Books: Black Sun, Silver Moon Vol. #1

Gamers use the term nerfed to describe something that used to have impact but for whatever reason has been watered down. Black Sun, Silver Moon feels like a horror story that got nerfed — or maybe it’s a cute story with some horror added to it to spice things up. Either way, the cute wins, and if you like cute, that’s what you’ll get in surplus. (The adorable dog and the flowers on the cover ought to be a giveaway.)

I’ve said before that if you take the same basic story outline and give it to five different people, you’ll get five entirely different stories in tone, mood, content, and execution. BSSM plays like the outcome of one of those exercises, where someone got handed a plot outline for a potentially dark story and the results were anything but dark. The summary: Taki, a young man with many siblings and heavy family debts to pay off, takes a job with a local priest, Shikimi. At first the job doesn’t seem to involve anything more than keeping the priest’s library in order and keeping his teacup full. Then one night they trek out into the graveyard behind the church, and Taki is pressed into service to kill the zombies rising from the graveyard. It’s a job he’s suited to whether or not he wants to admit it, and so now he’s serving in the dual job of house servant by day and zombie hunter by night.

Article originally written for AMN. Click here to read full text.