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REVIEW: Record of Lodoss War Novel 1: The Grey Witch




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jr240483



Joined: 24 Dec 2005
Posts: 4378
Location: New York City,New York,USA
PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:59 am Reply with quote
hopefully it will sell just enough to warrant an anime adaptation. i mean if berserk could get one in 2017, then the granddaddy of all dark fantasy anime series should easily get one as well hands down.
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CaRoss



Joined: 11 Nov 2014
Posts: 457
PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:14 am Reply with quote
jr240483 wrote:
hopefully it will sell just enough to warrant an anime adaptation. i mean if berserk could get one in 2017, then the granddaddy of all dark fantasy anime series should easily get one as well hands down.


It may be hindered by the existence of Record of Grancrest War's existence for the near future, but it would definitely be cool to see a new adaptation. Only if they can avoid some of the pitfalls Berserk stumbled into though.
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Levonr



Joined: 19 Nov 2003
Posts: 808
PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 1:48 pm Reply with quote
Books are only expensive at retail, who pays about $30? I got it for $10 after a coupon. Currently $16, its not that bad. Its a high quality book so I don't mind that price.
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CodeAlpha



Joined: 28 Mar 2012
Posts: 11
PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 4:50 pm Reply with quote
I bought it, and while I won't speak much to the story, I will say that the package itself is incredibly nice. I'd love to have more Japanese novels come in such a nice form. The cover, the page layouts, the art... Everything about it feels just very well done.
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John Thacker



Joined: 28 Oct 2013
Posts: 1006
PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:44 pm Reply with quote
Record of Lodoss War has always felt to me like "What if the Dragonlance books got anime?" There's a lot of similarities between the franchises (including role playing rules and being based off campaigns.)

I suppose this particular subgenre isn't as big over here as it was twenty or thirty years ago either, but someone who likes Dragonlance and other D&D based books would have no problem.
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omiya



Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 1826
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:13 pm Reply with quote
I'd love a re-release of the original music for Record of Lodoss War anime - some real gems but difficult to find these days.
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Drahksenzu



Joined: 10 Feb 2013
Posts: 11
PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 4:27 am Reply with quote
omiya wrote:
I'd love a re-release of the original music for Record of Lodoss War anime - some real gems but difficult to find these days.


Last time I was in Tokyo I picked up the first 3 pretty cheap used at a shop in Akihabara. I can't remember exactly what I paid but I think they were at most 500-1000 yen each.

Looking at the soundtrack list, I wish I had known about and been able to pick up the others, especially the arranged ones.
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nargun



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 925
PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 6:03 am Reply with quote
CodeAlpha wrote:
I bought it, and while I won't speak much to the story, I will say that the package itself is incredibly nice. I'd love to have more Japanese novels come in such a nice form. The cover, the page layouts, the art... Everything about it feels just very well done.


Get the seirei no moribito hardcovers, because those are some of the nicest books I've ever seen.
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omiya



Joined: 21 Sep 2011
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Location: Adelaide, South Australia
PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 6:06 am Reply with quote
Drahksenzu wrote:
Last time I was in Tokyo I picked up the first 3 pretty cheap used at a shop in Akihabara. I can't remember exactly what I paid but I think they were at most 500-1000 yen each.

Looking at the soundtrack list, I wish I had known about and been able to pick up the others, especially the arranged ones.


I only have the third anime soundtrack and a game music soundtrack, will have to print out what the other soundtrack covers look like and keep and eye out for them when I trawl through Mandarake, Book-Off, Lashinbang at variousl next few visits, or use Amazon Japan resellers or Yahoo auctions via a proxy service.
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GeorgeC



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 795
PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 6:49 pm Reply with quote
Levonr wrote:
Books are only expensive at retail, who pays about $30? I got it for $10 after a coupon. Currently $16, its not that bad. Its a high quality book so I don't mind that price.


Tell me about it!

I just went into a comic shop for the first time in 6 years and the average price of monthlies was $4 which is about $1 than they were when I stopped collecting.
Looking at the hardcover collections, the AVERAGE starting price was $30 with many of the books in the $55 and up range going to AT LEAST $150 for some of the LIMITED, limited editions (usually the "Absolute Edition" nonsense DC Comics put out for a few years to the "Artist Editions" IDW books specializes in). Many of the TRADE paperbacks, not even the hardcover editions(!), started around $25 and I can remember similarly sized trades being $5-$6 in the early to mid-1980s so that gives you idea of what inflation and the "collector's mentality" market has done for the pricing of these books (and why most people stay in this hobby for well under 5 years).
Online, it's safe to say MOST of the books can be had for AT LEAST 25% or greater discounts. 35% or more off MSRP is NOT unusual.
(FYI, the best deals are NOT always on Amazon.com -- look around and you can find better deals on the auction sites or even some booksellers, usually the MAJOR chains, will have better deals than Amazon. And this applies to all kinds of books -- not just American graphic novels and manga.)
I haven't bought comic hardcover collections from a store in the better part of 10 years now. I've gotten used/remainder copies of books half-off from used bookstores (in EXCELLENT condition/Like-New) and online when I've seen stuff that I REALLY wanted. The days of impulse buying of books are LONG over for me. I only get what I really want and what I'm fairly certain the local library will NEVER stock.
And, that, folks is why bookstores are dying out!
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Aquasakura



Joined: 01 Jan 2014
Posts: 700
Location: Chesterfield, Virginia, U.S.A
PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2018 8:43 pm Reply with quote
I'm happy to read that volume 1 of the original novel holds up so well. I guess it's not that much a surprise, but considering this is the kind of genre I love to read, I am looking forward to picking this one up when I get around to it. Considering how the book is put together I am definitely getting a physical copy.

I did a quick search to find out what sub genre of fantasy this story is in that keeps being reference in the review, and I got Sword and Sorcery. So this is the sub genre that is not being written as much? It's kind of a shame. Reading a bit about it I am taking a liking to what this sub genre tends to cover.

One more thing:

Quote:
On the other hand, Ghim offers he and Etoh the opportunity to embark on a much more meaningful adventure, and Parn really needs to learn how to work well with others and to control his impulsive nature if he's going to become a successful adventuring hero.


I think that should be "him" instead of "he". I know it's small mistake, but I thought to point it out.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
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Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 7:45 am Reply with quote
Sword and Sorcery fantasy has been on the decline in western publication as tastes change. It was really big in the 70s and 80s and still moderately big in the 90s from what I remember - I read a ton of it in middle and high school, some of it older books from the 80s like Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress anthologies. (And of course Esther Friesner's Chicks and Chained Males anthologies. Wink ) Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books, based on the D&D campaigns, were pretty big then too.

As far as I can tell, urban fantasy/paranormal romance (which cross over more than you'd think and/or like) are the order of the day now. That's the stuff like vampires in Louisiana or werewolves in Boston, elves in NYC...it's fun, but totally different.
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Aquasakura



Joined: 01 Jan 2014
Posts: 700
Location: Chesterfield, Virginia, U.S.A
PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 8:10 pm Reply with quote
I see. I was around in the tail wind of that popularity then. I never read any sword and sorcery books when I was a child as at the time I was not aware of this genre (in fact looking back I did not have much of a preference for genres as the time I think), and even if I was aware of those stories my parents would not let me read them.

I can see Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romances being popular in today's time given the stories from the past decade and early this decade that were popular. I have been reading a bit about what Urban Fantasy is so I have an idea why people would like this genre, but I still need to read more.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
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Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 10:29 pm Reply with quote
@Princess_Irene

From my point of view, Marion Zimmer Bradley was a late entry in the high fantasy series. I had just entered college in the early 1960s when The Lord of the Rings hit big. In trying to follow up on that publishers dug out all the fantasy they could find going back decades. This included such things as E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros, Mervyn Peake's Gormangast Trilogy and L. Sprague de Camp's Incomplete Enchanter. Also Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar series. They even drug out Talbot Mundy's adventure novels set in the time of Julius Cesar and Cleopatra.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2607
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 8:04 am Reply with quote
That makes a lot of sense, Alan45. I got into Marion Zimmer Bradley as a middle schooler in the 90s, right in the middle of my major Mercedes Lackey phase, so I linked the two in my mind. But thinking about it, both The Mists of Avalon and Firebrand are right up there with dear old Robert Jordan and other Tolkien-ish writers.
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