Japanese Light Novel Book Club discussion
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Baccano!, Vol. 1
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Baccano! The Rolling Bootlegs Group Read
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Mod
I think the blurb you posted might be for volume 2. ^^;Yeah, Narita's books often have chapters with really inconsistent lengths, where the meat of a book might be two-three chapters long but there'll be a few rather short chapters as a prologue and epilogue as well.
Incidentally, there's a really good manga version of The Rolling Bootlegs than Yen Press released. If anyone's interested in reading it along with the light novel, The Rolling Bootlegs starts at chapter 6 and runs to the end of the manga (chapter 22). If this is your first time with Baccano, absolutely avoid chapters 1-5 as they contain some spoilers for volumes 1-3 of the light novels.
Mod
Oh wow I have this one, I cant wait to start. I had started the first ten pages when I first bought the novel but then stopped reading it as I got busy with a few other things.
I hope you guys have fun reading this one. I enjoyed it.I ended up reading this and then volume 4 since most of the other material was covered in the anime... And my libraries didn't have the booke at the time.
Firo is my favorite character so far, though I only just met him. Still struggling to figure out just who is narrating the story. Just started Day 1.
Still struggling to figure out just who is narrating the story. Just started Day 1."Ah, yeah, I like the frame narrative in this one. =]
I like Firo too. I think some characters you'll grow to like too. Baccano is one of those books where any one character can be seen as the lead, nobody steals the show.
Have you guys met Isaac and Miria yet? They're very fun.
Mod
Isaac and Miria, at this point kind of ruin the pacing for me, its like they too abruptly break any suspense and tension when the story is all serious, I wish they would go away lol.
Mod
Was anyone else thrown off by the weird framing story in the Epilogue? I didn't like the framing story that was never revisited in the anime, and I don't think I like this one any more.
This framing story only lasts for this volume as far as I can tell, as volume 4 has no frame that I can recall. I enjoyed it, but to each their own. Baccano does like to go forward and back on its timeline though. =]
Day One was pretty intense.
I think initially the framing story was included to help Japanese readers ease in to the setting. However, (view spoiler)! The anime framing story is completely different and is actually a cameo appearance for a pair of characters that come from later in the series, showcasing a few quick moments that are from stories that weren't covered in the anime.What does everyone think of the introduction to Firo?
Immediately best boy husbando material, hes precious. I like Maiza too, seem like a good mentor student thing going on.Not a fan of Szilard.
Mod
Is it just me, or is the dialogue really awkward? I'm not sure if it's a translation thing or something in the original, but all of the dialogue seems really unnatural to me. Excluding Miria and Issac, since they're just really weird all around and the clunky dialogue kind of makes sense for them.
I think the introduction of Firo really helps set the tone since he's the closest to being the protagonist of the first volume and the first thing we see him do is (view spoiler). It emphasises that (view spoiler).Regarding the dialogue, Yen Press added a bit of extra flavour to it by using lingo from the era so if you're not familiar with it, that could be a little jarring. I actually really like it though. :) The Yen Press version is definitely a lot more natural than the old fan translation which was definitely clunky.
Mod
According to the framing story in the epilogue, the rest of the book is being told from one guy's point of view, right? I flipped through and didn't see a name, so I'm not sure which character it is telling the story. Regardless, though, we know it's not Szilard.
So I thought, "How does this narrator know what everyone is thinking, including Szilard and the one guy he ate?"
And then I remembered: eating people gives you all their memories.
I don't think that the narrator has eaten all the people involved. Perhaps he heard stories or something from most of them. But Szilard would never have told all of this, judging by his character so far. Therefore, the narrator must have eaten him or someone else who ate Szilard.
So I'm going with the theory that Szilard gets eaten. I'm not sure if that'll be confirmed in this volume or if I'll have to wait for later in the series, but I think Szilard gets eaten.
...I was stuck riding in a car for a long time and had too much time to think.
An interesting theory! Do you have any thoughts as to who the narrator is?
Mod
I'm not sure when we find out who all is immortal, so I'm just going to spoiler tag it to be safe. (view spoiler)
The final segment of this volume is so intense
So, how did everyone find Baccano? :DI didn't want to comment too much on Selena's theories at the time she posted them because I didn't want to drop any spoilers accidentally but (view spoiler)
Mod
I'm kind of surprised by how linear this is compared to the anime.
Yeah, the anime is kind of interesting since they took 3 and a half novel volumes and ran them concurrently. On top of that, some of the content was changed from the novels so it can be a little confusing as to which scenes are from which story.A good example is Firo's encounter with the hobo. In the novels this scene is the first real introduction to Firo and it's a scene showcasing Firo's character through a down-to-earth altercation ((view spoiler)). In the anime, the scene is changed to instead showcase something else - (view spoiler) - placing the event much later in the timeline than the novels.
I like a lot of things about the anime but ultimately I prefer the novels - they're a lot more clear. :)
Mod
Though I will say, if I hadn't been expecting it, (view spoiler). With the anime, you already knew and the question was "how?", whereas this one is "wait, what?" even though we're aware of immortality. :)
I liked it too! There's a lot to love about the anime and it's what got me into the novels (and light novels in general) in the first place. There's a lot of fun in piecing together the stories into a coherent whole and the anime looks and sounds great. :) I definitely appreciate the clarity of the novels though - I think they might have felt too busy if they were non-linear on top of all the perspective switching and the gimmick would get old after 20+ novels.My one real issue with the anime is that they deviated from the source material - vol 4 is basically an entirely different story after a certain point. But, well, that's not related to vol 1 so... XD
Mod
Ryohgo Narita was definitely setting us up with the narrator. He even had the guy listening to the tale in the framing story think the same thing.
Over all, I liked this one. Not the best writing on the planet, but I think it fit the story being told. And the dialogue smoothed out a lot more as the story progressed, I think. :)
I thought the guess above about the narrator having (view spoiler) was amazing. Makes the frame seem even more worthwhile that it was set up for you to be able to guess that (the anime takes a different approach with its frame).I hope some of you guys continue into books 2 and 3 if you haven't watched the anime. That train plot is great.
Mod
I'm planning to eventually read the next books. Gotta get through some of my to-read list first. :)
Discuss Baccano! The Rolling Bootlegs here!
Reading Schedule
8/20-9/2 Epilogue...1, Prologue, & Day One
9/3-9/9 Night
9/10-9/23 Day Two, & Epilogue