So I read 2001 + 5 over the past couple days. It's a collection of previously unreleased works by a mangaka I'd not prior heard of (one Mr. Hoshino Yukinobu). The stories themselves are good, mostly odd "hard" sci-fi stuff but the science itself scans as kind of fucky to me. They're big stories that aim for your brain more than anything else. I must admit a couple times I internally thought that maybe this fellow writes mostly for stoners. There's a lot of moments that I kind of feel are designed to make you go "whooooooaaaaa dude"
That aside they're interesting stories (I like the final one, "Planet of Fog", the best), but my favorite thing in the entire collection is actually the afterword.
He seems like a kind man. I hope he's doing well.
It seems he's best known for a compilation called 2001 Nights, which this is an extension of (hence the title). I might read that sometime.
I also read Bigger Hunter, which is interesting. It's a oneshot though at present it kind of feels like the first chapter of a longer story (I suspect it was written with the hope of eventually being serialized).
To make a short story even shorter: village has a deity, sacrifices people to the deity (or something), boy doesn't like that, boy meets wandering band of mercenaries with cool powers, boy gets magic sword, boy kills deity (who is actually a giant mecha called a Bigger).
Neat little thing. I hope it gets picked up eventually.
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