A fresh take on urban fantasy that blends East Asian mythology, corporate intrigue and genuinely funny dialogue.
What is Baku?
Moji Press kindly sent me a preview of their upcoming release, Baku by Ronin Hart, and after five chapters I’m already intrigued.
Baku is best described as “fantasypunk”, blending Japanese, Chinese and Korean folklore with modern urban fantasy. Imagine the hidden magical societies of The Dresden Files mixed with the corporate intrigue of Cyberpunk or Shadowrun, and you’re close.
At its centre is Yue Fei, a half-Baku struggling to control an insatiable supernatural hunger for dreams and nightmares. When he meets the guarded Claire, old relationships, ancient rivalries and corporate power struggles begin to collide across a hidden supernatural world stretching from New York to Texas and beyond.
A World Built on Mythology
What impressed me most is how deeply researched the mythology feels. Rather than simply borrowing names and creatures from Japanese, Chinese and Korean folklore, Hart builds an entire hidden society around them. It gives the world real depth without ever feeling like a history lesson.
What particularly caught my attention was the way Hart treats supernatural politics almost like corporate boardroom drama, giving ancient mythological creatures modern jobs, rivalries and ambitions.
Why I’m Excited for More
Hart establishes the central cast quickly. Yue Fei’s struggle against his own nature, Claire’s emotional reserve and Samantha’s larger-than-life personality all leave me curious to see where the novel takes them.
The highlight of these opening chapters, however, has to be their effortless humour. Puns about koi fish. Steak jokes. The casual instruction to “Stop and put your pants on.” Urban fantasy can sometimes take itself very seriously, but Baku isn’t afraid to lean into awkward conversations and terrible dad jokes. As Claire herself points out, they’re very much “old-man jokes.”
Based on this preview, Baku feels refreshingly different within urban fantasy. Its blend of East Asian mythology, corporate intrigue, humour and supernatural politics creates a world that already feels far bigger than this preview alone. More importantly, these opening chapters achieved exactly what a preview should—they left me wanting the rest of the novel.
The first chapters of Baku are available to read on the Moji Press website, and the full novel is due for release in 2027.
Big thanks to Moji Press for the cheeky preview!
Preview by Emma Sinclair
Check out The Second Draft’s latest posts
- I Went Looking for Tobuscus. I Shouldn’t Have.
- OH, GOD! review: the end of the world can wait, I’m helping this stranger
- Patches of the Past- ARC Review
- The Synthetic Hunger Review: Well, This Was Unexpected
- Apparently Writing the Book Isn’t Enough
Follow me on Instagram!
