ired of angsty vampires struggling to atone for their wicked pasts and find a moral place for themselves in the human world (you know, like what I wrote)?
Then how about evil lust-bunnies who prefer a repast of hawt S&M sex before the neck-biting stuff begins, and who think destroying the world is the kind of goal every young vamp should aspire to?
If you're looking for cliffhanging action and gory horror that doesn't spare the raunchy eroticism and has a touch of Tom Clancy's obsession for technical detail to boot, then Hideyuki Kikuchi's Yashakiden ("The Demon Princess") should be right up your alley.
One roiling hot night, a woman of unrivaled beauty sails into landlocked Shinjuku aboard an ancient ghost ship. Calling herself "Princess," she and her undead entourage--Kikiou, Ryuuki, and Shuuran--hail from long-dead dynasties and the deepest heart of darkness in China.
These four immortals have surmounted four thousand years of space and time in order to seize control of Demon City. Confronted by their most powerful enemies ever, "manhunter" Setsura Aki and psychic surgeon Doctor Mephisto must launch into a heroic battle with the supernatural.
But then two of Setsura's strongest allies are defeated, and Setsura himself barely survives an attack from Ryuuki's malevolent qi. Thus begins The Demon Princess, a brand-new chapter in best-selling horror author Hideyuki Kikuchi's epic Demon City Blues fantasy series!
Outside of Japan, Hideyuki Kikuchi is probably best known for his Vampire Hunter D light novels and anime adaptations. In Japan, his extensive horror and science fiction bibliography and his vivid, cinematic style often draws comparisons with Stephen King.
Hideyuki Kikuchi was born in 1949 in Choshi, Chiba Prefecture. After studying law at Aoyama University, he translated science fiction and worked as a magazine reporter. His debut as a novelist came in 1982 with the publication of Demon City Shinjuku.
Yashakiden is being translated by Eugene Woodbury and will be published in the United States and Canada by Digital Manga Publishing. Volume 1 (ISBN 978-1569701454) is scheduled for release in January 2010 in trade paperback format.
