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#5 Platform - Death Note: Another Note
Aug. 4th, 2008 06:45 pmStaying just this side of fair play doesn't score you many points.
Book #32: Death Note: Another Note
Author: Nishio Ishin
Provenance: Received as a birthday present from Nicolas (along with an L plushie!)
The Death Note series was definitely an enjoyable one, and while I'm not generally a fan of tie-in novels, when I got this one as a present, I was fairly pleased, although I'll admit it was partly because this is a very pretty book. I have to say, though, that I should have aimed my expectations at the tie-in novel level, rather than getting them raised, because this one wasn't really all that impressive.
The plot deals with L, frequently cited in the book as the century's greatest detective, interacting with one of the minor characters in the series, Misora Naomi, trying to solve a series of murders in Los Angeles. The whole thing sounds like a good idea: why not show L at work on a normal case set before the more supernatural one in the manga? A normal mystery story should work well here.
Unfortunately, the plot was sorta blah in the end (puzzles that generally, you can't solve for yourself, because you don't get all the information), and the story was really only barely a fair-play mystery. The characters aren't really all that interesting, either; you don't get much from them that wasn't in the series itself. The style is too knowing, with lots of reference to manga and novels and such, and written in what feels to me to be a very fan-fiction kind of way. It probably was that way in the original Japanese, as well, so I'm not even going to blame the translator for it.
All in all, you do get some fun out of the story if you really liked Death Note and wanted to see someone else play with the setting, but this one's not worth it. You can probably get fan-fiction this length for free... although then the book itself wouldn't be so pretty.
Next up: Archer's Goon. Back on the DWJ, back on the running down the borrowed books pile.
Book #32: Death Note: Another Note
Author: Nishio Ishin
Provenance: Received as a birthday present from Nicolas (along with an L plushie!)
The Death Note series was definitely an enjoyable one, and while I'm not generally a fan of tie-in novels, when I got this one as a present, I was fairly pleased, although I'll admit it was partly because this is a very pretty book. I have to say, though, that I should have aimed my expectations at the tie-in novel level, rather than getting them raised, because this one wasn't really all that impressive.
The plot deals with L, frequently cited in the book as the century's greatest detective, interacting with one of the minor characters in the series, Misora Naomi, trying to solve a series of murders in Los Angeles. The whole thing sounds like a good idea: why not show L at work on a normal case set before the more supernatural one in the manga? A normal mystery story should work well here.
Unfortunately, the plot was sorta blah in the end (puzzles that generally, you can't solve for yourself, because you don't get all the information), and the story was really only barely a fair-play mystery. The characters aren't really all that interesting, either; you don't get much from them that wasn't in the series itself. The style is too knowing, with lots of reference to manga and novels and such, and written in what feels to me to be a very fan-fiction kind of way. It probably was that way in the original Japanese, as well, so I'm not even going to blame the translator for it.
All in all, you do get some fun out of the story if you really liked Death Note and wanted to see someone else play with the setting, but this one's not worth it. You can probably get fan-fiction this length for free... although then the book itself wouldn't be so pretty.
Next up: Archer's Goon. Back on the DWJ, back on the running down the borrowed books pile.
