PRAISE
FOR THE GUIN SAGA
“A
rousing tale of intrepid heroes, horrid villains
and wicked supernatural creatures.”
— Publishers
Weekly
“The
Guin Saga was the most influential [inspiration for Berserk].
I started reading it in junior high and I’m still reading
the new volume every month.”
— Berserk
creator Kentaro Miura
“Kaoru
Kurimoto manages the flurry of situations being
set up and resolved like the trick of putting a hand on a table
with fingers
spread out, then stabbing a blade between the outstretched digits.
The speed and coordination is that amazing.”
— Scott
Green, Ain't It Cool News
“…
a darn good thrill ride […]
The Guin Saga is enjoyable, fast-paced sword and sorcery.”
— Dave
Hardy, Sword & Sorcery online
“Giving
up no answers to its deeper mysteries, moving the heroes from
one peril to another even more uncertain, The Leopard Mask
feels less like the first book in a series and more like a rich
chapter in a much longer novel. The rest of the tale can’t
come soon enough.”
— Sarah
Meador, Rambles (a Cultural Arts Magazine)
“A
swashbuckling fantasy… action is
always center stage…dreamlike… intense.”
—The
Seattle Times
“The
Leopard Mask brought me back to my days of immersion in
Robert E. Howard’s Conan, Michael Moorcock’s
Elric and Jane Gaskell’s Cija/Atlantis
tales. For the first time in a long time I was intrigued where
the author was going to take the story, and how she was going
to do it, which is a lot to say for one as jaded of heroic fantasy
as I am.”
— George
T. Dodds, SF Site
“This
is classic fantasy at its best. […] the action and suspense
are non-stop, with each chapter’s and scene’s ending
drawing the reader on. […] There is a reason why this
series is so popular in Japan: It’s good.”
— Book
Sense (Fall 2003 Science Fiction and Fantasy Top Ten)
"Readers
should be warned that once you start this journey, it will be
nearly impossible to leave it unfinished.”
—SFRevu
“Japan’s
answer to The Lord of the Rings.”
— The Globe
and Mail
“This
has to be one of the best translations I’ve yet read.
The language is fluid and establishes a strong narrative voice.”
— James
Michael White, SFReader.com
“The
experience of reading the Guin books is like Robert
E. Howard crossed with manga and a triple espresso—pure
adventure fiction…”
— Robert
K. J. Killheffer, Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine
“[The
Guin Saga] is the purest, most unapologetically escapist
thrill ride / movie-for-the-mind to come across in what feels
like and what probably is decades. It hasn’t dated a day
since it first popped out twenty-nine-years-ago, and I’m
still divided as to whether that’s because Kaoru Kurimoto
knew exactly what the heck she was doing the first time around
or because we’ve been playing catch-up ever since.”
— Serdar
Yegulalp, Advanced Media Network
PRAISE
FOR THE GUIN SAGA MANGA: THE SEVEN MAGI
“Kazuaki
Yanagisawa’s muscular character designs,
richly detailed backgrounds, and expertly executed fight scenes
breathe life into Kurimoto's story...”
— PopCultureShock
“The
elaborate illustrations are the highlight of The Guin Saga:
The Seven Magi, as the impossibly muscled warror struggles
to save his kingdom. I don't think even Conan ever looked this
good.”
— Manga Maniac
Café
“A
blanket recommendation forThe Guin Saga Manga goes
out to three types of people: those who are already Guin
lovers; high-fantasy fans; and anyone looking for something
nicely off the beaten path.”
— Advanced Media
Network
“[Yanagisawa’s]
stacked women and super-hero proportioned Guin certainly set
up an agenda for the manga … Like a kung fu movie, he'll
set a fight in an alley, and let Guin and his monstrous adversary
run up the walls, leap onto overhangs and the like … For
fans of guy manga, Seven Magi is a bit of a treat… a nice,
caffeinated experience.”
— Scott
Green, Ain't It Cool News
“If
you’re still fairly new to Japanese manga, as I am, [The
Guin Saga Manga] will make a good introduction for you.”
— Ian Randal
Strock , SFScope