A Pale Moon Reverie, Vol. 3

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By Kuji Furumiya and Teruko Arai. Released in Japan as “Tsuki no Shirosa o Shirite Madoromu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Jason Li.

The third volume of this series, as with the previous two, is very much concerned with people who are trying to control other people vs. people who want to live their lives freely, and it’s not a surprise that we’re very much on the free side. The bulk of the first two-thirds of this volume involves fighting against a god who really wants to have Sari do what he says, and is quite content to blow everything up if he can’t do that. We also have Xixu, hemmed in by his royal blood and his diligence to duty, who needs to be almost killed and possessed himself before he and Sari finally agree to make the choice we’ve been waiting almost 1000 pages for them to make. Even the last third, an epilogue, features a bunch of slave traders kidnapping people, or blackmailing them into evil. At the end of the book, one open ending has an antagonist, no longer being blackmailed, simply leave the city, unsure how to be free. Sometimes control can feel safer.

There’s war in other countries, but it hasn’t quite hit Irede yet. Unfortunately, as a result of the fight she had in the last volume, Sari accidentally left behind a pool of blood for the enemy to find – which the enemy can now use to essentially create a number of brainwashed assassins. A much more down to earth problem is that there’s a new guy showing up to the Pale Moon every day, and he wants to go to bed with Sari, and he is not taking no for an answer. And of course there’s Vas, now possessed by a God and very interested in making Sari give up her humanity and making Xixu dead. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that most everything that’s been happening to date is the god’s doing. As a result, it’s probably a very good thing that, after a bit more pouting and self-deprecation, our couple are finally ready to BE a couple.

So yes, spoiling the one question that everyone who’s read the first two volumes has, they do indeed have sex. Indeed, it’s possibly the most awkward first time ever, as due to all the machinations of the plot that have been going on, it also involves some death and resurrection. Which feels very fitting in a book with so many gods going on. Xixu remains the same awkward but heroic guy he’s always been, but it’s really striking how much Sari comes alive after she’s finally chosen Xixu as her life partner. The Epilogue section in particular shows her fully in control, kicking eight kinds of ass, and freezing bad guys in ice and then shattering them to bits. She’s gotten over her worries. I also liked the plucky young royal we saw here, introduced as a theoretical threat but in reality that’s defused almost immediately and she proves to be a savvy businesswoman with a good head on her shoulders – which is good, because she gets abducted. Abductions happen a lot in this series.

Fans of Kuji Furumiya should read this, of course, but it’s also a good read for those who are sick of isekai RPG-style fantasy and want something different. It also has a lot of cool sword fights, magic battles, and giant snakes. I loved reading it. And hey, a lot less death than I was expecting!

The Frugal Priestess Becomes a Saint

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By Hanami Nishine and Suzuka Oda. Released in Japan as “Isekai kara Seijo wo Yobe to Muchaburisareta Shinkan wa, Cost Performance no Tsugou de Seijo ni Naru” by Muchu Bunko Aletta. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Kashi Kamitoma.

I always like it when a book hits all the things I enjoy, though sometimes I have to remind myself that it’s fine because it’s fiction. The main romance here works because a) despite even the publisher labeling the Crown Prince a yandere, he’s very careful to go so far and no farther, so he gets to be extremely possessive and give chilly looks to everyone else, but around the girl he loves he’s a total soppy sweetheart. b) Fiona, our heroine, is as oblivious as a bag of things that don’t know they’re hammers, but because she’s so serious and dedicated, it’s refreshing. She lacks the ditzy quality we frequently see from this type, and it’s also very clear why she’s like this – she’s been carefully kept in a gilded cage for the last ten years. The reason for that, frankly, is not a mystery to the reader, but it is to her.

Fiona Everett is a talented priestess and aide to the pontiff. Unfortunately, the King has demanded that they summon a saint, mostly as the country next door has summoned one and he really wants to keep up with the Joneses. They already tried to summon a saint ten years ago, but it failed, and summoning one again will cost a great deal of time, manpower, and MONEY. So Fiona has an idea. Since saints traditionally have black hair, a rarity in this kingdom, and Fiona also has black hair, why doesn’t she says the spirit of the saint possessed her and she can act as a fake saint? The crown prince and the pontiff seem to go along with this pretty easily. Honestly, a bit too easily. And because Fiona is an overly serious, bookish sort, she’s decided she is the Saint of Cost Performance, balancing the books so that we see a lot more fixed bridges and a lot fewer replacement wigs.

So yeah, not to spoil too much, but Fiona actually has no memories from before she was ten years old, where she was taken in by the pontiff and also when the crown prince started doting on her. It does not take a brain surgeon to figure out the big secret everyone is covering up. The best part of the book is how the writing keeps Fiona both likeable and powerful without having to back off on her not understanding why Linus is kissing her hair, going with her wherever she goes, and having her sleep in his lap when she’s exhausted. This is played for humor, mostly in the coments from everyone around them who cannot believe she doesn’t get it, and it really is funny. Everyone calls Linus a sexual harrasser, which is true in terms of the letter of the law, I suppose, but it’s not as if Fiona ever tells him to stop either. Basically, she’s unconsciously in love with him the entire book. We also do meet another saint from a different country, who manages to be an absolute terror and makes me very happy Fiona decidedly does NOT regain her memories at the end of the book.

It’s also only one volume long, so even the series is cost-effective! If you can put up with clueless but studious heroines and handsy, possessive (but not sadistic) princes, this is a must read. Also, it has Fiona solve a problem by slapping someone in the face over and over and over again, which was glorious and I now want that in every book I read.

Demons’ Crest, Vol. 2

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By Reki Kawahara and Yukiko Horiguchi. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by James Balzer.

I’ve mentioned before that I am not a gamer, and what this means that most of what I know about MMORPGs and the like comes from these sorts of light novels. As you can imagine, what this has mostly ended up doing is filling me with a deep desire not to game. Because man, gaming can be boring. Or at least, gaming can be boring if it’s being written by Reki Kawahara. Usually I have no issues with his action scenes, but that’s mostly as they’re being taken care of by characters I’ve known for ten years. But this is a new series that unfortunately is not really doing as many different things as I’d like (he says in the afterword that this is basically the SAO game system but with character classes added), and so, like so many, other light novels of this type, it reads like the author wants us to read their weekly gaming log. There’s a plot in this, which may possibly be intriguing. But we get less of it this time.

Sawa has a secret to tell everyone, which is that she is, in fact, possessed by a demon. Unfortunately, the demon only has a few minutes to tell them what they have to do next: go back into the game itself and find their childhood friend Nagi, who is still inside it. When they do so, they find that the game is a lot more realistic than it had been when they were just playing it for fun, and also that Nagi may in fact be trapped by one of the big bads, which requires them to essentially sneak in and perform a series of near-impossible tasks to get anywhere near Nagi. And this doesn’t even get into the fact that there are various other bad guys trying to stop them. And even if they do find Nagi and get back to reality, reality still sucks at the moment. Fortunately, they do have the help of the handsome playboy (well, for a 12-year-old) Niki.

There is a rather interesting plot way at the back of this. Sawa is not the only one possessed by a demon – in fact, the entire cast may each have a demon inside of them, relating to Solomon’s Demons, a popular thing in games. And, of course, the demons are quite different from the kids they inhabit, which could possibly lead some of them into betraying their friends. I’m definitely more interested in this than I am in Sugamo, who is still trying to do his own little Lord of the Flies and establish that he’s the best and everyone else needs to be executed (we all know that’s where he’s headed). As for the game world, when they’re wandering around a town and interacting with suddenly interesting NPCs, it’s fine. But most of it, as I said, is battles that don’t advance the plot beyond “they win after struggling”.

The third volume of this series comes out in Japan next week, so it will be a bit, and perhaps I will forget how much this bored me before it comes out. This sentence is here to jog my memory. Stick to Kawahara’s other series.