Sakura, princess of Clow, has an unusual experience when her friend Syaoran, a renowned archaeologist has to rescue her when she finds herself growing ghostly wings, when the wings dissipate, Yukito, Clow’s high priest realises that the wings contained Sakura’s memories and soul, without which she will die. Unwilling to let this happen her friends set out on a quest to retrieve what she had lost…

Volume Nine of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle - In the God’s Hands continues the Shara story begun in book eight. All hell has broken loose, though our travellers do not know if the statue of the God of Calamity, which the Owner and the Master are fighting over, is responsible or if it is one of Sakura’s missing feathers. Once more chaos and confusion, at least in my head, reigns as the group are separated and pulled once again into another parallel world to meet the living being of Ashura, The God of Calamity.

Here the book definitely picks up the pace, producing large dynamic battle scenes which make up the majority of the book. Normally I’m not a great fan of this sort of thing, but Clamp seem to have pulled it off, interspersing enough narrative to keep things moving.

Once more Clamp have taken the unusual decision to portray their characters with elongated bodies, which disposes of any pretence of realism. This worked well in xxxHolic with its more classical and refined look, though I’m not as convinced that it works as well here.

The book remains a fairly well balanced collection of humour, mystery and action.

5

Charles Packer