Lunar Threads

Or an e-book, at least.

Lunar: Silver Star Story Vol. 1. I've already read the Japanese version, but, well, I'm actually really impressed by the effort that went into the English version. There's a lot of depth of description that's been added that wasn't in the original--things to flesh out the dialogue, where the original lines in fact felt a tad bit flat.

They did remove all the illustrations, though. Transliterations of many of the names are different from what I did years back, too.

Once I finish it and take some notes on what's new, I'll try to do a review or something. KF

Damn, there were illustrations in the original?

Granted, I can't compare it to the Japanese versions (never having read them -- not that it would've done me much good given how limited my Japanese is), but I thought it was quite good overall.

Oh, it's about time we had this topic. ^_^

I've only read bits and pieces of it thus far, but my strongest impression is that there are a lot of 75¢ words in it. This strikes me as strange since light novels are young adult lit and they're written in a very spare style (part of what makes them light). Of course you need to dress up the language in translation, but in my estimation they went overboard.

Shiva Indis wrote:Oh, it's about time we had this topic. ^_^

I've only read bits and pieces of it thus far, but my strongest impression is that there are a lot of 75¢ words in it. This strikes me as strange since light novels are young adult lit and they're written in a very spare style (part of what makes them light). Of course you need to dress up the language in translation, but in my estimation they went overboard.

I agree... He did use a lot of "75¢ words" in it, as you put it. Given how he's the same translator as the one for SSH, it's why I referred to him as seemingly having a literary background and wondering if that will influence his translation of the game.

Then again, I've seen quite a few Japanese translated games that used "75¢ words" for no apparent reason that I can tell. Wild Arms 3, for instance, with its constant references to "verdure." Now, I was able to figure out what the word meant from context and my knowledge of Romance languages, but it's not a word I had ever seen in English before...

Dragonmaster Lou wrote:Damn, there were illustrations in the original?

You can still take a look at the illustrations; they're on LunarNET's novel page along with the novel summaries.

Shiva Indis wrote:I've only read bits and pieces of it thus far, but my strongest impression is that there are a lot of 75¢ words in it. This strikes me as strange since light novels are young adult lit and they're written in a very spare style (part of what makes them light). Of course you need to dress up the language in translation, but in my estimation they went overboard.

I'm still holding my verdict open regarding how overboard he went. So far I do like it, but I'm actually not terribly fond of Shigema's writing style--he's very storyboard-ish, so his regular novel writing has that sparse quality to it. (I prefer reading Hosoe a bit more.) In other words, I do like that he fleshed out the text some; I'll withhold judgment on whether or not it's too much 'til I've had more time to dwell on it.

The only full translation I did of the first book was of the afterword. Comparing back-and-forth between mine and Sears' translation of it is what got me realizing how much extra text was added in. KF

Kizyr wrote:

Dragonmaster Lou wrote:Damn, there were illustrations in the original?

You can still take a look at the illustrations; they're on LunarNET's novel page along with the novel summaries.

Doh! Thanks for reminding me about them!

Aside from the cover do any Kindle books have images? I wonder why they were removed.

localflick wrote:Aside from the cover do any Kindle books have images? I wonder why they were removed.

The only other Kindle books I've purchased so far are computer programming reference manuals and they do have diagrams and such.

So what's everyone's take on this Lunar novel? I downloaded the sample from Amazon and was thoroughly blown away by how much information about the world of Lunar there was in there. I kind of knew this stuff from the game, but the level of description was worlds apart in the novel and I couldn't believe how immersive it was. Does the book warrant a purchase and is the entire novel good from start to finish? I'd like to read a book review if someone's got one available, but I can't find any on Amazon.

I haven't had the time to write up a full review, but I liked it. The translation was slightly stilted -- using a lot of more advanced vocabulary than the average book, but I did like it a lot overall and can't wait to read the next one.

Dragonmaster Lou wrote:I haven't had the time to write up a full review, but I liked it. The translation was slightly stilted -- using a lot of more advanced vocabulary than the average book, but I did like it a lot overall and can't wait to read the next one.

I guess I'll have to beg someone with a credit card to buy the full version for me, but if there are any good reviews out there I'd love to read one first out of curiosity.