火狩りの王〈一〉 春ノ火

by 日向理恵子

黒き森を、火狩りが駆ける--。人類最終戦争後の世界。大地は黒い森におおわれ、人々は人体発火病原体に冒され発火する身体を持つ。火狩りは炎魔と闘い、人が唯一安全に扱える〈火〉を手にするために、三日月の鎌をふるう。近年、火狩りたちの間でささやかれる噂があった。「千年彗星〈揺るる火〉を狩った火狩りは、火狩りの王と呼ばれるだろう」。 11歳の灯子と15歳の煌四、彼らの運命が交差するとき、物語が動きだす--。

363 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 17, 2018

Reviews

[Meow Meow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess this is a post-post-apocalyptic fantasy set in presumably Japan where most of the lands are covered by forests in which fire monsters roam. Most people either live in the capital or in mostly isolated villages producing goods for the capital. Human will burst into flames when they go near any natural fire, and can only use the special fire harvested from fire monsters by fire hunters. MC1 is a village girl who was attacked by a fire monster in the forest but was saved by a fire hunter who later died and left her with his weapon and his hunting dog. She left her village for the capital to return his belongings to his family. MC2 is the son of the dead fire hunter living in the capital. He and his sister were taken in by a wealthy man after their mother’s death to secretly develop a weapon using a special fire called lightning fire to fight against the ruling “gods”.

The premise is very promising. I like the world setting, a mix of traditional and modern Japanese, very different from most other Japanese fantasy, LN or not. The pace is kind of slow in the beginning and the whole fire thing was confusing at first. But once I got past the first 40 pages, I just couldn’t put it down. All the characters are well developed, and there are so many mysteries, like why human can no longer use fire? to prevent another major war? And who are those gods?

Btw, the whole series is currently available on kindle unlimited.