love to try out different artists on. "Oh, so you think you can... illustrate my book? Here's the guidelines..." And see what they come up with. Some of it would probably be wacky, some too tame, and others just right. That would be too much fun.

Whenever a book gets illustrated in Japan, they're usually very different from the rest of the world's editions. I tend to like them more than the others for their ethereal quality. (The Song of the Lioness Quartet and Graceling