By Haruhi Tono, Illustrations by Ai Hasukawa
Translated by Karen McGillicuddy
Digital Manga Publishing, 240 pp.
Rating: Not Rated; Sexually Graphic

The title of The Aristocrat and the Desert Prince gives me a mental image that I knew from the outset would be missing from its pages. It sounds like a Harlequin Presents (if you don’t know of the titles of these, just google it) slash fic pairing the male love interests from two stories. Such a thing, to my mind, sounded both hilarious and intriguing. While I knew that this novel wouldn’t really feel like that, I honestly didn’t know what I was in for.

Takeyuki Onozuka is the prissy younger son of an influential Japanese family. Having just graduated college, he’s taking a trip to the fictional Middle Eastern country of Cassina to visit his older brother, who works at the Japanese embassy. The liberties taken with this fictional country are many, and help with the plot—socially, this country is liberal for one in its area. There is no terrorism here, just a pacifist king who keeps a neutral stance when it comes to international relations. That, I don’t have so much of a problem with. Just look at Dubai.

Because he is a moron, Takeyuki ignores the warnings of the guide assigned to him and wanders off into a large marketplace. A progressive Middle Eastern country this may be, but that doesn’t mean that people won’t kidnap rich foreigners for money. Spirited off into the desert, Takeyuki is to be sold to the chief of a desert-dwelling tribe. Luckily… well, maybe luckily… a tall, handsome man named Zayid springs him from his bonds, and together they wander the desert for a few days. They’d only encountered one another once before, on the flight to the country. Their days together are spent primarily with Zayid trying to keep Takeyuki from bolting and killing himself in the desert.

If by now you haven’t figured out Zayid’s secret identity, you haven’t read the title.

All in all, I’d like this story a lot more if it were about Zayid’s adventures in his double life. Maybe a boy could come into his life, maybe not, but I find him to be an interesting chracter. Takeyuki, on the other hand, needs a good slap. I also have a few quibbles with the writing of the story. This is my first light novel, so I don’t know if my problems are with the general light novel style, the writing of the actual novel itself, or the translation, but the writing is very stilted. It’s possible to write well using small sentences, but it certainly hasn’t been accomplished here. Between the choppy writing and the fact that the book doesn’t have anything that seems like an ending, I can’t recommend anything other than giving this one a miss.

The Aristocrat and the Desert Prince is available now.

Review copy provided by the publisher.