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Reviewed by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane Basara tells the story of Sarasa, a girl whose childhood was shaped by her people's belief that her twin brother, Tatara, was the prophesied "Boy of Destiny" who would liberate them. After Tatara's death, Sarasa secretly takes his place and sets out to fulfill his destiny for him. It's a great read, and I'm often surprised by how few people seem to follow it. It's loaded with adventure, romance, mistaken identity, politics, and determination and love overcoming incredible odds--and sometimes not. It also ended in volume 25, which may have taken people by surprise. Volumes 26 and 27 are books of side stories (of wildly varying length, at least in this book). Vol. 26 includes three of these "appendixes", two of which are stories from supporting characters' childhoods (one is a four-page vignette, while the other is a longer look at how two cast members met and became friends). After those, a full hundred pages are devoted to a story set during the time of the Basara cast's great-grandparents. This is a self-contained piece that does connect to the main series; the fact that some of its characters' descendants come together during the the events of Basara is set up plausibly, and the story fleshes out some history that was hinted at during the preceding 25 volumes. The very end of the book is devoted to a short alternate-universe story in which Tatara is a pop star whose sister tries to fill in for him when someone jealously plants a tack in his shoe. It's clearly a case of the author having fun with a bizarre idea, but there's no harm in that, and it ended the volume on a cute note. All in all, this volume isn't required reading to understand the overall series, but it's still enjoyable, and the longest story could be interesting even for readers who aren't all that familiar with Basara (although the odds of anyone meeting that description picking up this second-to-last volume seem slim). Think you could have written a better review of Basara v26? Write us and we'll probably let you give it a shot! --EiC PC |
3 February 2010
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