Light novels are beginning to get a bit more attention in the Western market these days thanks to successful series like Durarara!! and Sword Art Online, but these titles aren't the first to make the jump from East to West. Way back in the mid-90s, Tokyopop and a few other companies tried their hand at bringing light novels to the US, too. They didn't catch on right away, in part I think because people didn't know how to categorize them, and also because the marketing for anime and manga was still pretty underground.
One of the novel series that was brought over was Slayers, which was the basis for the popular anime series of the same name. The anime series did reasonably well in the U.S., and still has a pretty dedicated audience here as well. There was recently a revival with two 13 episode seasons, Revolution and Evolution-R, that featured new animation and characters with some nods to previous seasons' characters. If you are looking for some good old-fashioned sword-and-sorcery fun that maintains a fairly even balance of comedy and action, I highly recommend looking up the Slayers series.
But this post is about the books. I would like to review each individually, so today I'm going to start with the first one: The Ruby Eye. This book introduces the bombastic sorceress Lina Inverse and her loyal, but somewhat dopey, swordsman companion Gourry Gabriev. Lina Inverse is travelling the world seeking adventure, fame, and maybe a little stolen treasure (although in her defense, she only steals from bandits). After a certain item falls into her hands following a particularly successful raid on a bandit camp, she finds herself launched into an adventure whose repercussions would impact the rest of her life. You see, the item in question is the key to reviving a fearsome Demon Lord, and the forces of evil would very much like to get their hands, mitts, paws, tentacles, and any other extremity on it for themselves.
Of course, Lina is no shrinking violet when it comes to defending herself or her treasures. She's a powerful Black magic sorceress - she's even mastered one of the most powerful spells in the field: The Dragon Slave. And if magic won't work, her companion Gourry Gabriev will make short work of any enemy with his elite swordsmanship and, if necessary, the power of the legendary Sword of Light. Just don't ask him to do any heavy thinking - he's really more the brawn of the pair (though sometimes he surprises you with astute observations...).
If this book sounds a lot like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, that's because Kanzaka himself is a fan of tabletop RPGs and conceived Slayers as a means of exploring some of his ideas about them. In the author notes at the end of the book, it's mentioned that he's often asked himself questions about how different types of magic could be used in creative ways.
What I like most about this series is how much fun it is. The story is narrated from Lina's point of view, and she has a lot of smart-mouthed commentary to add to the situation that's sure to get a chuckle out of the readers. The illustrations sprinkled throughout the book also help to add to its charm.
Since this is the first book in the series, is does suffer a little from pacing issues. Some adventures are glossed over a little too much, either because the author ran out of time to devote to specific fights or because he wanted to just skip closer to the Big Battle at the end. Still, there's a lot of action squeezed into just about 200 pages, so I can't really complain too much about a few missing battles with hired goons.
It's also a little bit dated, but I don't think that this is a bad thing. Lina's voice is a product of the time that this book was written and translated in, so if you hear a little bit of a Valley Girl voice in your head sometimes, just consider that part of its charm.
The other drawback about this series is that it is really hard to find. It was put out by Tokyopop back in the 90s to early 00's, so it's long out of print. I keep holding out hope that someone will rescue the license from purgatory and release ebook versions of the books, and maybe even continue where Tokyopop left off. There are 8 volumes available in English, but the series ran on for 15 volumes in Japan, plus specials and manga. Still, if you can get a hold of these books, grab them while you can. They may not be worth much, but they're a fun read.
I'd recommend these books to anyone from teens to adults. They're good, light reads that you can use to escape for an hour or two. And, maybe if enough people read and demand more of them, we'll see that license rescue that I keep hoping for and we'll get the rest of the series (I can dream, can't I?).
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