“And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together”
-Colossians 1:17 If I had to summarize the theme of Rachel Starr Thomson’s Seventh World trilogy in once sentence, that is the one I would choose. This story’s greatest strength lies in its theme, that is, that without Jesus (or the King, as the allegorical figure is called), nothing in life has any meaning. Thomson is ruthless in her application of this message to her characters and world - even characters in rebellion against the King must ultimately derive their sustenance from him. This, however, does not make the story preachy. Although Thomson violates the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule in other areas, most notably in the resolution of the second book, she does not resort to doing so in order to communicate her theme. Rather, the characters’ dependence on the King is shown as they fail when trying to do things on their own. The mastery of theme, combined with some beautiful passages of prose and insightful character development, more than make up for the story’s flaws, although those exist as well. The worldbuilding is not particularly detailed or innovative. ‘Londren’ in ‘Bryllan’ across ‘the Channel’ is such a unique place-name that I initially thought the first book, Worlds Unseen, was set in dystopian Europe. There are only two real cultures in the world. In addition, the setting is referred to as the ‘Seventh World’, but no reason is ever given as to why this world is the seventh, or what happened to the other six worlds whose existence is implied by that title. The writing is in third-person omniscient and slides between viewpoints frequently. This isn’t necessarily a weakness, but it did give me a sort of ethereal, detached feel, as if I couldn’t quite connect with any one character because even though I was given glimpses into their thoughts, I wasn’t seeing things through their eyes. But that is mainly my opinion and another reader might experience things very differently. There are also a lot of characters, which meant some of them, such as Jerome and Lucas Barrington, didn’t get as much development as I would have liked. On the other hand, the unanswered questions surrounding these characters make them much more interesting. Still, I hope Thomson returns to this world and writes a spin-off novel explaining what happened to Barrington. The other weakness in the Seventh World trilogy is that it’s too short - not just in the ‘it’s so good I never want it to end’ way, although that is true, but also in the ‘important scenes were summarized when the story would have been much better if they had been told from the viewpoint of one of the characters’ way. This is a trait in all of Thomson’s writing, and it’s actually much less prominent here than in the Prophet trilogy or Oneness cycle. I believe that this could be related to the fact that she self-publishes and thus loses the benefits of a rigorous publishing process. Content There’s pretty much nothing to worry about here. Sex in nonexistent, there’s no foul language, and while there are battles, so little description is given of the violence that I believe the story could have benefited from a little bit more. There’s one scene where a character draws his sword and is about to fight another character, and the next sentence is “And then [spoiler] died” without any details given about the fight. Conclusion Although I think it the could have been improved by going through an editor and the traditional publishing process, the Seventh World trilogy remains one of my favorite series and is highly recommended. The ebook edition of the first installment in the series is free on Amazon, so you have almost nothing to lose by trying it out.
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Shoya Ishida is a bully. He’s also the protagonist of A Silent Voice, both the original manga by Yoshitoki Oima and the film adaptation by the same name. When Shoko Nishimiya, a deaf girl, transfers to his school, he torments her relentlessly, eventually forcing her to leave the school. Six years later, after his friends have betrayed him and he’s become the target of much of the same cruelty he inflicted on Shoko, Shoya has had a change of heart. When he meets Shoko again, he’s burdened with guilt and resolves to do everything he can to atone for his past evil by living his life for her. I won’t spoil the rest of the story for you, because I’m going to try convince you to read it. I’ll also briefly compare the anime to the original, although that has already been given a thorough review here.
This story was quite unusual for me in many ways. Although I typically prefer the fantasy genre, this one lacked all speculative elements, being set in modern Japan and focusing entirely on ordinary students. It was also the first manga I ever read. Before A Silent Voice, I’d never been particularly impressed with anything in graphic novel format, and so I would’ve thought this story would’ve been the same. However, it proved me wrong starting from the first volume. The manga is divided into seven volumes, and the first volume alone is a masterpiece. From the first few pages it effected my emotions like no other story had since The Warden and the Wolf King back in 2014. I read the first volume one evening, and after the incredibly tense cliffhanger ending, I had to wait for the remaining books to arrive at my local library. Those days became some of the longest in my life, and in fact the wait proved to much for me; I purchased volume 2 as an ebook. The next day, I finally got volume 3-7 and devoured them all in a single day. The ending broke my heart; it left some questions unanswered and I wanted there to be more, but knew there couldn’t be because the questions left were part of what the made the ending so great. Themes The primary reason I say volume one is a masterpiece even by itself is because of how the author depicts human depravity. Although Shoya’s external actions may not seem as atrocious as those of say, Hitler, (he is only eleven years old, after all), the story is told primarily from his point of view, which means we see inside his head and experience his own thought processes and emotions. He initially picks on Shoko because she’s different than him, but soon comes to hate her. And why? Not because she’s done anything to harm him, but because she’s shown him nothing but kindness. He hates Shoko because she is good, which is an aspect of human nature that I’ve rarely seen explored in fiction. This does, however, echo one of the teaching of Jesus in the book of John: “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (3:19). Jesus was the greatest good ever to enter the world, the only perfect man, and yet he was despised, beaten and crucified. This isn’t meant to say that Shoya is a one-dimensional, unsympathetic villain, or even that Shoko is a Christ-figure. On the contrary, Shoya’s character development in so realistic I was able to see myself reflected in him. While I connected deeply with the older Shoya’s quest for redemption, I connected more than I wanted to with the younger Shoya’s hatred and selfishness. As for Shoko, she possesses many Christ-like qualities but isn’t perfect. Later volumes explore her struggle with her own personal demons. Although A Silent Voice is not an explicitly Christian story (Yoshitoki Oima is not a Christian to the best of my knowledge), it does contain many themes that align with Biblical teachings. I focus primarily on volume one here in order to avoid spoilers, but the rest of the series is just as deep. The tense pace drops off a bit in the middle, but picks up in volume five and continues without ceasing until the climax. There’s also humor sprinkled throughout, particularly where Shoya’s new friend Tomohiro Nagatsuka is concerned. Another theme that deserves to be noted is the story’s treatment of ideas of karma and reincarnation, which are much more common in Japan than in America. While many anime and manga, notably the works of Hayao Miyazaki, incorporate some Buddhist or Hindu ideas into their themes, in A Silent Voice teachings about karma and reincarnation are (briefly) portrayed as harmful. A father uses the excuse that his wife has done something terrible in a past life to abandon his family, and Shoya’s belief that he must suffer for his past sins is something he needs to overcome. Again, Jesus is not mentioned (although prayer to a more generic ‘God’ is used a couple of times), but the idea that we can never pay for our sins is present. The question of how Shoya finds redemption looms over the entire story. Content Warnings: The manga contains a surprising amount of profanity, including words starting with ’s’ and ‘b’, although no F-bombs. There are two scenes in particular in which a character launches profanity-laced tirade against another. However, I found myself in favor of most, but not all, of the strong language used, which is unusual for me. With a few exceptions, most of the expletives come from the mouths of characters who are saying evil, despicable things, and I think it makes sense for them to use profanity to express their hatred. The vicious verbal abuse used by some characters is never condoned and Shoya, at least, expresses deep regret over his cruel words in his childhood. Whether or not Naoka ever truly repented, though, is a matter up for discussion. There’s a little sexual content as well in the manga. Tomohiro makes one crude joke in volume 3, and a very minor character accuses him of making a “porno” in volume 7, although the entirety of the movie Tomohiro directed is shown and there’s nothing pornographic about it whatsoever. The anime is much cleaner, lacking most of the above content. It’s rated 12+ in the UK primarily for “scenes of emotional upset”. Whether or not that says anything significant about the culture of that county is up to you to decide. This is a review, not a political commentary. The Anime: As has already been mentioned, the film adaptation has already been thoroughly reviewed by someone who hasn’t read the manga. I don’t feel equipped to judge the anime on its own merits, since my judgement of it was influenced by the manga, but I do want to briefly compare the two. To my regret, the anime was only two hours long, which meant a lot of the manga had to be summarized or cut out. That being said, it is a faithful adaptation, and while the minor characters lack the development they had in the manga, Shoya and Shoko’s plot thread follows the original story very well. For me, the film didn’t have as much of an emotional impact as the manga because important scenes are flashed through quickly. Shoko and Yuzuru’s flashbacks, for example, are cut down to less than a minute in length. There are two things I actually like better about the anime than the manga. One is, as has already been mentioned, that it’s cleaner than the original. The second is the development of Myoko Sahara, one of Shoko’s friends. In an interview, Yoshitoki Oima admitted that Myoko was her favorite character and she felt that she went a bit to easy on her. In the anime, her regrets about how she treated Shoko in her childhood are fleshed out a bit more. Update: After I watched the anime a second time, I appreciated it a lot more, mainly because my expectations were different-- I came to the film as its own story, not as an adaptation of the manga. It flowed much more smoothly for me. I also really liked the music-- it's sometimes defies your expectations, but if you pay attention to it, it adds another dimension to the story. Watching the Anime: Whereas attaining the manga in the United States is relatively simple (you can order it off Amazon, and I was able to check it out from my local library), watching the anime is more challenging, assuming you don’t want to watch a pirated version. The film hasn’t been picked up in the US yet, so the solution I used was to take a free trial of a British Amazon prime account (amazon.co.uk). I originally planned to simply rent the movie and watch it online, but you’re not allowed to do that unless you have an address in the UK. Instead I had the DVD shipped all the way across the pond to my house. The shipping cost more than usual (it is across an ocean, after all) but the price wasn’t outrageous. So if you’ve read the manga and want to watch the anime as well, or if you’ve decided to watch the anime without reading the manga, don’t despair; it is possible, if you’re willing to pay a little extra. :) Update: The anime was released in America in April 2019. The first draft of my novel The Dust Smugglers is completed. Click on 'The Domidium' tab to read it.
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Progress on Doombear, Rough draft:10%
Progress on The Lore of Yore, third draft:
100%
"In truth, by leaving, I was seeking only one thing. A journey."
-Oathbringer, pg 981 Types of blog posts:
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