Memories of Another World in May

myskaros

For May's catchup, we've got an isekai (or adjacent) extravaganza! Strap yourselves in for a ride!

First off, a pair of standard isekai fare: finding yourself in a fantasy world and making the best of it! Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers stars a summoned hero who gets banished because he's too weak, only to awaken to his tremendous powers as soon as he levels up! Now he just wants to live a relaxed life in this new world, but will the kingdom or the demons let him do that? Then in the manga adaptation of Full Clearing Another World under a Goddess with Zero Believers, Makoto's entire class gets summoned to a fantasy world, but he alone is too weak to get sponsored by one of the human kingdoms. A mysterious goddess offers to help him out... but he finds out that he's her first, and only, believer! Can he achieve a full clear under these conditions, or will it soon be game over?

When it comes to medieval fantasy worlds, apparently you want to be anything but a duke's daughter... And our next pair features that misfortunate position! In Deathbound Duke’s Daughter, Erika Aurelia realizes that she's been reincarnated into a game's villainess who's fated to die in all seven of the game's routes! Can she use her wits, and her brother's ludicrously expensive magic tools, to survive? Then, Claire loses her engagement, her reputation, and even her reality as she realizes she's just a character in a video game, but that won't stop her from finding her own happy ending! Find out in Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke!

Finally, if you think of "world" as "planet," then Perry Rhodan NEO fits the bill too! As Earth slowly devolves due to various crises, the only hope for humanity is in science and the exploration of space. When a key moon base goes dark, it's up to Perry Rhodan to lead a rescue effort. However, his mission will have much deeper implications for the planet than anyone could imagine... Check out one of the most successful and longest-running science fiction series in the world!

That's 30 volumes of other worlds for members to dive into! And you don't even need to get hit by a truck this time!

Lily Garden

This where I shamelessly ~~threaten~~ ~~blackmail~~ persuade everyone to read Deathbound Duke’s Daughter as it is well written, has amazing art, and is (unfortunately) short.

I dearly love this series and always want more people to read it

geetop

@Lily-Garden

I read the first one (Deathbound) awhile ago and will definitely read the second volume!

I also started reading Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers.

How is Perry Rhodan?

MasterLillyclaw

@Lily-Garden Seconding the shameless persuasion :) it’s a great read, one of my favorites on JNC.

I also fell behind on Perry Rhodan since it released during a busy period for me, this will be a good chance to catch up, nice. @geetop I enjoyed what I read of it, so if you want to try a sci-fi series I think it’s worth checking out.

pcj

@Lily-Garden Indeed. Deathbound Duke's Daughter is one of the best reincarnated as a villainess genre series I've ever read. The protagonist is insanely intelligent, and actually acts like it (puts her brain to use, solves mysteries, figures out creative ways to sidestep the original plot, etc), and it's amazing. It's also unfinished. And I will celebrate the day a new volume ever comes out (which is way way way past due already :( )

HarmlessDave

@Lily-Garden I'll add my yes vote to the list. I'll continue to cling to the fading hope that we'll get a volume 3 someday. Mixed Bathing got 2, including the series conclusion, so it could happen, right? (Stop looking at me so pityingly! ::runs away crying:: )

PuckGoodfellow00 0

Pretty decent lineup this month. Nothing I've been in a particular hurry to read, but I have been wanting to check a few of them out. However, it might be like Dahlia where I fall in love with a series while it's on Catch up.

I do think I should try to convince my wife to read the Zero Believers Manga. I've been following the Light Novel since the first volume was released on Amazon. She prefers Manga though.

marcus_atticus

I can’t believe I never heard of Perry Rhodan, but I am glad it is on catch up! I’m looking forward to discover for myself what the German Sci-Fi is all about.

Gave this series a shot and it’s just not my cup of tea.

Edit: I should clarify as to why it is not my cup of tea. The parallel stories simultaneously running is interesting in itself, however my brain cannot keep up/ keep track of everything that is going on. The narrative itself jumps in time back and forth to orient the readers to specific events, however the writing does it extensively that I lose track of details as it reverts back to a specific point in the plot (this is akin to how my friend, and I lose track of what we were originally talking about as we go on a tangent). I'd like to get lost in the story while I am reading it, but I constantly have to traceback the who's who and the happenings quite frequently when reading it resulting into breaking the immersion.

wandering-dreamer

I just binged both volumes of Deathbound Duke’s Daughter and am DEEPLY offended that Futabasha decided to stop publishing the physical volumes, it’s still running as a web novel with over 200 chapters!!! Can’t believe I found an actually “cancelled” villainess isekai series and it’s a really good one to boot! OTL

Lily Garden

@wandering-dreamer it's a crime against literature that DDD was canceled, one of the few stellar villainess isekai series.

If I ever won the lottery there are three I would do:

bribe Futabasha to release the rest of the series
fund an anime adaptation
fund audiobook version of the EN translation

I think you get the picture of how much I love this series

geetop

I finished Deathbound and agree that the writing is very well done and did enjoy the story. I suspect that the age of the cast may be a bit off putting to others. The romance elements for 8 - 10 year olds especially considering the boys doesn't ring as true as a reader (I understand that Erika is actually mentally older to explain her maturity but the boys are not). I am assuming that sales were not that good? I wonder if the cast were teens if it would have done better?

Lily Garden

@geetop personally I like that main cast is all tweens, it's a nice change of pace for LNs and gives it that early Harry Potter feel

Blindside

Finished Deathbound Duke's Daughter, and I'm astounded that it only got 2 published volumes. The quality of the writing is just head and shoulders above the usual.

pcj

@geetop keep in mind that the story is being told from the perspective of a reincarnated person who is mentally much older than a pre-teen. And the boys are likely either in that "ewww, cooties!" or "hmm, maybe she's kind of interesting" phase and not really thinking about sex or romance. Note that they're all nobility, and would absolutely be thinking about marriage prospects from a political perspective, and someone with her kind of accomplishments would be a prime catch.

geetop

@pcj

I mentioned above that I understand Erika's maturity can be explained. I like the fact that she is affectionate toward the male leads but not truly interested in the boys romantically (in my mind) because she is mentally older then them.

I do not feel that way about the boys. They are ten and yes I could see one of them grabbing her to dance by pulling her along but kneeling in front of her is major romance. I was talking about sales of the book in my note above. Not my enjoyment of the story.

Now overall this is a fantasy so I just go with with the flow of the story and my comments are not meant as literary criticism. I wish the series would continue.

PuckGoodfellow00 0

I managed to get through everything that I really wanted to read this last month. I read through all of Level 2 Cheat Skill and Deathbound Duke's Daughter. Tried and failed to get into Formerly the Fallen Daughter of a Duke for the third time (I couldn't get into it when it was streaming last year). I re-read the Zero Believers novels recently enough I wasn't interested in reading the Manga, although I did take a look at it to see if I liked it too.

I wonder how June will work out for me this year with the catch-ups. Hey, it's been a year since I joined!

topgnu

@PuckGoodfellow00-0 said in Memories of Another World in May:

I managed to get through everything that I really wanted to read this last month.

I have observed that if I manage to read all catchup series I am interested in before the end of the month, the new ones are released on the 3rd or 4th of the month. When I am struggling for time to finish a volume or two, the new monthly catch-ups arrive on the 1st crisp.

PuckGoodfellow00 0

@topgnu said in Memories of Another World in May:

@PuckGoodfellow00-0 said in Memories of Another World in May:
I managed to get through everything that I really wanted to read this last month. 
I have observed that if I manage to read all catchup series I am interested in before the end of the month, the new ones are released on the 3rd or 4th of the month. When I am struggling for time to finish a volume or two, the new monthly catch-ups arrive on the 1st crisp.

I may have gotten to sleep really late for me because I wanted to finish Volume 2 of Deathbound Duke's Daughter....