@jazzyjeoff

Haha guillotines do not leave scars. Yes, I think Mia would think something like that.

What a truly strange sequel to a truly strange book. The last thing I was expecting was for Grand Sumo Villainess to get another volume, and I was even more surprised to find it fully abandon its villainess isekai trappings to go all-in on comedic fantasy worldbuilding instead. It works just as well, since the original was never super invested in its villainess parody concept to begin with, and the whistle-stop tour of the quirky spins on staple fantasy lands works better for how lightly the story takes itself. It was a good time.

I went into this part completely expecting that it was going to make me cry. I knew it was the wedding and I'm a sucker for sappy romance stuff like that. But I made it all the way through the wedding ceremony without tearing up.

But then the little girl approached her during the parade and told her she was going to be a doctor. THAT's when I lost it. Good old visit from the onion ninjas. That sudden realization that yes, she really was inspiring people must have meant the world to Rosemary. I assume that little girl is the one who went on to be called the saintess in the flash-forward at the end.

Volume 3 (Premium Edition): A Bonus Short Story Little Selene's Big Adventure

@Zeteni said in A Pale Moon Reverie Vol. 1 Discussion:

@Pieta I don't tend to read series where that's the case so I'm curious how Sari compares to other female leads in those situations. While accounting for her working relationship with Eid I found she did a good job expressing her desire to maintain a distance from him. If not to him directly then at least to us, the readers. This is why I wasn't really entertaining the idea that the story was trying to present him as a problematic suitor.

It's not that I thought he had any chance with Sari, but it was her disinterest that disqualified him in my eyes, not his behaviour, despite being way over the line in many many ways. After all I've seen too many times that being way over the line might not be enough for an author either.

The genre of romance as a whole tends to have an unhealthy amount of "No means Not Yet" or "No means Pursue Me Harder". Which, I guess, brings us to the question of how other female leads might deal with these situations - and the answer is often that it doesn't matter, because "women don't actually mean what they say" is also something that appears way too often.

As you can probably tell I have something of a love/hate relationship with the entire field of romance. (:
The worst are those with interesting women who draw me in, only for the men to disgust me on arrival with no concept of consent. Reverie is absolutely golden in that regard.

Also I finished my review at about 1100 words: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/13otadt/rt_a_pale_moon_reverie_fantasy_romance/. It was incredibly difficult because so many of the things I really wanted to discuss hinge on knowing the big reveal at the end of the first story. Obviously spoiling that is a no go.

Nicely said. And I agree, not wanting to spoil anything makes it pretty hard to discuss the books.

@Rahul-Balaggan said in Haibara's Teenage New Game+ Vol. 3 Discussion!:

Volume 3 (Premium Edition): A Bonus Short Stories By the Riverbed with Hondo Serika

Fun story.

Am I supposed to read anything into the decision to use the frequent use of the term 'riverbed' rather than river in this bonus story?

Generally this term refers specifically to the bed (bottom) of a current/former river rather than the river itself.

Volume 7 (Premium Edition): Bonus character sketches

@Almond-Magnum I suppose any shape can be a triangle if you ignore enough sides...

Volume 1 (Premium Edition): High resolution color illustrations

I have to say, if you've seen the Faraway Paladin anime and were even a little interested in it then read the LN or Manga. The anime is the worst of those three by a large margin - I think I like the LN the most but the manga is also exceptional.

S Rank Daughter is also very good. I'd recommend that in a heartbeat.

Der Werewolf was a lot of fun but I got behind around volume 9 and never caught back up. It got a bit same-y and I don't know if it ever recovered (though I know a few volumes later it changes MCs).

Sorcerer's Receptionist is fun. I liked it, but it's more fairy tale than fantasy in a lot of places.

Unwanted Undead has been covered in this thread, but the manga is great.

I can't say much about the others.

How old is Aoi in this volume? I thought she was still 20 (and Kiyotaka 25). The drinking age in New York has been 21 since the mid 1980s.

@Aglovayne It just came out a month or so ago in Japan.

Don't expect it until Summer at the earliest.

@myskaros said in Reincarnated Mage Vol. 2 Discussion!:

@Terabyte 5 more volumes; there's a X.5 volume in there.

Oh, true. I only looked at the last volume's number, but I see I missed there's a 4.5 volume. 😮

Volume 8 (Premium Edition): A Bonus Short Story Those Two, Back Then

@rkkn and if he let Levi deal with all the problems people would say that he’s using her for her powers. Which Yuki has consistently made the point of not doing. He’s constantly wanting to be seen as her equal, especially by her.

It has been stressed that Lefi was bored with life and probably suffering from extreme depression, but Yuki has saved her from it by doing the unexpected. Like trying to ‘protect’ the strongest being we know from what she’d consider an insect dragon . Most would probably let her handle it because of her overwhelming strength, but he decided to intervene, which she thinks is endearing.

It’s also better story telling. If Yuki let Lefi do everything there’d be virtually no story. Unlike other isekai with an OP MC that’s having to learn and adjust to a new world and powers Lefi comes off as having had her powers for an incredibly long time and would just solve every problem in a second.

And that's the end of volume 6. I was expecting more Tessa, but we got the author's notes instead. Too bad. 😔

@Ran said in Survival Strategies of a Corrupt Aristocrat Vol. 1 Discussion:

She's the kind of character I love to read about but would hate to ever meet.

I hate those type of characters, period. I find their functions can easily be taken over by other archetypes that are much less grating. You can still have intense conflict without the introduction of this type of character, and it just sours the story for me. Have to shave off a few points from the evaluation after her introduction.

As far as meeting them IRL, I've had my run-ins (extreme Cluster B types), and I will say this: RUN. Run as if you were being chased by Satan himself trying to drag you down to the deepest layer of Perdition.

If they manage to block off all means of escape and leave you with no other choice, then Minecraft them before they Minecraft you, and make it look like an accident.

Okay, I'm only half-joking about the Minecrafting part, but still, point is: RUN TO THE HILLS AND RUN LIKE HELL. RRRRRUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN.

Just as well-known as Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle

OK, that's a bit of a stretch Aoi, considering I actually thought it was a fake in-universe author until I googled them and found out they were real.

I thought that part was pretty accurate

Dead on with this take though.

Male lead low self-esteem is a painfully overused trope in light novels, but I feel that with Holmes it's presented a lot more naturally and believably than in most cases. We know he's extremely talented, the rest of the cast know he's extremely talented and he also knows he's extremely talented, but it's not in any of the areas he really wants to have talents, so he can't help but look down on himself all the same.