Monkey Man

I received this from Red Circle Authors after Richard from the press thought this might be of interest to me, after looking at it I agreed as it had so many ticks on my interest list. Speculative fiction, translated fiction, short story, Japanese culture, indie press, and a beautiful looking book.

The Red Circle Mini series is a series of commissioned stories from Japanese writers released in English first, and from this example it looks like I may have to get the whole series.

Set in a not too distant future, the two main characters Yuri and Tengo are ‘awakened’ though it takes some time for us to hear Yuri’s story of awakening. These awakened young people have taken the next step in an evolutionary path that gives them powers that makes them sharper and more empathic than others.

In this speculative future there is ‘The Complex’, a group reminiscent of The Illuminati, trying to control everything and keep capitalism steaming along at full pace with no regard to the consequences of this, and the awakened are working against them to help others see the damage and behaviour of The Complex by pulling aside the curtain.

There is also a game the awakened have invented called ‘Babel’ but I’ll leave the details of how this helps their cause for you to discover.

A well-paced speculative thriller set in a not unrecognisable future, great characters and well thought out premise makes this a really enjoyable, though short read.

Now looking forward to getting more books in this series and reading more by Takuji Ichikawa.