Hayate's story is just amazing! If you love anime, you'll adore this book! If you love fantasy with characters moving between worlds (like the fae), then you'll love this book! If you enjoy dystopian futures with crazy cities and a load of darkness, you won't be able to put this book down.
As an anime fan, I'd say The Origin of the White Wind is the perfect blending of Nurarihyon No Mago and Rurouni Kenshin---it is pure genius! It blew my mind. I'm not kidding.
Hayate is a spirit creature, a divine fox (kitsune) but he's stuck on Earth in a future where all our nightmares have come true. He struggles to maintain his connection to his divine being and is helped by a kind old man who keeps him safe, until the villagers at the bottom of the mountain come searching for what they believe is a demon.
This is a deeply moving story about good, evil and the struggle we experience between the two. It is also a beautiful description of making the most of a bad hand of cards. I've read Xander Cross's other works as well which give greater depth to the character and hint at the possibility of redemption, which makes reading about his fall so much more poignant.
What's more, the second book in this series, The Dragon Game is also out now and the continuation of the story had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. It is absolutely brilliant!
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