Afterword

Once upon a time, an author was told by an editor at MF Bunko J, “We’re thinking about doing something with a Shin Godzilla vibe.”

“Boy, no way that’ll flop in today’s industry,” said the author.

“That’s why we need a trendy hook. Say, isekai,” said the editor. “Instead of Godzilla, there’s an empire invading from another world. Problem is all of our authors keep running away every time we run the idea by them.”

“Yeah, because it sounds like an absolute mess of a setting.”

Yes. I, too, tried to pull a runner. But with a little more grace. And so I proposed my own addition to the cursed book pitch, something as cursed as it was unapologetically niche and exceedingly specific.

“So, what if the setting was a ruined Japanese archipelago, like, half of it’s underwater. And a bunch of scientists and monks of Esoteric Buddhism, like straight out of Ura-Koya, escape to Mount Hiei or Koya or something, where they develop a super cyborg hero hybrid of science and magic! And it’s a big, magical, cyberpunk action fest.”

“Yeah, that sounds good. Go with that.”

“What.”

And so here we are. I’ve found myself at the helm of a Frankenstein novel pitch. It was quite a journey ironing out the story to its current form, and I initially intended it to be a balls-to-the-wall, non-stop-action, superhero-meets-fantasy sort of narrative, with one crazy set piece after the next. But given the way it actually turned out, it’s hard to say the state of the world, the pandemic, the variants and whatnot, didn’t color things a little.

I only hope that you find a little respite from these troubled times here in the pages of this book.

Anyway, that makes volume one of this brand new series. As of this writing, the manuscript for volume two has already been completed, so look forward to that next month. I hope to see you there.