Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!: Short Story Collection, Vol. 1

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By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

I’m sure some of you are thinking “didn’t we just have the Royal Academy SS book in July?” and yes, we did. This particular volume thus focuses on everything but the royal academy. That said, what it actually appears to be is that readers were curious and vocal enough about all the extra stories the author had written for store giveaways and the like that it was decided to bundle them up into this collection. There’s even some double-dipping, be warned, as several of the stories features here were also in the 2nd fanbook. That said, I enjoyed this book a great deal, mostly as it makes you realize the basic core premise of this series: Rozemyne has made everyone’s lives better, and without her their lives are very difficult. This is especially true after the first quarter of the book, when we get into the books in Part 3 and 4 of the series. Nobility is a drag.

Did you know Rozemyne has grown nearly eight inches since the first book in the series? I did not, fun fact. She’s still far too short, though. The early stories in this collection are from the POV of Gunther, Tuuli and Lutz as they have to deal with a Myne who is suddenly very different from what she used to be. There’s also a story with Wilma and Rosina, showing us Rosina’s frustration and selfishness. After that, though, it’s all nobles all the time, including nobles we’ve never even met, as two sort-of-Veronica faction sisters meet up and discuss the performances that Rozemyne and Ferdinand did, the sweets that they ate, and the fact that the Veronica folks could not go. (You do have to wonder if these two were later purged, though apparently a later fanbook says they were spared.)

The best stories in this book come near the end, with extended time devoted to Cornelius, Philine and Charlotte. Wilfried also gets a story, but it only serves to remind us of his painful naivete, and the fact that his attendants all seem to be evil. Charlotte in particular is well aware of this, but is also aware that the way things played out she’s lost the competition to be Aub without ever showing off her smarts, and it’s truly annoying. It’s annoying to the reader too, because we like Charlotte a lot more than we do Wilfried. The Cornelius chapters take place right after Rozemyne’s kidnapping and coma, and as you can imagine feature a lot of “it’s all my fault”, but give a good look at an underwritten character. As for Philine… god, her life sucked. I’m so glad she’s out of there now. The book is also very good at showing the class strata and how you can and cannot deal with things… and how Rozemyne tramples all over that. She saved Charlotte because Charlotte is her cute little sister and was in danger. This BAFFLES everyone. Family is something very different in this world.

So good stuff, but be prepared to dislike Wilfried even more. Something’s going to have to give there soon.

In the Land of Leadale, Vol. 8

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By Ceez and Tenmaso. Released in Japan as “Leadale no Daichi nite” by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jessica Lange.

The Leadale series does something that I very much appreciate… well, to an extent. It knows that readers may not always remember what’s come before, so has a handy summary of the series before each volume. That said… perhaps the summary can be shortened a bit in the future? By the time I read through what had previously happened in the first 7 books, I was already nearly 30 pages into THIS book. It needn’t pad out the word count so much. As for the book itself, it continues to have fun with its main joke, which is that Cayna sees the other powerful players in her old group as eccentric lunatics, and they see her as the exact same if not worse. But really, Leadale is the ultimate book for folks who just want to read the worldbuiding. So much of this series is about game mechanics, both past and present, and how to abuse flavor text or what happens when your last boss monsters get unsealed. The gaming really is the plot.

Cayna is invited to help guard the princess as she and her fellows go out on an educational camping trip (a plotline also done, almost note for note, in Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear). Unfortunately, she also has a job she has to do for Opus, checking out the stability of a barrier holding back the last boss monsters mentioned above. The second mission quickly outstrips the first, and the school trip has to be rapidly cancelled. (The entire purpose of the trip seems to have been to introduce Exis’ little sister, who was also a player and thus is also in Leadale. That said, they need all the players and strong NPCs they can get, as the barrier is finally breaking, and bad things will overrun the kingdom if they don’t stop them. What’s more, if Cayna dies, the whole “game” part of this world goes away forever.

The connection between this world and Cayna has been its strongest mystery, still being revealed to us, and the most interesting part here is the fact that the players that have ended up inside Leadale is a figure much larger than the players who were actually active when the game shut down. Cayna has no idea why this is, and apparently Opus doesn’t either. As for the rest of the book, well, if you like Cayna being Cayna, it’s fun. She overreacts, she terrifies people, she will brings out a terrifying monster to act as a blanket so she can be warm when she sleeps. And, since the book is from her point of view, we as the reader don’t regard it as oddly as everyone else who deals with her. It doesn’t help that she’s now getting fangirls, thanks to players being too glib when creating their “children”…

The book ends with a cliffhanger, as our players are still in the midst of a big battle against a monster horde. Sadly, this is the final volume out in Japan as well, so we’ll be waiting a while before we continue. Probably long enough that I’ll need the 30-age summary for Book 9.

Young Lady Albert Is Courting Disaster!, Vol. 1

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By Saki and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Albert-ke no Reijō wa Botsuraku o Goshomō Desu” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Ray Krycki.

As everyone knows, we are at the height of a villainess boom right now, with seemingly every single new villainess title getting picked up for publication. That said… are they really new? I looked to see when Young Lady Albert Is Courting Disaster! began as a webnovel, and it debuted in late July, 2014. For comparison, My Next Life As a Villainess debuted in EARLY July, 2014. And the light novel itself had its first volume published in 2015. That said, unfortunately, its translation is being published in 2023, and therefore the reader may have to stop themselves from sighing and saying “total ripoff”. It’s not, really. What’s more, the plot of this is almost the inverse of My Next Life As a Villainess. Katarina Claes does wacky things to avoid getting killed/exiled, and despite these she wins the hearts of everyone. Lady Mary Albert does villainous things to deliberately try to get exiled… and despite these she wins the hearts of everyone. Because at heart, they’re both great people.

Mary Albert is the daughter of a powerful noble house… and she’s just regained her past memories from Japan. She immediately tells her beleaguered manservant that Mary was the villainess in an otome game, doomed to be exiled to northern lands at the end after bullying the heroine for the entire game. Mary’s reaction to these memories is to say “Welp, guess it’s time to be a villainess” and break out her ojou-sama laugh and cruelest remarks. She quickly targets Alicia, the heroine, and verbally abuses her sense of direction… while directing her to the correct place. She viciously mocks her tables manners… by showing her the correct way to eat. Adi, her servant, is getting very frustrated. What the heck is Mary actually trying to achieve? Is there method to this madness?

Actually, yes, there is. I was suckered in a bit. The first third or so of the book is Mary Albert’s increasingly silly attempts to bully the heroine, and those same attempts failing miserably, because at heart Mary is a nice girl. It’s hilarious. Then Adi asks why she’s REALLY doing this, and things get a lot more serious. Mary turns out to be a lot more on the ball than I was expecting, and can see how her family’s political power, as the nation now is, is a massive liability for the future. Her goal, to achieve her ruin, is meant to sacrifice herself to save everyone else, which is impressive… if it were not for the fact that she’s STILL terrible at it. In reality, Alicia becomes her best friend, much to her horror. Oh yes, and there’s also the relationship between her and Adi. He’s clearly in love with her. She’s in love with him too, but as yet unaware. It’s a very solid romance.

This could have been a one-shot, but there’s more to go. Still, it’s a good old-school villainess book, for a good reason: it is old-school, being written long before most other pretenders to the throne. But, most importantly, Mary Albert is a hoot.