Queen of K'n-Yan

Queen of K'n-yan is the latest Cthulhu mythos offering from Kurodahan Press; it is written by Asamatsu Ken and translated by Kathleen Taji. Asamatsu-san should be familiar to all serious Cthulhu mythos fans for the 4 book series Lairs of the Hidden Gods, translations of modern Japanese mythos fiction. Queen of K'n-yan was apparently written in 1993, and set in 2007. This is its first publication available to English speakers. List price is $16.00 but discounted to $14.40 from Amazon. The text runs from page 3-213, pretty good value for the money with a price tag similar to other genre trade paperbacks. There is a very entertaining introduction from Darrell Schweitzer that puts the book into its proper context while giving no more spoilers than the blurb on the back, and a page with very brief biographies of the author, translator and cover artist. The exquisite cover art is by Ayami Kojima. I can't get over how beautiful the cover art has been for the Kurodahan Press books has been. Akihiro Yamada gave us the covers for the Lairs of the Hidden Gods and it was very unfortunate that none of his work was included in the recent Centipede Press book of Lovecraftian art. Ayami san's cover is equally wonderful. Production qualities are very good with few typos in this POD book. By and large I had no complaints about the translation except in the action sequences near the end where the writing seemed to lose some hint of immediacy, and I was left wondering if this was due to the author or the translator.The antecedent story for this novel was the `revision' of Zealia Bishop's story The Mound, which was actually probably 99+% written by Lovecraft (which probably gets an award for the cheesiest use of an italicized ending, being written in both Spanish and English). The concept of a primordially ancient people living undetected in gigantic caverns under the earth must have resonated with Asamatsu-san, resident of a land with a culture thousands of years old, a land of catastrophic earthquakes adjacent to China where discoveries like the terra cotta army are made during mundane excavations. Asamatsu-san did what we would hope any mythos author would do: he took a concept and ran with it. This is no pastiche and is not slavishly beholden to Lovecraft; it is wholly original and all the better for it. No antiquarian resident of Boston poking around a Yig haunted desert here! For the westerner approaching this, it comes from entirely different traditions than our own and a bit of knowledge of some history of Japan and China, which the Japanese author takes as a given for his audience, would be very helpful (in fact, I wish Darrell Schweitzer had provided this in his introduction; maybe it is not necessary as you can infer what you need to, but it would have facilitated things for me.). The occurrence of crimes against humanity in World War II in the west mainly brings to mind Hitler's death camps but in Asia calls to mind Japanese experimentation with infecting Chinese and Manchurian citizens with biological agents. Many scientists from the notorious Unit 731 were never prosecuted. This is fertile ground for a Japanese author of horror fiction. Another piece of history that helps the story make sense is the Yin dynasty (perhaps better known to us westerners as the Shang dynasty), which ruled parts of China from about 1700 to about 1100 BC. The immediate antecedent state was the Xia dynasty, which possibly could be mythical. The Shang dynasty represented fire, and may have needed to create an opponent who they overcame who represented water. Thus the Xia may not have actually been a real political entity. What is important for our story is the opposition of the water people to those of the fire. Finally this story uses political realities of 1990s Asia. Japan's economic star is fading and wealthy Chinese businesses are investing heavily in Japanese companies. To the Japanese, the thought of Chinese economic (or worse, military) masters may be very unpalatable, and adds to the disquieting atmosphere Asamatsu-san is creating for his readers. Whew! Now what about the book itself?Briefly, in the midst of a relentlessly scorching heat wave and with news of severe earth quakes happening in China, Morishita Anri, a molecular biologist, is driving to her new job in an ultramodern and imposingly large building, the headquarters of Japan Gene Engineering (JGE). Interestingly, Anri is a very girly name in Japan, perhaps like Missy or Tootsie here, making what she ends up doing seem all the more shocking. Once inside the immense tower, things get very weird very quickly. Anri meets an older scientist from China named Dr. Li, who is a very formidable woman. Perhaps she is Anri's mentor or perhaps she is a fiendish opponent. Certainly it becomes obvious that the two main characters are somehow linked intimately. Anri had only a sketchy idea about what she would be doing for JGE, but it turns out the Chinese military is heavily involved. A mummy has been discovered under the earth in China and she may be a denizen of the mythical kingdom of K'n-yan, which may be the origin of early Chinese mythology. Anri unravels the mummy's genetic code, which is discovered to be unhuman. It turns out Dr. Li probably already knew this but needed Anri to find out some other puzzle hidden in this mysterious DNA. When she uncovers what may be a missing piece, tying into the Japanese biological experimentation in World War II, all hell literally breaks loose.I have indicated how well Asamatsu-san synthesizes varying modern elements with Asian history and a Lovecraftian idea. This novel works wonderfully well on so many levels; I found it to be a refreshingly original and vivid Cthulhu mythos novel. Unlike many mythos pastiches, there are exciting action sequences as well as otherworldly horrific images. The two main characters are believably drawn and come to life on the page. I liked everything: the prose, the plot, the characters, the exotic (for me) cultural setting and history and the Lovecraftian elements. The denouement was just about perfect. Anyone who cares about Cthulhu mythos fiction needs to read this. I can only wonder what other Lovecraftian wonders have been published in Japan or elsewhere, and when we might ever see them. Urgently recommended!

So, honestly, I'm not a huge Lovecraft fan. I'm in the camp where I appreciate his place in the genre and what he did - without actually liking his work.But I have to say that this book does him justice. This was a very modern novel that still paid homage to Lovecraft and his work.What I really loved, however, was the way the author brought Japanese and Chinese culture - and their culture wars - into the book. This brought the book beyond simply the Lovecraft homage into something more relevant.The book does get gruesome, but I enjoyed the surprises the author had in store for us.I'd like to read something completely non-Lovecraftian from the author next!

I'm going to give the original author the benefit of the doubt and attribute my dislike for this story to the translation.I found the idea of this book to be interesting, and the idea of a mythos story from a different cultural perspective was appealing to me, however it just doesn't pay off in the end. There are several moments in the book where I was pulled in by the very effective and creepy imagery only to have it completely ruined by a character exclaiming aloud something along the lines of "I say, that's very creepy."Here's a tip: If you are a writer and are trying to create a genuinely creepy moment in your story it should never involve the main character thinking to herself that the shockingly well preserved reptilian mummy "looks like the American actress, Jennifer Connely."I'd be very interested to hear someone's opinion who has read this story in it's original language. If it was worth translating, I have to believe it was better written than it appears in this volume.

Like some of the other reviewers here, I have to start by wishing the novel had a better translation. I'm sure it's accurate enough, but maybe it's *too* accurate. Sentences sound clunky because the translator didn't rearrange the wording to sound more Western, and there are a few places where she chose her translations very, *very* badly. For instance, I refuse to believe that our protagonist, who by the third act has become a kind of Japanese Ripley, "scampered" after a male character earlier on. According to the end notes, the translator is best known as a "technical translator" but she's trying to branch out into fiction. That explains a lot. But Queen of K'n-Yan is still a very good, suspenseful story. Not perfect, but good.If the translation were better, I'd give it four stars instead of three. The third act is an exciting blend of strange horrors, narrow escapes, and red herrings that turn out *not* to be red herrings after all. There are also some fun shout-outs to movies like Alien and The Thing and even Cabin in the Woods, but those are Easter eggs, and they don't t blunt the originality of the story. The only downside to that originality is having Ripley *stop* being Ripley before the end ceding control to someone much less appealing. But we get a nice reveal about her before that happens, and I appreciate Asamatsu's boldness in using it.But speaking of reveals, the biggest gripe I have about Queen of K'n-yan is how long it takes Anri to figure out something that most readers will catch by mid-book and everybody else will catch long before Anri does. When a certain singular event occurs, you find yourself questioning her intellect when she doesn't understand what it means. You also have to question why she seems to know almost nothing about the world beyond molecular biology...except that she can recognize classical artwork from every civilization the world has produced. I blame Asamatsu for that. It's all too clear that he's giving and denying her the knowledge that advances his plot rather than the knowledge she *should* know .Still, I do recommend the book. It's a suspenseful read and a very different takeoff on the Lovecraft tradition. HPL might not even recognize it as a sequel his work if not for the references to K'n-yan and a brief listing of all the mythos' best-known forbidden tomes. The Japanese culture affects everything, and Asamatsu gives two very very different but equally strong women to lead the action. I'm sure that would have given Lovecraft the screaming mimis, but it made the book far more interesting for me..So do buy it. You'll enjoy it as long as you temper your expectations before you start reading.

Disclaimer: there may be some mild spoilers in this review.This has got to be second worst books I've read in my life (the worst being Clive Barker's "Cabal"). The quality of writing, characterisation, presentation, creation of the setting is so poor that the whole thing reads like a low-effort fan fiction written by a teenager. The translator must be partly to blame as well, because the way she uses English left me feeling like it's a second language for her. She is apparently incapable of forming a complex sentence, so the book reads like it was written by a grade schooler. It boggles the mind that being a technical translator first and foremost, she notoriously tells us that access cards are "expelled" from their readers instead of "ejected". However, even the best of translators probably wouldn't be able to turn this drivel into a book that is good to read.There are so many problems that I don't even know where to begin listing them. The author did zero research while writing this book because despite his intentions to make the plot grounded in science, his complete ignorance of how the world works is staggering. And yes, I understand that this book was written nearly 30 years ago, but that still doesn't excuse half the ridiculous things the author works into this story.- External contractors are immediately taken into confidence regarding secret foreign bioweapons research projects instead of being compartmentalised and told only as much as they need to know.- DNA studies are done by taking a tissue sample and putting in inside an electron scanning microscope. Never mind that DNA is so fragile that the microscope's electron beam would destroy it. Actual scientists had to jump through hoops to take a blurry, indistinct image of DNA.- DNA contains hidden messages. All you need to do is count nucleotides and convert the numbers you get into Chinese characters. And the words you thus get are actually hints from the ancient past. Never mind that the Chinese writing system in the past was completely different from the modern one.- DNA analysis software is operated by typing in questions.- It is normal for Japan to admit armed Chinese soldiers onto its soil and permit their being stationed in a Japanese company skyscraper instead of a military base.- People with no background in physics are somehow capable of telling that matter transformation is taking place on a quantum level.- Japanese molecular biologists with no military training turn into grizzled, wasp-chewing soldiers when the situation calls for it.- Having a grenade explode in a large room is more deafening than repeatedly firing a pistol inside a closed elevator.The problems of this book are not limited to lack of research, the author's ignorance, or a setting that makes no sense whatsoever. He is also completely incapable of writing realistic, or even interesting characters. Aside from the protagonist, Anri, and the Chinese project lead, Dr Li, the other handful of named characters are flat and have no personality at all, only serving as exposition tubes. But that is not to say that Anri and Dr Li are well-developed, no. Throughout the first two thirds of the book Anri displays only three modes of behaviour: she is interchangeably timid, sarcastic, and hysterical for no reason at all, frequently switching from one mode to the other in-between sentences. In the last part of the book she turns into an action heroine just because. Where realistically someone like her should just run away while they still can, she decides to stay in the building and go to war. Let me remind you that she is a molecular biologist with no military training at all, but she puts John Rambo to shame with her exploits.The horror, when it actually happens, is limited to blood and gore. This book was supposed to be a Japanese equivalent of the Cthulhu mythos writings of Western authors, but it fails miserably. The only mystery that remains unresolved by the end is why Anri was having visions of another person's past.Frankly, I am flabbergasted, that somebody paid for this book being written and translated.Do not waste your money on it.