This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: Demon Hunter Series: Yamada Monogatari Author: Richard Parks Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre: SFF Pages: 288 Format: Kindle Synopsis: Yamata is a generalized demon hunter. Spirits, changlings, ogres, etc, he can deal with them all. Set in historic Japan, this is a book of short stories about Yamata and his adventures. My Thoughts: Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she had to walk into mine. I was expecting this read to be very anime'y. What I got was 1920's crime noir transposed over a historic Japan. I kept waiting for the main character, Yamata, to puff on a stogey and shoot someone with a .45. And I kept imagining Humphrey Bogart in a kimono. And then near the end the author crossed one of the lines I've drawn for myself in regards to what I will and will not read and that crossed him off of any future reads. Even without that, I kept looking at the percentage on my kindle to see if I was almost done yet. Never a good sign. " ( )

Entertaining collection of stories, could certainly read more of this character. ( )

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for a review – thanks to them and the publisher.

I love the premise for this book: In Heian Period Japan (something like 794 to 1185), the land is at peace with its neighbors, and prosperous – but the supernatural world is another story entirely. The nights are thick with ghosts and demons, most of them dangerous enough that walking out after sundown is a very bad idea for most.

Not for Yamada no Goji, though. He is a demon-queller, an investigator, noble enough to be eligible for hire by greater nobles, but not noble enough to actually have money or position. He would live paycheck to paycheck, if he had a steady paycheck; as it is he lives from job to job, and sometimes takes extraordinarily dangerous jobs simply to get by. Fortunately, he has the assistance (not always eager) of the priest Kenji, who is a priest much in the same way Yamada is a nobleman: in name, mostly. Still, whatever Kenji's faults in the minutiae of devotion (keeping up his tonsure, keeping sober, keeping away from women and sake), he is a powerful exorcist and maker of wards, and therefore an invaluable sidekick for a demon-queller.

This isn't a novel, but a collection of stories that constitute a larger story arc. Each story is self-contained, but meshes beautifully with the rest. When Yamada contemplates an empty sake barrel in one story, we know the reason he drained it lies in the first story.

I was thoroughly confused when Our Hero instructed someone to call him by a more familiar name, "Goji". "But – Monogatari -?" I thought. What I did not know: according to Wiki: Monogatari "is a literary form in traditional Japanese literature, an extended prose narrative tale comparable to the epic." To Kill a Mockingbird: charmingly, becomes Arabama Monogatari.

The writing was excellent; any disappointment I felt that this was not a novel is on me, not the book. I enjoyed the characters – Kenji kind of slipped right in under all defenses – and I'm becoming more and more fascinated by Japanese mythology. I love a good kitsune. This is highly recommended.

Also? Great cover. ( )

Fantastic book set during the Heian era of Japan, when the world was shared with ghosts, demons, and other monsters. Impoverished nobleman Yamada no Goji is a bit of a demon hunter, a drunk, and a man with surprising insights into life. This compilation of short stories is a wonderful introduction to this world. Hope the planned sequel comes out soon. ( )

I didn't really get into this one. Fans of Japanese mythology may like it, though.