So You Want to Live the Slow Life? A Guide to Life in the Beastly Wilds, Vol. 3 - Ah yes, the textbook about preserves that mimics as a light novel. Not gonna lie, the actual amount of plot in this volume wouldn’t fill more than maybe one chapter. All the rest is an endless essay about cooking/preservation food. The setting of the series is endearing and I like the sidekicks, but the actual plot is thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread as a famous Hobbit would say. - 5/10
Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters! Volume 3 - A good volume. The series seems to have found its stride. The annoyances I had in the last volumes are mostly gone and a character that I didn’t like was also written out after half the volume. - 7/10
The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects: Volume 1 - Interesting first volume. There are definitive red flags with a middle-aged man marrying a 15-year-old girl at the forefront. I give it a tentative pass for the moment though because the girl in question is written like an adult woman in both her personality and actions. It reads like this was written as a normal story between two adults and then someone decided in order to sell it to the Japanese light novel crowd they just had to spice it up. Something like an editor saying “Just throw in a line or two that she is 15, no need to change anything else, and we will sell 10 times as much, muhahahaha”. Another criticism I have is that the protagonist is a bit too simple for my taste. But at least he isn’t dumb and oblivious like so many LN/anime protags. Anyway, the setting of the story is the interesting part. There is an emphasis on non-standard cultures within a standard fantasy setting in the form of a nomadic Oni tribe. Something that I really enjoy in Coking With Wild Game for example. And there is a bit other demi-human cultures as well. Hopefully there is more of that in future volumes. - 7/10
If I had to pick I prefer a well written simpleton over a failed attempt at writing a genius. Plus the MC to me seems about par for the course given he spent almost his entire life at war. Haven’t finished the Volume yet though so I can’t say anything definite about that.
Yes, absolutely. That’s why I especially pointed out that MC isn’t dumb like many other MCs - just a bit simple. It’s just that for my taste I would prefer MC a bit less simple. He doesn’t need to be a genius, but :
spoiler
if he at least had at least recognized that something wasn’t right with the Kingdom officials just dropping him off in the grasslands without anything, I would have been able to emphasize more with MC. No need to outwit the officials, but at least realizing that he is getting like being screwed would have gone a long way. His soldier background could have been the reason why he wouldn’t speak up and just accepted his fate in that case.
Well, that’s just an example. Like I said, I like the first volume, but I hope MC wises up somewhat going forward.
So You Want to Live the Slow Life? A Guide to Life in the Beastly Wilds, Vol. 3 - Ah yes, the textbook about preserves that mimics as a light novel. Not gonna lie, the actual amount of plot in this volume wouldn’t fill more than maybe one chapter. All the rest is an endless essay about cooking/preservation food. The setting of the series is endearing and I like the sidekicks, but the actual plot is thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread as a famous Hobbit would say. - 5/10
Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters! Volume 3 - A good volume. The series seems to have found its stride. The annoyances I had in the last volumes are mostly gone and a character that I didn’t like was also written out after half the volume. - 7/10
The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects: Volume 1 - Interesting first volume. There are definitive red flags with a middle-aged man marrying a 15-year-old girl at the forefront. I give it a tentative pass for the moment though because the girl in question is written like an adult woman in both her personality and actions. It reads like this was written as a normal story between two adults and then someone decided in order to sell it to the Japanese light novel crowd they just had to spice it up. Something like an editor saying “Just throw in a line or two that she is 15, no need to change anything else, and we will sell 10 times as much, muhahahaha”. Another criticism I have is that the protagonist is a bit too simple for my taste. But at least he isn’t dumb and oblivious like so many LN/anime protags. Anyway, the setting of the story is the interesting part. There is an emphasis on non-standard cultures within a standard fantasy setting in the form of a nomadic Oni tribe. Something that I really enjoy in Coking With Wild Game for example. And there is a bit other demi-human cultures as well. Hopefully there is more of that in future volumes. - 7/10
If I had to pick I prefer a well written simpleton over a failed attempt at writing a genius. Plus the MC to me seems about par for the course given he spent almost his entire life at war. Haven’t finished the Volume yet though so I can’t say anything definite about that.
Yes, absolutely. That’s why I especially pointed out that MC isn’t dumb like many other MCs - just a bit simple. It’s just that for my taste I would prefer MC a bit less simple. He doesn’t need to be a genius, but :
spoiler
if he at least had at least recognized that something wasn’t right with the Kingdom officials just dropping him off in the grasslands without anything, I would have been able to emphasize more with MC. No need to outwit the officials, but at least realizing that he is getting like being screwed would have gone a long way. His soldier background could have been the reason why he wouldn’t speak up and just accepted his fate in that case.
Well, that’s just an example. Like I said, I like the first volume, but I hope MC wises up somewhat going forward.