Yokohama Station is a novella (175 pages) deeply rooted in Japanese culture. Japan is, after all, is a country intricately and expansively connected by trains and so it is no surprise that the maguffin here is a train station. Those who have travelled to Japan will appreciate the references of course (Suica - Suika) as well as the very disenfranchised and disaffected nature of the protagonists. None are admirable and most just shuffle through the book as coincidences allow the plot to develop. It makes for a somewhat stilted read but there are, of course, interesting sci fi references within (from Asimov to Philip K. Dick).

Story: As a devastating war destroyed most of the world, a few outlier countries developed radical technology in order to survive. In Japan, a self replicating station evolved and slowly began to take over Japan. The main island of Honshu was soon completely covered by the station, pushing people to the outer limits or to other islands. Inside the station, residents continued life as normal, as long as they had a very expensive Suika implant that allowed them to do transactions and communicate within the station. Hiroto lives outside the station and wonders about what's inside. Toshiro is in the army in the south island of Kyushu - they are charged with stopping the halt of Yokohama Station onto their island. In the north, AI is being used to stop Yokohama from invading Hokkaido. When Hiroto comes into possession of a pass into the station, all will change.

Both protagonists are rather dull - neither has much in the way of social skills and it was very hard to get into/behind either character. For the most part, life just happened to them rather than the other way around. Toshiro doesn't much care about humanity, his superiors are self serving, and he has a very clinical POV. Hiroto, the scavenger, just bumbles around most of the book and manages to meet only people who can help further the plot to find the mystery of Yokohama station. For those reasons, this felt very deus ex machina and not organic at all.

Yokohama Station isn't really a character and the idea of it being intelligent is glossed over and ignored. It just replicates, poorly, and that's all we know about it. Because the station never became anything more than an 'it', the ending and reveals were very anticlimactic and the journey (even as easy as it was) uninteresting. Honestly, a drone could replace Hiroto or Toshiro and have about the same impact on the story.

This is a quick and easy read. There are illustrations at the beginning of each chapter (and there are under 10 chapers) in black and white. As well, there are explanations in the back of various ideas by the author. As a sci fi piece, it did feel a bit flat. But as a glimpse of Japanese culture, it has a lot to say. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

This was definitely an interesting book. It took some time for me to warm up to it, but once I was captured, I couldn't put this book down, I HAD to know how it was going to end. It didn't go the way I expected to, but that was ok. I like not always figuring out how the story ends.

One thing though, the MC was blessed that everything he did and everyone he encountered helped get him closer and closer to his goal. He never really seemed to have to work for much. Other than that and the time it took me to really get into the story, this was almost enchanting. I honestly don't want to say too much, if you are going to read this, you should go into it not knowing what to expect.

I am going to get a copy of this for a family member who is into sci-fi that is different from what it out there, this fits that bill perfectly. Definitely one I will be recommending to our sci-fi readers at the store.

3.5 stars, rounded down to 3, because while I did enjoy it, it was a little too easy and streamlined for the MC and the jumps took a bit to get used to. Worth the time to read, recommended.

My thanks to NetGalley and Yen Press/Yen On for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Hiroto, an outsider, ventures into Yokohama Station with a temporary ticket. His mission is to free the leader of the Dodger Alliance. Will he make it out in time?

“Hiroto let Keiha finish her story, although at least half of it was beyond his comprehension.”

The above quote perfectly illustrates how I feel about science fiction in general. I think I thought this book was a graphic novel when I requested it, plus I’m always interested in reading works from Japanese authors. That being said, science fiction tends to go a little over my head. I feel like I’m a pretty smart person, but science fiction almost never seems to click with me.

I want to give this novel 3.5 stars. I would’ve rated it higher, even though some of it didn’t make sense to me, but it felt like something was missing. I know that something always goes missing in translation (this book was originally published in Japan in 2016), but this was different. A lot of things happened in Hiroto’s journey, but not a lot of things actively advanced the plot. There were also a couple of characters that seemed not-quite-pointless, existing only as a way to give background information (and a deus ex machina, of sorts).

There’s a map at the beginning, which is always useful. There’s also an appendix at the end that I wish I would’ve known about when I started the book (definitely my own fault for not checking the contents); it’s not necessary but definitely helpful.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Yen Press, LLC (and Kadokawa Corporation) for the ARC in exchange for an honest review (sorry it’s late. I’m finally catching up!).

After a self-replicating train station has taken over all of Honshu, Hiroto tries to track down the leader of a hidden alliance that’s determined to free humanity.

Yokohama Station SF by Yuba Isukari is a visionary sci-fi novel that explores our relationship to technology and … well, public transportation. The station itself is truly its own living, sentient character in this story and most of Japan is now dependent on it. At the age of 6, children have a Suica (a type of point card) installed in them. They use those points to buy things like food or to continue living in the station. Those who commit the most minor of infractions may be expelled from the station and left to fend for themselves.

It’s really a fascinating world that Isukari has built here, and I think it’s important to note this is a very conceptually-driven and exposition-heavy story. This is both its greatest strength and its weakness. Due to the novel’s short length, there isn’t room for much asides from learning HOW the world works. I wish we could have seen more descriptive imagery in regards to its setting and seen a little more from its human (and non-human) characters.

All in all though, I still definitely recommend this book if you’re looking for a short but sweet sci-fi with innovative worldbuilding and cool AI.

Can a city be classified as a living entity? If so, can it then be killed? That is the problem posed by this short novel. An interesting story peopled by surprising characters.

What a fun read! I couldn't put it down once I started it. Read it if you like sci-fi; can also be read by teens, if yours is into that kind of thing. Lots of fun characters (human, and other) and ideas.

It was overwhelming and difficult to concentrate on in the beginning. It needed to be stuck with for a couple chapters before I could get into a rhythm of reading the novel. I think this was mostly due to being dropped into the setting with so many terms and new lore thrown at the reader immediately. This isn’t always a disadvantage to storytelling, but it can be confusing with science fiction. I like figuring out things as I go without having the answers immediately, but I struggled with forming a cohesive mental imagery. This could be due to it being a light novel in Japanese, and translation can cause concepts to be lost in translation. I am excited to discover there is also a manga, and I want to read it to see if my mental imagery compares to the illustrations! There is commentary within the text on capitalism and the digital age.