Miss Savage Fang, Vol. 1 - Terrible translation with a lot of anachronisms (MC uses words like “fuckboy”, calling his arm muscles “his guns” and the prince a “femboy”). Just assuming here that the original isn’t that bad. The story itself is cliche and uninspired. The only reason I give it an extra point is that I liked the idea of a princess type that curses like a pirate.- 2/10
Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden Volume 1 - Apparently I’m now in my Gap Moe phase so I picked another one that sounded similar. As such I thought that this would be another book with a adult returned to a child’s body who would now show some titular “mercilessness”. but just like there wasn’t much Jam in Making Jam in the Woods there is nothing “merciless” in this one. What’s with all the false advertising?! A better title would have been “Nia Liston: The reincarnated maiden that becomes a Magical TV Idol”. And speaking of Magical Television. The book’s world could use a dab more creativity. Or better a large mainline infusion. For example, just calling it “MagiVision” instead of “TeleVision” doesn’t really feel inspired. The iPad type device people watch their “MagiVision broadcasts” on are called “MagiPad”. Cameras are just cameras and have a lens the subjects are supposed to look into. The family has bought “shares” in the “MagiVision Industry” and episodes “air”. The criminal roganization is called “mafia” and so on, and so on. I mean, yes it’s all part of the world building so it doesn’t stand out as bad as the anachronisms in Miss Savage Fang but is like they weren’t even trying to come up with something more magical. A direct comparison for the television stuff would be the broadcast system used in A realist Hero rebuilds the Kingdom as an example. It’s still basically television, but the fantasy patina over it is a lot more substantial. Another thing that stood out was that they might have messed up the order of the chapters, with a side POV chapter reacting to something only happening two chapters later in the main story. At the very end there is a teeeensy little bit of the much talked up Merciless Maiden but it gets cut short with what would be a hard cut to the aftermath in an anime. Picture this: MC makes the first move after a quarter of a chapter posturing and taunting >>>CUT<<< “Afterwards there has been a rumor that a group of thugs moved to the country too scared to ever set foot into the city again”. that type of hard cut. Anyway, even with all those gripes I found the TV idol plot (which was a good 85% of the LN) interesting enough to give the second volume a go if it gets released.- 5/10
I have been reading Nia Liston as a prepub. This really feels like the reader and Nia is getting blue balled with refusal of the bloodshed. She is like the nuclear bomb. The constant possibility that she can scorch the earth at the moments notice and the fact that she chooses to live double life make this LN for me. The secondary characters are just not that deep to get into. Worldbuilding is ok for me as the author gives the vibe that they don’t care. World is just the stage for Nia to shine in.
I would also give it 5/10. I think the titles went from normal titles to bait tiltles and now bait and switch titles
ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword! Vol 2: So I read the first volume of this a few years back, thought it was meh, and then for some reason bought the rest of the series on a sale later on. So I figured I’d finally dive in and read vol 2 last week.
It was okay. Every character was either comically evil or comically saint-like in vol 1, and that feels at least a bit toned down. Flum feels a bit more interesting to follow around this time. Dein is, like, the worst antagonist ever. The big mysteries with the church feel kind of arbitrary at times, like stuff doesn’t line up with all the other weird things going on but they’re all apparently closely related.
So, yeah, I’ll still read the volumes I picked up because I’m interested enough to follow Flum around, but I’m not exactly waiting on the edge of my seat for new volumes or anything.
I started reading Sword Art Online Progressive rather than dive right into volume 3 and that’s much better. Not finished yet, but man it’s nice to read SAO with the characters having… character.
Making Magic - The Sweet Life of a Witch Who Knows an Infinite MP Loophole Vol 6 - In this one we have less personal action and more “Whole world is at stake!” but it feels like it is in the middle of the plot. There is no ramp up, climax and realese. Just a natural disaster fixed by our hero like it’s nothing. We have got some moments with citizens of plains of nothingness(?) but nothing really attention grabbing or interesting.
5/10Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters! Vol 1-3 In first two volumes plot is driven by comedy of errors but it’s not really funny, more annoying than anything. Worldbuilding is so weak that if anyone smart enough or without aphantasia come into the world it would be a disaster. All of the characters have deacresed mental capacity and have aphantasia. The magic is like “if you can imagine it, it happens” and there are several reincarnated people in that world. This one feels like AI translated it and at times there are errors he <-> she and it confuses me who is speaking.
4/10I am readding After-School Dungeon Diver: Level Grinding in Another World as a prepub but I might drop it as it is echii harem slice of life and I am not in the mood for that sort of thing. So far it was OK.
Villainess Level 99 - Volume 4. After the insanity of Volume 3 this feels almost too low-key in comparison, save for a couple moments. It was fun, make no mistake, but after establishing what got established on Volume 3 it feels slightly disappointed that it’s not explored. HOWEVER, Yumiella’s antics remain delightful, and the idea that the level-measuring crystals have the equivalent of the Y2K problem tickles me immensely 😂
Spoilers up to and including Volume 4, plus the published description of Volume 5
After having established a multiverse, defeating what likely counts as a multiversal deity, rewinding back a year of time in a parallel world to save it, and having our gal break the level cap and freely travel between worlds, having a couple days of misunderstandings so that she meets her new brother in law feels a bit of a let down, intensified by the announcement of the argument of the next book being political plays in the royal capital, and not Yumiella’s Multiverse of Madness, but having this start because she decided “I’m gonna jump to the moon!” after getting angry at Patrick is so damn fitting! 😂
Yet again seeing the train of thoughts of this idiot completely devoid of common sense, that nevertheless believes she has an overabundance of it is still fascinating, like seeing the mind of an alien at work 😂
Also extremely fitting that she goes full-on Third Impact at the idea that she’s weak and/or low level 😂
Of note: Lemm’s comments and what she caught on the side of her vision while jumping establishes that at some point we’re going to the moon, she couldn’t physically jump to get there but there’s a way to do so, and there was something there, i doubt it will be rabbits pounding mochi but knowing the Japanese it might well be, or something on those lines.
As an aside, we have no idea of her current level, guessing about a couple thousand or so, she recovered her memories at age 5 and her comments on Volume 3 mention she stopped leveling at age 7 yet continued to level-grind until entering the academy. Then she defeated first Yumiella 2 then the God of Evil. And now she has kept grinding even more.
Bookworm Part 5 - Vol.01 to 04
I still haven’t improved at reviewing books, all I can say is I am still enjoying it.
