Product Description

The bestselling series that took the world by storm continues with this hilarious and sly second book. As the SOS Brigade prepares for the upcoming cultural festival, eccentric high school student and oblivious god Haruhi decides to make a movie. The star-the beautiful and reluctant Mikuru. But as filming begins, strange things begin to happen and Mikuru begins to develop superpowers. It soon becomes obvious that Haruhi's powers to change the universe are bleeding through the movie and into real life! As things begin to escalate, the SOS Brigade is called to set things right before Haruhi discovers the truth and awakens her true destructive potential.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19723 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 201 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780316038812
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Nagaru Tanigawa is a Japanese author best known for Haruhi Suzumiya series, for which he won he won the Grand Prize for at the eighth annual Sneaker Awards

Customer Reviews

Just as good as the first.
Though it starts off a bit slower than the first book this sequel quickly picks up and delivers the same wit and off-the-wall circumstance that the series is known for. If you enjoyed the first book then this is a great buy.

Lights... Camera... Action.
Like most people who would get this book, I am a big fan of the anime. When the first book came out, I picked it up immediately. Same with this one. So what were my thoughts? In one word, mixed.

Unlike the first book, this one was not apart of the original first season (though it is in the new series), but we did see the aftermath of this story in the first episode. Yes, this is how the movie was made.

Let's get this out of the way first, there are some issues with the novel. While the book looks to be accurately translated, some of the lines don't flow. The translation would have been helped incredibly just by using a syllabus to change use a few different words. It also occasionally feels like the characters are repeating themselves, but I don't know if that's the translator or how it was originally written.

It also doesn't seem quite as funny as the first book. That is not to say that there are no laughs, there is a particularly funny scene involving a talking cat, but the book is mostly filled with chuckles rather than laugh out loud moments.

Now that the complaints are out of the way, let me say that this is a very fun novel. It has moments of wit and filled with whimsy throughout. There are nods to films that are at times very clever (such as the Amadeus reference) and one of the greatest philosophical conversations about human speech ever put into words.

The best part of the book would have to be the insight we get into the characters and their motives. This doesn't happen until late into the book, but it does make you question the actions of some of the members of the SOS Brigade.

I would also like to add that the ending is perfect. An oddly satisfying anticlimax that doesn't feel like the author cheated, but ended the story in the only way it logically could end. Well, logically in this illogical filled world in which the characters reside.

Like the first book, I knew going in that this was not great literature, but it is fun and definitely worth reading if you were a fan of the first or the anime series. I eagerly look forward to the third book.

Lacks the Spice and Excitement of the Original
The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya is the second in a line of books revolving around Kyon, a hapless high school student, and his inexplicable relationship with the extremely eccentric title character, Haruhi Suzumiya. Apparently, Suzumiya possesses the power to change reality and even destroy the world, but she has yet to realize this fact. The original book (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) introduced a cast of memorable supporting characters, provided plenty of laughs and action-packed scenes, and even concluded with a somewhat epic finale that ended on a surprisingly touching and humorous note. In fact, the author, Nagaru Tanigawa, has even stated that he had not originally intended to turn Haruhi Suzumiya into a series, and judging by the second book, it shows.

The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya is based entirely around a single idea: Suzumiya wants to shoot an independent film of her own designs, so she naturally drags Kyon and the rest of the gang along to help out. The problem is that, the more engrossed she becomes with the film's production, the more she begins to unwittingly warp reality to mirror that of her film. It's not a bad idea, per se, but it's also not a deep enough concept to base an entire novel around, making for a two hundred page story that is surprisingly uneventful. There are no trips to closed spaces, no battles with E.T.s, and few interesting revelations. Even the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) romantic intrigue of the first title is largely missing here, beyond Kyon's regular fantasizing about one of the other key characters. And perhaps worst of all, the book is simply not as humorous as its predecessor.

On the flipside, the title does introduce an element of distrust between the core characters, leading the reader to wonder if perhaps Kyon is being misled and manipulated by the others. And despite its overall lack of laugh-out-loud moments, there are still some gems here that are very funny. It'll take getting to the second half of the story to find most of them, however.

The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya is a merely decent, somewhat flavorless retread of the first book. Fans will still want to give it a read, but here's hoping volume three brings back the spice that made the original so captivating. If not, it may be time to move on with life and leave Haruhi Suzumiya and her weird issues behind.