2022's Most Anticipated Light Novels!

BOOKS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2022

Sabikui Bisco, Vol. 1

In the far future, a disaster known as the “Rusty Wind” has transformed the majority of Japan into a barren desert and left civilization in tatters. After his teacher falls prey to the rust, the roguish Bisco Akahoshi embarks on journey through the sandy wastes to obtain a mushroom known only as the Rust Eater, rumored to cure the ailment. Together with the dashing young doctor Milo, the pair will have to contend with the unforgiving environment and their fellow wanderers in order to make it back alive. 

This one is sick, and if you aren’t already looking forward to it, you should be! The inaugural Yen Press Book Club title is a crazy, high-flying, post apocalyptic action paradise. In addition to appealing to fans of light novels, lovers of classic pulp action stories like Conan the Barbarian or Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser will find themselves right at home here.

Dragon and Ceremony

To fulfill his master’s last request, half-human wand craftsman Ix must repair a staff belonging to a girl named Yuui. There’s just one problem—in order to mend the staff’s core, Ix must obtain the heart of a dragon, the last of which supposedly died out 1,000 years ago. Running up against a strict time limit before his contract expires, Ix must somehow find a long lost dragon and repair the wand all by summer’s end. 

A strange, contained and specific fantasy world. This is a mystery about the disappearance of dragons and the nature of magic.

It’s almost a noir detective story – a girl walks in with a problem – but set in a world where magic is a part of everyday life. Investigating archives! Performing wand maintenance! Identifying magical ingredients! Each step draws our heroes closer to the truth of this world.

What if the Pelican Brief was about ancient magic? It's kinda like that (Do people remember the Pelican Brief?).

Chitose is in the Ramune Bottle

As far as normies go, it’s hard to beat Saku Chitose. The most popular kid in his high school? Check. An ironclad reputation that can weather even vicious online attacks? Check. A friend group that’s as attractive on the outside as they are on the inside? Check. But when a teacher asks Saku to help reacclimate a student who been shut away in his room for months to school life, his perfect world will never be the same. What is this, some kinda normie harem story? 

This is probably the most anticipated title on this list – highly requested for months before we announced it. Like Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki, this is a bit of a deconstruction of romance manga/harem stereotypes. Unlike that one, this one has a really cool guy as a main character (a chad, if you will). Maybe Chitose, our extroverted lead, and Kenta Yamazaki, the depressed hikikomori deuterotagonist, are two halves of a whole. We'll have to read to find out!

Another 2001

It has been three years since the calamity of 1998 that claimed the lives of many students in Yomiyama North Middle's class 3-3. After being placed into the cursed class, Sou Hiratsuka will have to work alongside class of 1998 survivor Mei Misaki in order to avert a new disaster. But as mysterious accidents and deaths pile up despite their countermeasures, the pair will be forced to reckon with Yomiyama North's deepest mysteries...

Okay, I have a confession to make. For the first few months I worked here, I saw this book on our shelf and thought it was a take on 2001: A Space Odyssey.

It’s not. It’s actually about the only thing cooler than spaceships: a bizarre, recurrent murder curse that plagues a small town. Yukita Ayatsuji is an acclaimed Japanese mystery writer, and beyond Another, is also the author of The Decagon House Murders, a pioneering New School mystery.

Fans of bizarre, recurrent murders that plague a small town have a lot to look forward to in 2022.

Konosuba TRPG

The fantastical, wacky adventures from the famous Konosuba series come to life in this table-top role-playing game. This book contains everything players and game masters need for questing like Kazuma and his merry gang of misfits. Fancy playing a Crimson Magic Clan Wizard? You can. What about a Priest devoted to the Axis sect? Weird, but you can. There's even a replay session featuring Natsume Akatsuki, the author of the Konosuba novel series! So what are you waiting for? An edict from Eris herself? The Axel Adventurer's Guild could always use a new adventuring party!

90 pages of this book are an explanatory replay of the game, featuring the author of Konosuba and the author of Re:ZERO as players. The rest is the first TRPG we've published!

The system should be interesting to anyone interested in tabletop roleplaying games - you pick three classes, pick some skills, you (usually) roll two six-sided dice which everyone has and you’ve got “cheats” to break the rules in fun ways.

Japanese tabletop games are a little different, but this could easily be anyone's first tabletop roleplaying game!

Ishura

In a world where the Demon King has died, a host of demigods capable of felling him have inherited the world. A master fencer who can figure out how to take out their opponent with a single glance; a lancer so swift they can break the sound barrier; a wyvern rogue who fights with three legendary weapons at once; an all-powerful wizard who can speak thoughts into being; an angelic assassin who deals instant death. Eager to attain the title of “One True Hero,” these champions each pursue challenges against formidable foes and spark conflicts themselves. The battle to determine the mightiest of the mighty begins.

A series with sixteen protagonists who all want to kill each other. None of them is the true protagonist...and all of them are the true protagonist. This is worth it for the fantastic illustrations alone, but it's also telling a very unconventionally structured fantasy story.

Oh...and they’re all fighting to become the king, so it’s a Battle Royale.

 

 

Even with only half of our year announced at this point, there's so much to look forward to in 2022 already! It's going to be a big year!