Slayers: Hatred in Selentia

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By Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

At last, I have something to talk about. That is not a good thing. The Slayers novels are fast-paced, action-packed, have some interesting fantasy plotting, and Lina and Gourry are fun, but let’s face it, the reason this series is beloved is that the anime took the characters and fleshed them out, made them human. Character development and deep emotional pain is not something that Kanzaka specializes in or is good at. And that’s going to be a problem with this book, whose second half relies entirely on the death of a beloved character and said death driving another character to an extended murder spree, one that I suspect may continue in the next book. There’s just one problem. The emotional impact is taken as read. The author assumes we will be devastated when this character dies, but mostly we’re merely surprised at how fast and pointlessly it happened. And the roaring rampage of revenge is more of a mildly simmering rampage of revenge. Slayers runs on snark and fighting. When there isn’t either of those, it gets into trouble.

Lina and Gourry come to Selentia, a city where religion is the biggest mover and shaker. There’s a high priest as well as four other slightly lower priests. Unfortunately, the high priest has just burned to death in an “accident” that no one thinks is an accident. Lina and Gourry are hired by the Sorcerer’s Guild to investigate, and find that there’s a lot of motive but not a lot of evidence. That is until we get more killings happening. What’s more, Luke and Mileena are here again, being hired bodyguards for one of the priests. Can Lina and Gourry figure out what’s happening and stop it before the entire city turns into a blood-soaked canvas? Answer: no.

Kanzaka apologizes to readers in the afterword for Amelia and Zelgadis not being in this, but for the wrong reason. He states that if they’d been there, they could have healed the fatal wound and thus avoided everything that came after. That said, I think the bigger problem is: this should have been Zel and Amelia, not Luke and Mileena. After being introduced in Book 9, the two of them have had “replacement scrappy” written all over then, despite occasional attempts at depth. Frankly, if Kanzaka had simply used Amelia and Zel in Book 9-14, and had Amelia killed off and Zel go on a rampage, the impact would have been much greater because we actually care about them. And, see, I say that, but I can’t bring myself to believe that either. Because Mileena’s death is so fast, so lame, and so emotionally void that it took me a while to realize it had happened. Kanzaka cannot write depth. And that means this book winds up suffering terribly, because it’s where depth is needed the most.

This second “arc” in the S;layers series will end in the next volume, and I suspect will wrap up Luke’s plot as well. I hope it’s filled with cool action sequences and magical battles. Because really, why else would you read this?

Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!, Part 4: Founder of the Royal Academy’s So-Called Library Committee, Vol. 7

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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.

Each of the parts of this series expands and builds on the one before it. We begin with Myne pretty much confined to her tiny home and the immediate area around it, and this expands when she starts doing her paper thing and meets Benno. Then we expand into the temple environment, where we see our first exposure to the religion of this world, Myne’s role in it, and noble society, where there is a chasm so great that Myne has to die and Rozemyne has to be born in order for the plot to move forward. The third arc gives us all we want to know about nobles and their infighting, and ends with Rozemyne in a two-year coma. In the fourth arc, we move to the Royal Academy and begin to see Rozemyne seriously influencing people beyond her duchy, up to and including the royal family. We’ve still got two more books after this, but after this one I think we all know where things are headed. Civil war.

Rozemyne may spend the first half of the book away from the Academy, but that does not mean that this is a laid back and relaxed sort of book. Things get serious right away when she reads the Bible, trying to find the bits of the Book of Exodus describing how to build an altar (this world, alas, does not seem to have that), and finds that she can suddenly see a magic circle hovering over her Bible. Ferdinand is so unnerved by this that he urges her to never mention it to anyone or even remember she saw it… but then she has to give testimony about all the cool things she did in the previous book, and admit that she learned dark spells form the Bible she has… which is not the same as the Bible other duchies have. This almost sparks a holy war, and I’m pretty sure we aren’t done with it. But I suspect that the terrorist attack we get at graduation time will distract people from it just a tad.

There are many funny moments in this book, not least of which is the introduction of the perfect partner for Hartmut, a woman who is just as obsessed with Rozemyne as he is AND able to threaten to kill him with a knife. Every man’s dream. That said, it’s hard not to focus on the more serious parts. The attack is harrowing, and has a body count… though the body count is not from Ehrenfest, which sadly, given the way nobles think in this world, means they’re actually under suspicion. We also get a prologue showing us how much stress Hannelore is under merely by being in Rozemyne’s orbit, and an epilogue showing us the tragic past of Eglantine is even more tragic than we had previously been told. I have a sneaking suspicion that Eglantine’s pacifism is going to tie into future books, and I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.

If you’re reading this series and wondering if you should pick up Book 19, you don’t need my review. But I’ll tell you anyway: yes, you should pick up Book 19. This remains a top-tier light novel series.

Forget Being the Villainess, I Want to Be an Adventurer!, Vol. 3

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By Hiro Oda and Tobi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijou wa Boukensha wo Kokorozasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Kim Louise Davis.

One of the gimmicks in My Next Life As a Villainess is that every reader laughs at Katarina continuing to prepare for her own doom, as they know that if she’d just relax and enjoy life with her harem, everything would be fine. Of course, later volumes show that’s not actually true. One of the things we’ve seen about villainess novels is that the narrative does not like being flouted, and will do its very best to make sure our villainess dies as she’s supposed to do. And few series have quite gone as hard about it as Forget Being the Villainess, I Want to Be an Adventurer!. Even though last book ended with Serephione safely ensconced in another kingdom, and with a fiance who adores her, there’s still the “heroine” to deal with. And this heroine may be the nastiest, most evil one we’ve seen to date. actually, that may be the book’s one big flaw: Maribelle gets no tragic backstory she’s just The Adversary.

As Serephione settles into her new kingdom, various parties try to bring her back to the old one. Her family is OK with her being there as long as she’s safe, though they want to actually see her again. But when the first prince comes himself to beg her to side with him, and her grandmother is cursed and nearly dies, it becomes apparent that there’s no real way of getting out of this throne war. Especialyl when the king is a drugged puppet, the queen is getting revenge on everyone, Schneider is still trying to destroy the book series he hated when he was back in Japan, and Maribelle… well, Maribelle remains a bit of an evil in the shadows until she’s finally forced to come out. When she does, it’s time for a magical duel, which normally Serephione would have no problems with, but Maribelle has the power of a different god on her side.

I get the sense that the writer of this book wanted to go for the tragic ending but the publisher made them stop. The ending, with Serephione resolving to be reincarnated as a warm breeze to always follow her beloved (and woe, that’s an absolutely wonderful moment) feels a lot more valid than what we actually get, which is “remember that scene where you wished on a star? No? Well, we’re cashing it in.” I was also annoyed that Erza came back, as I wanted her to, only to essentially be written out of the book due to Maribelle’s curse. That said, as I mentioned above, the biggest flaw in this book is that Maribelle is a one-note antagonist, whining and screaming when things don’t go her way. She gets the “love interests” on her side due to the power of the narrative, but I would have appreciated at least a little better idea as to what drove her to this.

So, in the end, a flaws series, but I was happy to read it. Three volumes seems just about right. Recommended for villainess fans.