The Dream Hunters - Neil Gaiman & Yoshitaka Amano
I've put my reading habit on the sideline for over a month, hopefully I'm back to reading again because I still got lots of backlog books on my shelf.
Anyway here's the one that broke the streak and put me back to reading again.
"The Dream Hunters" is Neil Gaiman's homage to mythical Japanese literature, served with an appetizing dish by way of the artworks of Yoshitaka Amano, one of Japan's legendary painters.
Anyway here's the one that broke the streak and put me back to reading again.
"The Dream Hunters" is Neil Gaiman's homage to mythical Japanese literature, served with an appetizing dish by way of the artworks of Yoshitaka Amano, one of Japan's legendary painters.
While the original plan was to create a graphic novel version of the retelling of the classic "The Fox, the Monk, and the Mikado of All Night's Dreaming".
But according to Gaiman, Yoshitaka Amano insists while he is a fan of the comic medium he does not create one and the plan to make a novella with accompanying paintings by Amano proved to be a wise idea.
The Dream Hunters started as the back blurb would say "begins with a wager between a badger and a fox".
The wager's conditions was who among the badger and the fox would succeed in driving out the monk out of his temple. After unsuccessful attempts by the badger and the fox to get rid of the monk. Unexpectedly, while the fox transforms into a female body to try and fool the monk to leaving his temple, the fox formed a deep connection with the monk and eventually falls in love with him.
Driving the badger away the fox accompanied the monk in the temple. Life together was peaceful until the fox overhears a countryside conversation between two creatures plotting to kill the monk.
On the other side of the country a rich Master of Yin-Yang known as the "Onmyoji" is bothered by unexplained fear amidst a life of wealth, convenience and the company of a wife and a concubine. After consulting with three wicked sisters, the "Onmyoji" learned that the only thing that can drive away his fears lies on a monk living in a secluded temple somewhere.
And as the "Onmyoji" plots a plan to get rid of his fears at the expense of the Monk, the fox approaches the "King of Dreams" with the hope of saving the Monk's life.
The ensuing events and what happens next is for you to discover!.
****
The prose and the way Gaiman commands his storytelling which is patterned after Japanese mythologies and Yoshitaka Amano's fine artwork, which sometimes would force you to tear a page from the book and put it in a frame to hang in your wall. All of it makes this a "must read".
Most importantly it brought me back to reading again...I pick just the right book to kickstart my reading habits again.
But according to Gaiman, Yoshitaka Amano insists while he is a fan of the comic medium he does not create one and the plan to make a novella with accompanying paintings by Amano proved to be a wise idea.
The Dream Hunters started as the back blurb would say "begins with a wager between a badger and a fox".
The wager's conditions was who among the badger and the fox would succeed in driving out the monk out of his temple. After unsuccessful attempts by the badger and the fox to get rid of the monk. Unexpectedly, while the fox transforms into a female body to try and fool the monk to leaving his temple, the fox formed a deep connection with the monk and eventually falls in love with him.
Driving the badger away the fox accompanied the monk in the temple. Life together was peaceful until the fox overhears a countryside conversation between two creatures plotting to kill the monk.
On the other side of the country a rich Master of Yin-Yang known as the "Onmyoji" is bothered by unexplained fear amidst a life of wealth, convenience and the company of a wife and a concubine. After consulting with three wicked sisters, the "Onmyoji" learned that the only thing that can drive away his fears lies on a monk living in a secluded temple somewhere.
And as the "Onmyoji" plots a plan to get rid of his fears at the expense of the Monk, the fox approaches the "King of Dreams" with the hope of saving the Monk's life.
The ensuing events and what happens next is for you to discover!.
****
The prose and the way Gaiman commands his storytelling which is patterned after Japanese mythologies and Yoshitaka Amano's fine artwork, which sometimes would force you to tear a page from the book and put it in a frame to hang in your wall. All of it makes this a "must read".
Most importantly it brought me back to reading again...I pick just the right book to kickstart my reading habits again.
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