A gleeful discovery....

[freeradical9]

So, in my quest to track down a copy of the English version of Saiyuki Reload 8, I went to not one, not two, but *three* bookstores before I found it in stock (Borders rules, Barnes & Noble drools).

Barnes & Noble did redeem itself a bit in my eyes, as they had volume 2 of Petshop of Horrors: Tokyo. I like the series anyway, but was absolutely delighted to find some Saiyuki-esque tidbits in one of the chapters.



So Count D has apparently never seen a kappa. His life's work in the exotic and mythical animals trade has never brought him in contact with them, and in fact he has never even heard of them before.

Two children come into his shop looking to buy a kappa. They even show D a reference book "How to Raise a Kappa". (Hakkai: I have that book.) D becomes obsessed, and goes on a mad quest (sushi restaurants, a country estate--I think, and even a construction site) in order to find a kappa.

My favorite part is when the two main characters get told about the kappa's less-than-savory habits.

Elderly gentleman: If you're not careful, they'll steal your shirikodama.

D or Wu-Fei (probably Wu-Fei): Shiriko-what?

Elderly gentleman: It means they stick their hands up the butts of the people who died from drowning in the river and pull out their innards and eat them.

D and Wu-Fei: *SHOCK*

Wu-Fei: Oookay...well, that's that, then. D, you're not going to give an animal like that to kids, are you?

D: It will be all right. As long as you train it correctly....

(Hakkai: Yes, of course. Gojyo hardly ever uses beer cans for ashtrays anymore.)


IMHO, this cries out for a crossover. It would be such fun.

Gojyo: Uh, hello? I gotta buy some dragon chow....

D: *huge sparkly eyes* Won't you stay for tea?

(Hakkai: Excuse me?)


Also, this volume caused lots of squee stemming from the chapter with Daddy D in the genetics lab, naming all the fruit flies. Too funny.

I'm really enjoying the plots in Petshop: Tokyo. Wu-Fei is a poor substitute for Leon Orcot, in my opinion, but I find the series delightfully darker and even more intriguing than the original. Highly recommended. ^_^

Now I'm gonna go skip off and read Saiyuki 8. ^_^

Comments

[chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

hello..just thought I'd let you know I spotted "Psion" over on minus wave and after going "ow" and rubbing the keyboard marks off my jaw (I think it was spacebar, b and v that imprinted when my jaw dropped) I tracked over here, found you'd written a couple other things I'd seen...somewhere in my insomniacal (Is that a word?) late night surfings and and had to friend in order not to miss anything else.

I had no idea there was anyone else who had read and liked Psion (it has been years since I read, no idea where my copy is, I just moved, have been wanting to reread...seems like there was a sequel too...maybe rebuy used on amazon, quicker than digging through 30+ boxes of sci fi paperbacks in the garage..) I think I scared most of the bullfrogs on the lake when I went "squee!" at the end, LOL!

So..hello, a longtime saiyuki, sci-fi and anime dork now reading your journal. Welcome to friend back if you like, but my journal is loonsville between anime/doujinshi/fanfic fangirling and rants about any number of things :P One of these days I may actually start writing fan fic again. (long story there.)

Yadda yadda yadda...behold, insomniacal rantings when I just meant to be polite and say "hello, friended you, loved your fic..."

[freeradical9.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent! Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know that you liked the fic. And yay! Another sci-fi fan. ^_^ (As you can tell, Psion made a big impression on me. I'd highly recommend the next book, Catspaw, as well. IMHO, its even better than the first one.)

The only piece of Psion fanfiction I've ever found is located here, in case you're interested:

Cats of Quarro (http://yuletidetreasure.org/archive/38/catsof.html) (As a warning, it contains spoilers for the third book in the series, called Dreamfall.)

So, welcome aboard, friend ^_^ (as you can probably tell if you've visited here, I don't update my journal much, and I should warn in advance that I'm not terribly active on LJ as far as commenting goes. Nonetheless, I like to meet new people, and am very pleased to make your acquaintance.

Thanks again for commenting, and I'm glad you enjoyed the fic. ^_^

[chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

actually, I had just checked out amazon and saw that dreamfall had come out...reviews for it aren't just raving but I don't care :) I'm going to order all three used. I need some reading material without wading through spidery boxes out in the garage :P Thank you for the link, I'm bookmarking (but not reading yet until I get my books)

I think I had read catspaw as well, the cover looks familar...it's been...ages. None of my books got unpacked when we moved to NY in 2002, so it's been at least six years and probably longer. I think I have like 3000 paperbacks. (I had more boxes of books than I did clothes, dishes and other crap. I don't know if that's sad or good :P)

[freeradical9.livejournal.com]

actually, I had just checked out amazon and saw that dreamfall had come out

I haven't read Dreamfall yet, although it's on my to-read list (I also heard it got mixed reviews--still, it's Cat, so it can't be too bad!) I loved Catspaw. If I ever manage to finish them, the Saiyuki fic version of Psion will have two sequels, named "Catspaw" and "Dreamfall".

I re-read Vinge's first two books while writing the Psion fic, and it made me remember how much I liked them the first time around. Happy reading! ^_^