Genius in the Library: This Bookish Rookie Will Save the Day!, Vol. 1

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By Misa Aoi and Yoh Hihara. Released in Japan as “Toshokan no Tensai Shoujo ~Honzuki no Shinjin Kanri wa Boudai na Chishiki de Kuni o Sukuimasu!~” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Dawson Chen.

I’ve written several times about “sometimes you want McDonald’s”. This is not quite that. This is going to a place that you heard was pretty high-end, that served elite, expensive food. The sort of restaurant you’d dress up for. And it does look just like that. Nice ambiance, fancy waiters, impeccable service. And then you get your meal, and it’s… chicken fingers and fries. Now, don’t get me wrong. These are some of the best chicken fingers you’ve ever had, just the right amount of crispiness. And the fries are not only perfectly done, but just the style you prefer. You couldn’t ask for a tastier meal. But come on. You were expecting fancy French food in a wine sauce, eight courses, food for the elite. And you get freaking CHICKEN FINGERS? That’s sort of what reading Genius in the Library was like for me. It has Chicken Fingers at its center, and their name is Martina.

Martina is delighted. She’s passed the civil service exam, and is going to be one of the rare commoners who is allowed to work for the Crown. She is incredibly happy as this gives her access to MORE BOOKS. You see, Martina is a voracious reader, and has already read every single book in the commoner’s library, now she will be able to get to the Royal Library. And things go well, mostly! Her co-workers are mostly nice, except for That One Guy. She gets to be in the library whenever she’s not at work. And they don’t really find her photographic, perfect memory weird at all! Well, OK, yes they do, but in a good way. And frankly, it’s very good for the kingdom that Martina is there, as the monsters, which had been quieter recently, have been getting worse. A dark miasma is spewing them out. They may need to…

Well, that’s a spoiler, but one I was quite amused to see. It’s nice to come to this kind of book from the preparatory side. I really liked this book. The cast are nice, the pacing is good, and… well, OK, let’s talk Martina. I don’t like using a word that rhymes with Barry Blue, but yeah, Martina is pretty much perfect here. She’s not overly shy like, say, Monica Everett, she’s nice to everyone, her book learning translates perfectly to applied learning, she’s a natural born leader, even if she doesn’t realize it, and she rapidly has at least three guys (and one girl?) who seem into her. Hell, even the prejudiced guy who sneers at her does a 180 so fast in the middle of the book your head will spin. This plot is driven by one thing alone, to make Monica the greatest thing since sliced bread. If you hate that sort of thing, you’ll want to read another book. If you don’t mind it as long as it’s well written, enjoy your chicken fingers.

The book ends on a cliffhanger that I’m very interested to read. I presume we will not be changing main characters in Book 2, but you never know. For fans of Bookworms without any real flaws.

The Dorky NPC Mercenary Knows His Place, Vol. 6

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By Toryuu and hamm. Released in Japan as “Kimo Ota Mob Yōhei wa, Mi no Hodo o Wakimaeru” by Overlap Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Josh DM.

The highlight of each volume of this series continues to be John vs. the plot. The plot has John involved in major battles, John being highly desired by everyone around him, both professionally and personally, John being colleagues with most of the movers and shakers in the galaxy, John is the star of this book. John, meanwhile, considers himself “just a guy”, makes sure to be one of the nameless mercs involved in battles, avoids interaction with other women as much as he possibly can, with the exception of his friend Gonzalez, who is a man in a woman’s body. John resolutely regards getting recruited as being a huge hassle and a mistake. And, as we see at the end of this volume, John is right. I wish that it didn’t come down to “I hate him because he is fat” as much as it does, but it’s also because, while the Empire is trying its best, nobles still think commoners are there to get glory for the nobles and then be sacrificed. No thanks.

What was implied in the last book becomes reality here: the Empire is at war with another Kingdom, who are very much on the “nobles rule, commoners drool” side of things. As such, John and most of the cast are corralled up to be part of the army fighting them, which mostly goes well until the kingdom shows off that they have a literal planet destroying weapon. John eventually does have to subtly ask for help there. The rest of the book involves the aftershocks of this war, as John’s “mind the store” mission goes south due to a sandstorm and robot dogs, and escorting a corporate group goes very badly as the group ends up killed, which leaves a bad taste in John’s mouth – he may be an NPC but he hates failure. Heck, even seemingly kind old men turn out to secretly be watching him very closely. As are the many women in this series.

Last time I avoided mentioning it, but I will briefly discuss the elephant in the room here, which is Scuna’s subplot. She’d been seen the least of the main girls, mostly as it’s just harder to find excuses to get her in John’s orbit. This works very well. It will probably also have repercussions down the line, and I’d worry about her chances of surviving if this weren’t a series with cover art like what we have. I also liked Shiora, and the fact that she was straightforward and earnest because, as the author says in the afterword, he already had a tsundere in the group with Fialka. John’s advice on how to be a great pilot like him amounts to “do it over and over and over again”, and I hope we see more of her. I also liked the Mei Hatsume addition to the cast. Every light novel seems to get its own Mei Hatsume these days.

The next volume in the series came out in Japan literally two days ago, so we’ll be waiting a bit. Till then, assuming you don’t mind a harem that goes nowhere due to the lead’s total lack of interest, this is great fun.

Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? On The Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 15

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By Fujino Omori and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka? Gaiden – Sword Oratoria” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

This series, as well as the main one it’s spun off from, really requires the reader to remember who everyone is, which is tricky as there are eleventy billion characters in it. So you either get a spreadsheet going or you hope that the series comes out every three months like it used to. Well, bad news and good news on that front. The bad news is that it’s been a year since the last Sword Oratoria, and even worse, that was a prequel. The good news is that Japan had a “year of Danmachi” a while back, with books galore, and we are starting to see the output of all that over here. We had the main series volume two months ago, which ended with the same cliffhanger we see here, only from Bell’s side. And now we get to find out what led to that cliffhanger… well, after half a volume of comparative fluff. The author has to save the pain for the end.

Loki Familia are headed back into the Dungeon, down to the 60th floor to take care of the plot that’s been driving this spinoff once and for all. They know that they’re plenty strong, but are they strong ENOUGH? So they grab Tsubaki, and a powerful healer, and even some Freya Familia folks who reluctantly come along, mostly to protect Riveria. Notably absent is Bell, who they want to take along but the plot of the main Book 20 will explain why he doesn’t. They head on down, and the second half of the book is basically pure horror – and I mean that literally. There’s spider monsters who do some nasty things to two of the party members, there’s souls trapped in anguish, there’s souls fractured into multiple pieces. And there’s the corrupted spirit, who has one goal and one goal only: Aiz.

This series has ping-ponged back and forth with its central character. Lefiya was so much a parallel to Bell that it was hard for the author to resist. The Big Three of the Loki Familia all get to be very cool. And frankly it’s more fun to write the comedic, air-headed side of Aiz, which works better when she’s not the focus. But this spinoff is meant to be about her, and so when the big danger comes Aiz is the one who has to take the brunt of it. Along with, well, most everyone else. And that leaves, oddly, Raul. He’s been a supporting presence throughout this series, being the guy who’s always scared – of adventuring, of expectations, of confessing to his best friend – and now that cowardice is his best weapon… and I hope that everyone eventually realizes that, because boy, everyone in Orario really really hates him right about now.

So yeah, things are VERY VERY bad right now. Fortunately, the next book in the main series should help, and it’s out in 5 months. Also fortunately, the spinoffs keep coming! Did you enjoy Astraea Record? Did you wish there were more novelizations of that game? Do you like the Bell/Lefiya crack pairing but wish it was also incest? Great news on all counts! See you in a month.