The Spring 2024 Light Novel Guide

Amalgam Hound

What's It About? 

Theo, a young investigator, crosses paths with Eleven, an amalgam perfectly mimicking the form of a girl. In a strange twist of fate, the two become partners on a special mission to track down other amalgams on the run after the war. However, Eleven only looks like a young girl. She's a living weapon who doesn't understand what it means to be human. Theo has no love for amalgams, but he'll have to deal with it because a terrorist attack has rocked the nation to its core and someone needs to get to the bottom of it!

Amalgam Hound has a story by Midori Komai and art by Domino Ozaki. English translation by Jocelyne Allen. Published by Yen On (March 19, 2024).

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Is It Worth Reading?

Lauren Orsini

Rating:

Sometimes, I jokingly share excerpts from my least favorite light novels with friends, and they say, “Why even read light novels then?” Amalgam Hound is why! This sci-fi/fantasy police procedural feels like reading the first draft of a gripping anime from the future. It's the rare light novel that introduces a unique premise and then actually delivers on it without tripping into any gross clichés. It's a well-written mystery in the style of a pulp detective story, and while I have read too much of the genre to be wholly surprised by it, I can see people loving this novel.

Amalgam Hound gets its title from one of its main characters, a robotic construct derived from this world's combined advancements in technology and magic. Amalgams are military weapons that can transform on command; a Hound is a specific type of Amalgam that is so advanced that it is hardly different from a person. The Hound we meet in this novel is named Eleven, presumably because she is only the 11th of her kind ever developed. Eleven may be deadly, but she resembles a young girl. Eleven claims that she is emotionless, but as the novel progresses, we see her grow and change in reflection of the people around her.

The true protagonist is Theo Starling, a young inspector who is dealing with severe PTSD after losing his family in an Amalgam attack. Despite his youth, he is put in charge of Eleven because of his history; the chief knows that Theo will be more cautious with Eleven than anyone else. So begins an odd-couple buddy-cop pairing as Theo and his non-human partner work with the rest of their team (the affable senior inspector Tobias and excitable sorcerer Emma) while walking on eggshells around one another to avoid reopening Theo's old wounds. This is an excellent time to tell you that Amalgam Hound is NOT a romance, so don't be concerned about Theo putting the moves on a robot girl who he says reminds him of his sister! I'm not opposed to romance, of course, but I think it would be out of place here. Theo's gradual realization of Eleven as an individual beyond her designation is a far more complex and fitting character arc.

Amalgam Hound is the best-written light novel I read for this spring's guide. I didn't realize how much I missed metaphors and descriptive writing. This story gives you all the clues you need to solve the mystery before Eleven and Theo do, so stay alert to the details. The follow-up volume will see this pair solving another mystery on a luxury liner, and I look forward to learning more details about their unique magic-and-tech-filled world in the next story, too.

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Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Amalgam Hound is an unusual combination of genres in the English-translated light novel sphere: a near-perfect blend of police procedural and science fiction. In a world similar to ours, the story follows ex-military detective Theo Starling and his investigative team as they're partnered with a human-shaped automagiton named Eleven. In the story's world, “automagitons” are automatons that blend science with magic, and most of them are gigantic weapons of war. Not so Eleven: she's small, humanoid, and able to blend in with human society for the most part. And Theo's not sure he wants anything to do with a variation on the type of weapon that incinerated his hometown and killed his parents and younger sister.

I realize it doesn't sound all that special on paper, but Amalgam Hound's first volume is greater than the sum of its parts. A lot of that comes down to the character of Theo. He's not just a buddy cop stereotype; he's a person dealing with complex emotions and PTSD, still struggling to process his sister Heather's death, and he's now forced to work with an amalgam who looks like she could be Heather's age. He can't quite bring himself to dislike Eleven, but he's got some serious trust issues with her, and watching him struggle to reconcile his work with his emotions makes up a very rewarding character arc. Eleven has some surprises, even for herself, and although most of it isn't unexpected within the confines of light novels, it's still very well done.

The writing and tight plotting make this work so well, and from the afterword, it's clear that the author thought about and drafted this story in depth, and that comes through in the development of the plot and characters. It certainly helps that the entire volume is one single case, and there are some clear real-world parallels as it tackles religious extremism and the aftermath of war in a city recovering from the terrors of air raids and death. The heightened emotions aren't overdone, and rather than incorporating a romantic element, it focuses on Theo learning that he's allowed to care about people and to trust himself, even as he grapples with survivor's guilt and the trauma of wartime. I don't want to say much more for fear of overstating the matter or giving things away, but trust me: if you like mysteries or police procedurals, you want to check this out.

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Kevin Cormack

Rating:

Although I'm not a huge fan of police procedural drama, I don't mind the genre when it's melded with science fiction or fantasy. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is one of my favorite anime of all time. Amalgam Hound was recommended to me by another ANN writer who felt it would be my kind of thing. They were – partly – correct.

To someone conversant in Japanese light novels and manga, Amalgam Hound is itself an amalgam of concepts and structures from other notable works. Like Lerche the Sirin from 86 EIGHTY-SIX, Amalgam Hound's primary female character, Eleven, is an inhuman, artificial construct whose tiny form belies incredible combat performance. As an advanced Amalgam Hound (shape-shifting semi-organic lifeform), Eleven mimics human form effortlessly, unlike her larger, more obviously monstrous compatriots.

Eleven is paired with the war-traumatized detective Theo Starling, whose gruff, emotionless demeanor and edgy personality aren't (at least initially) dissimilar to 86's main male protagonist, Shinei Nouzen. Their gradually thawing professional/personal relationship provides Amalgam Hound's best moments. I wish these quiet slice-of-life interludes where Eleven comes to share an apartment with the bemused Theo could have been more plentiful.

Unfortunately, author Komai is more focused on the somewhat humdrum procedural nature of the story, as Theo and his team investigate increasingly gruesome crimes involving stolen Amalgam tech. These dry procedural elements read like a less compelling mix of No Guns Life's dystopian SF future and Cop Craft's odd couple fantasy detective story. This world operates on a heady mix of both far-fetched science and sorcery. The magical aspect is kept mostly in the background and could easily have been excised without impacting the plot. Perhaps it will become important in later volumes.

The biotechnological Amalgam concept is an interesting one, and multiple creative instances of Amalgam misuse allow Komai to describe some disturbing body-horror-drenched havoc, with hideous biomechanical blobs ripping people's heads off as they erupt from within their unsuspecting bodies. That's some real freaky Alien-level grossness right there. The final chapter features a literal bloodbath that would make a gory Blood C-esque spectacle in animated form, should the series be fortunate enough to score an adaptation.

Despite some standout scenes of sweet character interaction and visceral carnage, Amalgam Hound doesn't set my world on fire. Some late-stage plot twists are telegraphed too obviously, meaning their climactic reveals fall a little flat. Despite the promising relationship between the main characters, I'm not interested in reading more.

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. Yen Press, BookWalker Global, and J-Novel Club are subsidiaries of KWE.