Saki Books

The story centers around a young police detective Shiiba and his undercover work in the Kabuki-cho district of Shinjuku, Tokyo, one of the largest red-light districts in Asia and a hub of criminal activity for Chinese and Japanese mafia.

Aida does a good job of giving the reader an overview of life in Kabuki-cho as well as an inkling of difficult relations between the Japanese police, organized crime, political tension between Japan and China and how it all affects the lives of ordinary people.

The pairing of Shiiba and Munechika is perhaps not as well done as it might have been, but since this is just the first third of the story, their relationship might later on become more believable. For those looking for hot bedroom scenes, there are plenty.

Chiharu Nara's illustrations are also nicely done.

The most surprising thing about this edition of S, at least for me, is the paper quality and the very good translation. DMP even included the first color page, making it look more like a standard Japanese yaoi novel release (I'm comparing it to my edition of Aida's Deadlock). The way a book looks might seem like a very insignificant thing to talk about, in comparison with its contents, but American readers are constantly short-changed when it comes to the printing quality of manga and Japanese light novel releases. For once, it's nice to see something done properly.

I hope that the subsequent two books will be done with the same level of care and I can't wait to see them on bookstore shelves.

Astonishing! This single story is the piece of literature that first turned me into a true book lover. I had always enjoyed reading and excelled at it in the early grades of school, but when I first read this story by Saki (H.H. Munro) in a sixth grade anthology it changed my whole view of literature and began to change my view of the world around me. Irreverant, hysterically funny, and brimming with a satiric take on the all-too-true facts of life, all of Saki's stories are well worth a read, but few pack as potent and brilliant a punch as this one! It's a model of short story writing, conjuring up its setting (a hot, claustrophobic railway car on a summer afternoon) and its characters (the harried aunt, the inquisitive, unattractive children, the ingeneous bachelor) with brevity and assurance. It made me laugh then, and today, 24 years later, I can still recall whole passages word-for-word! Read it! Just read it! For as Saki wrote (in one of the single most brilliant lines in English letters) "The story began badly, but it had a beautiful ending!" I can say no more!

"Twilight of the Dark Master" is a near future, urban horror Manga from Digital Manga Publishing. A horrifying new drug is making its way in the streets that turns men into demon like beats complete with horns, claws, fans, and a ravenous taste for human flesh, particularly the flesh of women. Already over a dozen women, primarily prostitutes have turned up dead and horribly torn apart. A young woman named Shizuka watches her own boyfriend Eiji transform into such a creature and nearly kill her before disappearing. She suspects that Eiji is behind the murders and contracts the supernatural private investigator known as Shijyo Tsunami to find, and if necessary, kill Eiji. Shikuza tries to find Eiji herself, even working in the city's red light district where women have been disappearing from in order to find him.

Tsunami is a man to be feared on the streets...a Kaenmajin (flame devil) who has the power to command flames, even the Yakuza fears this man. As Tsunami begins to get closer to the truth while investigating the Kanemaki Group (a Yakuza organization) he finds himself challenged by a brother and sister of Chinese origin who actually delivered the Oni (demon) Eiji to the Kanemaki group and are trying to develop a half-breed, intelligent demon creature with this new drug. The Kanemaki group continues to bring in prostitutes and other women to be fed to Eiji but when he demands a Japanese girl, Shizuka now finds herself caged with the man she once loved.

"Twilight of the Dark Master" is a guttural, visceral story. Tsumami's grace in battle is contrasted by the bestiality of the creatures he faces. Saki Okuse's art is magnificent. The near future, shattered industrial landscape is a fantastic backdrop for this urban horror tale. A short feature film based on the story was released some years ago and is available on DVD but I think the Manga is actually much better.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

From the wonderful and wacky to the beastly and bizarre, this fabulous collection is like a Whitman's Sampler, providing a delicious taste of Saki's most uproarious tales populated with some of his most enduring characters. The antics of juvenile delinquents Clovis and Reginald, and the rest of the Saki's population of insane characters will have you in stitches as they maneuver through a marvelously entertaining set of offbeat adventures.

Saki (or H.H. Munro) is one of the greatest writers of short fiction ever in the entire history of the universe. No exaggeration. His hilarious, slightly morbid tales of the bored and felonious English aristocratic set are as addictive as popcorn. Ever Saki story is told with unique flare and a sensational caustic wit. Any fan of Dahl, Wilde, Wodehouse, or anyone who loves a laugh cannot possibly go wrong with a book of Saki's.

I turned to Saki after giving up on Ronald Firbank, and the contrast is instructive. In any Firbank, camp novelties abound (e.g., the British consul named Sir Something Somebody) yet they are unsupported by anything like a story, so in time the reader is driven away as if he were served bones without meat at a swank restaurant. Saki offers everything Firbank does not, and in his minute, satiric observance of the English upper class, he is the heir to Oscar Wilde. Saki rejects the phony moralism of "Dorian Gray" for the untroubled insouciance of Wilde's story "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime." The result is "The Unbearable Bassington," a rare gem among Edwardian novels. In this teeming, perfect work, Saki not only inherits the mantle of Wilde; he trumps him decisively.

Start with a little perseverance. Chapter One of "Bassington" is tedious, unfocused, and discouraging, but get to the end of it and you are rewarded by Chapter Two, so alarmingly pungent it may be the finest quantum of prose in Saki's entire output. After that, the delights never end. A treasure-trove of epigrams twinkles in every fold of this marvelous story, a portrait of Edwardians as knowing as anything Wilde ever wrote. But we are shocked to discern real, pulsing lives behind Saki's screen of artifice. Wilde never cared about his characters as much as the language used to tell about them, whereas Saki cares about both characters and language, and delivers grandly on both.

I turned to Saki after giving up on Ronald Firbank, and the contrast is instructive. In any Firbank, camp novelties abound (e.g., the British consul named Sir Something Somebody) yet they are unsupported by anything like a story, so in time the reader is driven away as if he were served bones without meat at a swank restaurant. Saki offers everything Firbank does not, and in his minute, satiric observance of the English upper class, he is the heir to Oscar Wilde. Saki rejects the phony moralism of "Dorian Gray" for the untroubled insouciance of Wilde's story "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime." The result is "The Unbearable Bassington," a rare gem among Edwardian novels. In this teeming, perfect work, Saki not only inherits the mantle of Wilde; he trumps him decisively.

Start with a little perseverance. Chapter One of "Bassington" is tedious, unfocused, and discouraging, but get to the end of it and you are rewarded by Chapter Two, so alarmingly pungent it may be the finest quantum of prose in Saki's entire output. After that, the delights never end. A treasure-trove of epigrams twinkles in every fold of this marvelous story, a portrait of Edwardians as knowing as anything Wilde ever wrote. But we are shocked to discern real, pulsing lives behind Saki's screen of artifice. Wilde never cared about his characters as much as the language used to tell about them, whereas Saki cares about both characters and language, and delivers grandly on both.

I had expected this book to be worded differently and to include many alphabets of the afrikan languages. It was a good read.

esqueçamos um pouco essa cultura eurocentrada. olhemos além.
as coisas mais próximas da terra.

This book is fantastic in covering the history of indigenous African scripts, a subject many are unaware of. However, the author should have begun by discussing the beginning of African writing which took place in Ancient Kemet (Egypt). He did not discuss it at all. Perhaps one could claim that it is because the script is no longer in use, but then why did the author discuss some contemporary scripts that are not in use? The only other reason I could think of is because Egypt is already so well known and he wanted to focus on the Sub-Saharan groups that are more disregarded. Fair enough, but then the author should have discussed the Meroitic script of the ancient Nubians of Kush and noted the lack of global interest in deciphering this ancient alphabet.

Otherwise, the book is fantastic and the Zimbabwean author a blessing to the global community of people of African descent. His understanding of the unity of our people is unsurpassed and refreshing in light of the separatism we are taught to practice among ourselves.

Afrikan Alphabets: The Story Of Writing In Afrika is the impressive result of author Saki Mafundikwa's 20-year effort to collect information on writing systems throughout Africa. Pictographs, mnemonic devices, syllabaries and alphabets are all graphically presented with pronounciation guides, and color photographs of people, art and documents, and brief essays concering the histories of various writing scripts. A superb reference guide and a fascinating linguistic history.

I love Saki. These are some of the best, most biting, hilarious gems ever written in the English language. However, the Kindle edition is so hard to read, that I must subtract two stars for the formatting.

The Kindle edition is very hard to read because of the awkward line breaks and kerning. I believe the digitization of this book to have been untouched by human hands, with no proofreading at all. Some lines have four words evenly spaced out to each margin. In other instances, a hyphenated word will have an additional hyphen inserted midway to make a line break. Other pages have "widows or orphans", a solitary word on one page. Each time I encounter one of these, the eye and the brain go "Ker-thunk!" an it spoils the sense and rhythm of the story.

Not worth even the low Kindle price; too many aggravations.

These short stories constitute some of the best in the English language. They have quite a range in tone, from the extreamely humorous Unrest Cure to the mystery of Sredni Vashtar. Only The Easter Egg diappoints. Written in an Edwardian prose that never disappoints, read it like it was one of life's little luxuries.

black comedy at its best. not for everyone. read only one story at any given sitting, or the flavor and the impact goes away. One of the Best short storie collections ever printed.

H.H. Munro takes us on a journey unmatched by his predecessors, and brings us back to our reality with an understanding of a true artist.

What else can be said about Saki? A man caught between the death of the old way and the birthpangs of modernity - in both politics and literature - has much to satire. Saki's humor is near-pathological, glorifying the absurd and savaging the serious. Any (and all) collections of his too-brief work are to be appreciated, cherished, and most importantly, shared. If one can read "The Unrest-Cure" and not laugh out loud I fear for the future of humanity!

Saki's sardonic insight and exquisite sense of irony don't work quite as perfectly in a novel or play as when contained in a short story, but nonetheless this is a wonderful book and well worth reading.

Stories are typical of Saki. Extremely humourus with an underlying bite ridiculing prevalent pretensions and beliefs. Languages is long winded yet entertaining. A pleasure to read.