James Nicoll Reviews

2021’s The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 11 is the eleventh volume in Natsu Hyuuga’s Apothecary Diaries secondary universe mystery/political thriller series. Illustrations are by Touko Shino. The 2024 English translation is by Kevin Steinbach.

Having survived a plague of grasshoppers, the unfortunate people of I‑Sei province must now deal with an approaching famine. Under most circumstances this would be of only theoretical interest to capital-dwelling Maomao, except that in a previous volume, she and Jinshi (the emperor’s brother and Maomao’s boss/fiancé of sorts) were dispatched to I‑Sei province.

The imperial commission did its best to prepare I‑Sei for a soon-to-arrive grasshopper infestation. Thanks to their foresight, I‑Sei avoided the worst of the infestation, but it must still deal with lingering consequences.

Inhabitants have been fed in the short run. But there may not be enough food for the coming months; new crops have yet to be planted and harvested. Moreover, the grasshoppers devoured both grain and straw; lacking straw for forage and fuel, people will suffer.

The current emperor not being a depraved autocrat interested only in his own comfort, the province can expect some famine relief from the central government… if some means of conveying it to I‑Sei can be arranged. The province is isolated in the far west and the logistical challenge is significant.

There is no crisis so terrible that some ambitious person cannot find a way to make it worse. Gyoku-ou is such a person. He is Empress Gyokuyou’s half-brother and rules I‑Sei on behalf of the empire. His loyalty should be to his subjects and to the empire. In fact, it is not.

He is politically adept enough to give the masses the impression that he is one who deserves the credit for managing the crisis, not the team led by Jinshi. Gyoku-ou is determined to use this popular support to declare war on neighboring Shaoh.

Gyoku-ou puts forth several legitimate-sounding justifications for war. Fewer would starve if Shaoh’s ports could be used to receive famine relief. Shaoh has coal mines, which would relieve the fuel shortage. As each argument proves insufficient, he presents new ones. A costly, poorly-timed war seems inevitable.

Gyoku-ou’s secret agenda is not self-aggrandizement, as one might expect. No, he’s driven by an obsession with revenge. He conceals his true goal, which makes it difficult for Jinshi and Maomao to figure out what he’s doing and why. They are being out-maneuvered.

~oOo~

This is an odd installment in the Maomao-Jinshi stories. There really aren’t any mysteries of the conventional sort to be solved. Jinshi’s usual skill at navigating court intrigue is failing him. Maomao and Jinshi’s romance gets very little attention (probably for the best, as they are so terrible at it). The focus of the plot is Gyoku-ou and his monomania, not Maomao and Jinshi, and the result is not a mystery so much as it is a Shakespearian tragedy.

Which is not to say the novel lacks points of interest, simply not the ones I expected. A running theme in the series is that the current day is shaped by unforeseen consequences of ruthlessly pragmatic decisions made several generations ago. This installment delves into that in far greater depth. 

In fact, one could read the series as a homily against ruthless pragmatism and autocratic government lacking effective checks and balances. Coldly rational decisions to commit minor atrocities in the name of the greater good (at least, the ruling class’s greater good) results in calamity and the decision-makers are in no way spared. 

No doubt Volume 12 will refocus on Maomao, Jinshi, and the glacial progress of their romance. While it’s odd for a later volume in an on-going series to shift focus as this one does, I cannot complain that nothing happened or that the narrative lacked astonishing revelations, surprising plot twists, and conflict-resolving violence.

The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 11 is available here (Amazon US), here (Amazon Canada), here (Amazon UK), here (Apple Books), here (Barnes & Noble), and here (Kobo).

I did not find Volume 11 at Chapters-Indigo, nor at Words Worth Books (although Words Worth does offer the manga).