I feel like I should be trying to post opinions of the things I actually read somewhere more permanent than Discord, even if it’s not super detailed, so here:

Finished Urasekai Picnic writer Miyazawa Iori’s そいねドリーマー. I quite enjoyed the ride, even as I can pick out things that I might have liked different if I try… but I’m not sure if trying is the wise option. This is science fantasy and not science fiction, and viewed that way the things left unexplained are not so bad — it’s not like not comprehending the horrors in Urasekai Picnic makes them worse. This does not have “that light novel feeling”, whatever it is, if you know it you may understand, feeling a lot more like a normal book that could have been released in English — though the way the SF feels very fantasy-like is a little Japanese perhaps. Or maybe I just never read much soft SF in English… It’s funny because I can kind of imagine Stephen King writing something like this. Which is not a bad thing.

I found the characters’ ability to actually reason their way out of a wet paper bag at the start refreshing, though eventually the problems become a little hard to solve with conventional logic. Naturally the emotional-plane issues are not so easily solved, but hey, relatable. Miyazawa’s dreamscapes are described evocatively and fantastic creatures with an appropriate strangeness that tickles the brain. It was fun to take trips all over dreamland, reminding me a bit of Zelazny’s Nine Princes in Amber series (which I read in Swedish but whatever), though significantly more… restrained than his approach. I can see it being difficult for earlier learners to keep up with frequent different locations, and the vocab used can be broad — but that’s what lookup is for innit. I read the last 60% of the book in 30% (72-page) bursts, which is unusual for me, but I’d gotten hooked.

I wouldn’t read this if you primarily want yuri and don’t care for the science-fantasy plot, but there is some yuri involved.

4/5 would do it again

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