The Economics of Prophecy - General Discussion
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I tried to match the topic's title to the desired standard of Rahul. @ mods > feel free to change it/edit tags etc.
The feeling I got with the novel started quite unusual, after getting used so much to coloured illustrations that in some series like "Isekai Smartphone" or "Potion Loli" they are more a bother to me than welcome. That does not mean I consider it bad or better than they are missing with this novel - it is just different. In fact, if JNC or the original publisher intends to publish extra illustrations for the English release, I would love JNC to have it re-negotiate to have bonus stories instead.
The story-telling started very similar and yet quite different to the recent light novel I read The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Hey, How About Treason?). At least I could not shake the feeling of how similar the concepts of those two novels seem to me.
However, I liked The Economics of Prophecy definitely more, so far. Only the first volume got released so far, after all.
My personal opinion is based on the fact, that with The Economics of Prophecy there are less of those "magically filled plotholes" - I do not know the English term for that - where problems are magically solved many pages later by having someone doing something in the background without letting the reader know.The descriptions of the intentions and the plans of the main protagonist are far more detailed, and the concept of using - school education again - economics knowledge to solve a "magical problem" is quite appealing.
Plus while it is isekai, the main protagonist does not seem to be gifted (aka overpowered in godlike means) - at least for now.
I am looking forward for the second volume while being unsure how the author is intending to continue the story. Whether the stories takes place in an annual matter, for the prophecy was an annual event, or if the princess responsible for the prophecy start to use the magic device more due the successful events in the first volume. The hints about the political tensions are quite obvious as well.
What do you think of the story and the novel itself?
Do you agree or disagree with the lack of illustrations?
What do you expect where the overall story is going?
Mayhaps anyone knows the term I was looking for?
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I personally like the approach they took in the first volume, developing an experiment in order to prove the validity of the prophecy, highlighting the importance of information and statistics. I'm such a sucker for that.
About illustrations, I'd have loved them for the first volume, I remember thinking "At least let me see Mia!!!" Thank God that plead was answered with vol. 2 lol.
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V1 was OK, I wish they focused more on the economics and finance, rather then spend so much of the volume on the prophecy.
It was like 75% prophecy, 25% economics, wish it was more of a 50/50 split.
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I really enjoyed this one. I actually found it refreshing that they skipped ahead of the initial isekai stuff for once. We've seen enough "truck-kun victim origin stories" for a lifetime at this point.
I actually really liked the whole prophecy thing. I thought it was an interesting mystery with a touch of fantasy science that was a lot of fun. The economics part felt somewhere between a little half-baked and overly obscured for me. Several times in those parts I actually got lost as to what was going on.
I'm also looking forward to seeing more of the relationship between the MC and the princess.
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By the end I turned disappointed that the solution was made sound so simple as counting tree rings.
It was definitely refreshing/different in so many ways compared to other isekai, that it surprises me to a certain degree such kind of novel is also being picked up by JNC. It gives somewhat hope for other "niche"-like-types.I did not really miss the illustrations, despite they are nice to have to "save" some "imagination-efforts" when it comes to picturing characters or locations and items.
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@serah I don't think it's fair to call taking advantage of the principle behind tree rings, analyzing the past few years data, secure a control sample to verify whether the tree rings actually work and only then proceed with the experiment as just "counting tree rings"
When tree rings came up in the first volume, I was fully expecting them to go "hurr durr tree rings, just use your magic paper on it and count," and I rolled my eyes, but they provided with a thorough experiment that has enough grounds to be believable. Modern-day logic applied to magic settings usually goes down to "basic chemistry and physics applied to elemental magic," this on the other hand was a fairly decent depiction of the scientific method applied to a totally fictional energy source, and it managed to keep my suspension-of-disbelief. That was a total win for me.
And about the saving imagination efforts, I find that quite important as we were already given a cover with character designs, so I find it really hard to imagine by myself characters to go with that style. Had we not been given any character design, it'd be much easier to just picture the characters, but having seen the cover, my brain just defaults to those designs and however I might imagine the other characters, they just don't go well with the artstyle.
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It was the application of the scientific method, more so than the science itself, that was neat to see. You don't see "true" science in a fantasy novel very often.
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I got a question but what's the statut of this serie ? did it got axed or something ? I'm concerned about the lack of new release by now already . still no sign of vol .3 and I feel its been quite a while I've read vol 2 .
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Unfortunately, we do not know what the current status of the series is. There does not seem to be a new volume planned for release in Japan yet.
