The Spring 2023 Light Novel Guide

Earl and Fairy

What's It About? 

Lydia Carlton is a fairy doctor who can see and communicate with fairies. When she embarks on a journey overseas to visit her father in London, she's kidnapped by a young man named Edgar Ashenbert who introduces himself as an earl and requests Lydia's aid in searching for a treasured sword that will prove his status. Although she finds his story dubious, Lydia agrees to work with him—if only because he's her first real client. Meanwhile, rumors of a heinous burglary abound, and the culprit seems to bear an uncanny resemblance to Edgar...

Earl and Fairy has a story by Mizue Tani, and art by Asako Takabochi. English translation by Alexandra Owen- Burns. J-Novel Club, $7.99 digital. Available May 11th.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

It feels like an act of magic that, years after we got the manga and anime adaptations of Earl and Fairy, we are at long last getting the original light novels. That's no small thing - originally published between 2004 and 2013, the series spans an impressive thirty-three volumes. But if they are all as good as this first one, that should not be a problem because this is head and shoulders above any other light novel I have recently read. In part, that's because it does not read like one; the use of language in the translation is much closer to Victoriana than anything else, and that makes a difference. It does a lot for the setting, which becomes clearer as the book goes on. We can piece together from context clues that this takes place in the mid-nineteenth century, before the American Civil War, and attitudes largely reflect that. Edgar is a conman, but he is a Victorian conman, and that has some very different connotations.

The British folklore in the story is top-notch, from the various fey that Fairy Doctor Lydia deals with to the name of the mythical island said to be the base of the earl Edgar is working to pass himself off as. In Manx and Irish folklore, Mannan is the name of a king and guardian, which is the role the Blue Knight Earl essentially fulfills for the merrow of the island specifically, and for the fey folk in general. By taking up the mantle of the Lord of Mannan, Edgar needs Lydia, which forces her into continued proximity with him, facilitating the romance plot. But it's more than just that – this is a rollicking adventure story involving stolen peerages, the seedy underbelly of the nineteenth century, a magic sword, an engaging enemies-to-lovers romance, and an admirable sense of time and place. Lydia is no damsel in distress and is not unbelievably competent. She and the other characters are remarkably human, even Nico the cait sith. If you enjoyed the adaptations, you absolutely should read this. But even if this is your first experience with the franchise, it's a really good book.