Lost in Translation, Maybe?

[annundriel]

One of the books I am currently reading, off a friend's recommendation, is Hideyuki Kikuchi and Yoshitaka Amano's Vampire Hunter D. On the one hand, I'm intrigued by the story. On the other hand, the writing makes me want to bang my head against something.

For example:

From the farm he road hard north by northwest for two hours, until he came to a spot where a massive ashen citadel towering quietly atop a hillock loomed menacingly overhead.
- p. 57

Overkill, much?

Now, I'm going to mostly blame the translation. Whenever anything gets translated from the original language to something else, there is lots of room for error and massive failure. But I've still got to wonder what the original writing is like. I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm also reading Dickens at the moment.

I'm having other issues with it, too. Like the way in which information is presented. There could be some more subtlety involved.

I don't really want to speak ill of it though. Like I said, I am enjoying the storyline enough to keep reading. And I want to know what happens. But it's a little like finding a piece of fanfiction that has an excellent idea and fails on the execution.


Now I'm a little afraid I get too adjective-happy.