Month: September 2024

Bofuri, Vol. 5 (LN)

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Bofuri, Vol. 5 by Yuumikan, Koin
Series Name: Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense. (Light Novel)
Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Magic, Sci-Fi, Slice of Life, Video Games
Intended Age Group: 13+
Publisher: Yen On/Yen Press
Edition: Paperback 
ISBN: 978-1-9753-2360-8
Rating: 3/5
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Description from the Book

After going toe-to-toe with two of the strongest guilds on the entire server, Maple Tree proved itself as a force to be reckoned with when they placed third overall in the latest event. That said, war isn’t all the guilds are good for! Maple and her friends have steadily grown closer to members of the Order of the Holy Sword and Flame Empire as their rivalries give way to something more. With new friends and powers, everyone is more than ready to dive headfirst into the newly released stratum!

Personal & Info

I have no more volumes after this one, so more reviews will be added after I get more.

Characters

Maple Tree

Kaede Honjou, player name Maple, is the main character. She didn’t play video games much until she tried New World Online. At this point, she’s starting to understand how to play games better. She still doesn’t like the pain system, so she puts ALL stat points into her defense.

Risa Shiromine, player name Sally, is Maple’s friend. She introduced Kaede to the game, and decided to follow her lead in making an overpowered build. Her primary stat is agility, and she has a special skill as a gamer to be able to handle fast movement and reaction times without any additional program assistance.

Kasumi is a katana wielding player that Maple and Sally befriended during the second game event. Her build is normal compared to Maple, Mai, and Yui.

Kanade is a mage player that Maple befriended during the second game event. His staff is a Rubik’s cube. He has an amazing memory, which makes him a uniquely skilled player.

Chrome is the Anonymous Great Shielder in the forums and Maple’s friend. He’s one of the best great shielders in the game, and his build is relatively normal compared to Maple.

Iz is a crafter that Maple met through Chrome. She’s one of the best crafters in the game.

Yui and Mai are twins only differentiated by their hair colors of white and black. They are Maple’s newest friends, and chose pure strength builds.

Oboro and Syrup are Sally and Maple’s animal companion rewards from the second event. Oboro is a fox, and Syrup is a turtle.

Flame Empire

Mii is a mage specializing in fire magic, with the nickname Flame Empress. She is a role player who is in too deep to quit.

Marx has the nickname Trapper. His specialty is setting traps, and he is eighth in player rankings.

Misery has the nickname Saint Misery. She’s primarily a healer, but she is tenth in player rankings.

Shin has the nickname Splinter Sword. He has a rivalry with Kasumi.

The Order of the Holy Sword

Pain is the top player on the server. He plays a holy sword knight.

Frederica is a mage specializing in aoe attacks. She has an ongoing rivalry with Sally.

Drag has the nickname Groundsplitter. He’s an axe wielder and tends to make Frederica cover his defense while he focuses on DPS. He is fifth in the player rankings.

Dread has the nickname Godspeed. He uses daggers similarly to Sally and appears to be faster than her. He also has a heightened sense of intuition for danger, which helps make him a formidable foe. His ranking from the first event is second.

Story & Thoughts

This volume covers a lot, and I actually have several gripes. First of all, there are two new stratums and two events. The book is not long, so there are significant time skips. It covers everything from roughly October through February. That’s a long time frame! And I don’t mean that in a good way. Despite the multiple content drops, it feels like hardly anything happens.

I think the biggest problem is the story might have too many characters. The first couple volumes are charming because they focus on two friends playing the game and having fun. Now, there is a long list of characters, which means more time has to be spent on individual quests and various group adventures. There are so many time skips, and adventures feel more glossed over. The new characters were interesting for the fourth event in volume four, but now they seem like a hinderance.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the story expanding with new characters. But, right now, they’re all very shallow. I want them to have more in-depth adventures to get to know them better. Chrome had one a while back, and Kasumi gets one in this book, but I don’t think that is enough for them. Most other characters haven’t had any at all, yet, and the group ones don’t quite feel the same since they just walk through everything. The characters have little to no challenge. Boss battles earlier in the series are more interesting and thrilling. The ones here feel a bit lacking in comparison.

The story is still fine and enjoyable. It just feels like there’s a dip in quality at the moment. I hope it goes back up in the next one or two volumes. Also, there are no admin or forum sections. I like those, and actually miss them. With two events and multiple boss battles, I thought there would be at least one, but there isn’t.

The Mummy or Ramses the Damned

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The Mummy or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice
Series Name: Ramses the Damned
Volume Number: 1
Genres: Historical, Horror, Romance, Supernatural
Intended Age Group: Adult
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 0-345-36994-7
Rating: 3/5
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Description from the Book

Ramses the Great lives….

Reawakened in opulent Edwardian London, he becomes Dr. Ramsey, expert in Egyptology and member of a group of jaded aristocrats with strange appetites to appease. But searing memories of his last reawakening, at the behest of Cleopatra, burn in his immortal soul. For he has drunk the elixir of life and is now Ramses the Damned, doomed forever to wander the earth, desperate to quell hungers that can never be satisfied. And his most intense longing of all, a great love undiminished by the centuries, will force him to commit an act of unspeakable horror….

Personal & Info

This book has several perspectives. Most of the important characters I listed have at least one section of their own perspective. I think Julie, Elliot, Ramsey, and Cleopatra take up the majority.

This was first printed in 1989, and takes place in 1914, so keep that in mind for any possible unsavory differences from modern culture. The phrasing of sentences throughout the book are a little strange in that they sometimes seem worded backwards. I don’t know if that’s just a thing from the time period or poor editing.

The series for this is a trilogy. The second and third books released in 2017 and 2022. They are The Passion of Cleopatra and The Reign of Osiris. The writing for them is probably a bit different, because Anne Rice’s son Christopher Rice worked on them.

Characters

Lawrence Stratford is an archaeologist who chooses to live his life chasing Egyptian secrets instead of running the family shipping business.

Julie Stratford is Lawrence’s daughter. Like her father, her interests are Egyptian history and archaeology. Lawrence describes her as fearless.

Randolph Stratford is Lawrence’s brother. He is currently in charge of running the family shipping business and is not doing a good job.

Henry Stratford is Randolf’s son and Lawrence’s nephew. He is the family disappointment, because of his gambling and drinking problems.

Elliot Savarell is the Earl of Rutherford. The family title dates back as far as Henry VIII. Elliot is a close family friend of Lawrence’s, and he is married to Edith Christian. He suffers from chronic arthritis in his hip and legs, which makes him have to use a cane. Elliot shares Lawrence’s love for Egyptian history.

Alex Savarell is Elliot’s son, the Viscount Summerfield. He is Julie’s unofficial fiancé. Everyone describes him as childishly innocent and kind.

Samir Ibrahaim is Lawrence’s archaeology assistant. He works for the British museum.

Ramses, known by the modern day alias Reginald Ramsey, is the mummy. He has many historical titles, such as Ramses the Great, Ramses the Damned, the immortal guardian, etc. Ramses is immortal, because he drank an elixir. He knows of no possible way to end his immortal life, so instead, he takes the occasional centuries long nap, kind of like a vampire.

Cleopatra, the historical Egyptian Queen, is basically Ramses’ ex-girlfriend. She refused the immortality elixir in favor of death to be buried next to her love, Antony.

Story & Thoughts

I had some trouble getting into this. It starts by going over the money problems Randolph’s side of the Stratford family and the Savarells are experiencing. It takes more pages than the average reader allows before it actually gets going, and the problems presented are so normal compared to what one would expect from a mummy story. However, once the mummy inflated and got moving, things became more interesting.

My rating is a tentative three, for a multitude of reasons. The first being, once things finally get moving, the story is actually kind of dull. The first half of the book mostly focuses on Ramsey learning about the modern world. He has to learn the language, and Julie takes him all over London to teach him about modern machines, customs, and history. Eventually, Ramsey wants to go to Egypt to see how his home has changed, but until then, the only really interesting parts are when Ramsey occasionally scares the crap out of Henry with simple conversation.

There are practically no thrills to the story. If you’re hoping for something similar to The Mummy movie, that’s not what you’re going to get. At best, there are a few specific moments of tension or suspense.

My biggest issue with the book is that the romance is not great. I really like some of the characters, but some of their backgrounds and personalities seem like a complete waste. On top of that, the men in the story are almost all promiscuous and unfaithful. The book handles the subject of sex very poorly. There is a conversation at one point where Ramsey defends Cleopatra’s character as a person and says there is more to her than just a seductress. This is completely invalidated by the story making Cleopatra have sex constantly with almost any man who talks to her.

Sometimes the characters feel deep and wonderful, but the way sex is handled just detracts from the overall experience. The relationships feel undervalued because of it. It’s like nobody appreciates anybody as much as they should. The only one who makes any reasonable love life decisions is Julie, and even then I don’t agree with her choices. Her choices regarding the elixir don’t make sense when paired with her desires and feelings. I won’t elaborate on this further due to spoilers, but her choices throughout the book don’t make much logical sense to me.

In general, the story is good. I understand the feelings and drama it’s trying to portray. I just don’t think it did a good job conveying it. It’s not worth it for me to look into any more of the series. I feel like I would be too frustrated to enjoy it, if the rest are anything like this one.

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Part. 1, Vol. 3 (LN)

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Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll do anything to become a librarian! Part 1: Daughter of a Soldier, Vol. 3 by Miya Kazuki, You Shiina
Series Name: Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll do anything to become a librarian! (Light Novel)
Genres: Fantasy, Isekai
Intended Age Group: Teen
Publisher: J-Novel Club
Edition: Paperback 
ISBN: 9781718356023
Rating: 5/5
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Description from the Book

Just as Myne gets her foot in the door of making paper, she collapses due to the sickness known as the Devouring. She’s getting better thanks to her friends and the people around her, but the Devouring remains clouded in mystery. As the world expands, so too does her passion for making books, and that passion could open more doors than she ever imagined!

Personal & Info

This volume was hard to find. It wasn’t in stock anywhere, including online. Only two Barnes & Noble locations in my entire state had a copy, and they were both an hour away in different directions. I ended up driving that hour with a friend to be able to get mine. After that I checked a couple volumes ahead and saw they were going out of stock, so I panic purchased the next two to be safe.

Up until now, there have only been one or two extra stories at the end of each book. This one has six. Three of them take place around the same time, of the same day, on the day of the cake tasting. They all seem significant, and likely all take place during the month Myne was given by the High Priest.

Characters

Myne, previously Urano Motosu, is the main character. She suffers from poor health, in addition to a deathly illness called The Devouring. Despite her poor health, Myne has become a cash cow for anyone who will listen to her marketable ideas.

Tuuli is Myne’s sister. She is one year older than her, and is very responsible and capable for her age. Her current occupation is seamstress’s apprentice.

Effa is Myne and Tuuli’s mother. She dyes clothes for a career.

Gunther is Myne and Tuuli’s father. He works as a soldier who guards the South Gate.

Lutz is Myne’s friend. He is the same age as her, and he looks after her like she’s his little sister. Thanks to Myne, he is now following his dream to become a merchant.

Otto is Gunther’s coworker. He handles all the important paperwork for the South Gate. Benno is his brother-in-law, because Otto married Benno’s sister, Corinna.

Benno is a wealthy merchant. He is Corinna’s older brother, and Otto’s brother-in-law.

Mark is Benno’s store manager. He teaches all of the apprentices they take on, and tends to important store matters on Benno’s behalf.

Corinna is Otto’s wife. She is a professional seamstress.

Freida is the granddaughter of the Merchant Guild’s Guildmaster. She has the Devouring, like Myne, and her family is exceedingly wealthy. Her passion is money, and she considers herself Myne’s best friend.

Leise is the home chef for the Guildmaster’s family. She is enthusiastic about her job and loves learning new recipes.

Story & Thoughts

The prologue starts with Freida’s thoughts while she fetches a magic tool from a safe. This is in reaction to Myne’s collapse at the end of volume two. Chapter one picks up the story with Myne waking up at the Guildmaster’s residence.

This is the most emotional volume in the series, so far. It seems to be the one they try to squeeze in all the hard family conversations. The chapter “Family Meeting” got me all teary eyed and choked up. In that chapter, Myne finally discusses the details of her illness with her family and addresses the only options available regarding her health. I didn’t expect that discussion to hit so hard, but it kicked me right in the feels. Additionally, Lutz finally gets to speak to one of his parents about becoming a merchant and they actually listen.

It’s not the most amazing light novel volume, but while reading it, I was absolutely certain I wanted to rate it a five. It’s flawed, but I had such a good time reading it. The High Bishop’s attitude was so over the top it was practically comical.

The whole church is hilarious. It doesn’t make any sense. Tuuli prayed once, and there was nothing unusual about it. The difference between how Tuuli prayed and how the children are taught at the baptism raises so many questions. Maybe the prayers differ by season or which season people were born in.

I am so hooked on this series. I love all the character interactions, and how even though it feels like the story is progressing slowly, it’s a joy to read. The more I read, the more I love the series. It’s definitely not something everyone would enjoy, but it’s stolen my heart.

Tuuli – Visiting Corinna

The first extra story is in Tuuli’s perspective. Myne, Effa, and Tuuli all go visit Corinna to show her Myne’s baptism dress and hairpin. Corinna expresses interest in the hairpin, so Benno must negotiate with Myne for the exclusive rights to sell them. Because of this, Tuuli sees her little sister at work for the first time and can’t believe her eyes.

Leise – Confectionary Recipe

This second story is in Leise’s perspective. It explains her background and motivations. She speaks to Myne before the cake tasting to get more information on how to make the cakes better.

Benno – Pound Cake Sampling

The third story is in Benno’s perspective. He attends the cake tasting and forms a rivalry with Leise as he vows to try to keep all of Myne’s recipe’s for himself, even if he has to train his own chef to do it.

Mark – The Master and I

The next story is in Mark’s perspective. It takes place immediately after the cake tasting. Mark’s backstory is revealed, as well as additional information on how merchant apprenticeship works. Their system uses contracts based around apprentices either being classified as “lehange” or “leherl.”

Benno discusses future business plans in this chapter that might become relevant or important later. Lutz is tangled up in anything Benno plans, so whatever he decides will likely effect him greatly.

The Life as an Apprentice Merchant

This extra story chapter is in Lutz’s perspective. It follows him through a normal day of his apprenticeship, from wake until sleep. He has some things harder than other apprentices, but some things are easier, so he seems to be managing just fine.

The Roots of the Guildmaster’s Worries

This last extra chapter takes place during the cake tasting. It’s in Guildmaster Gustav’s perspective. Everything we know about the Guildmaster has been provided by Benno. This chapter gives us the Guildmaster’s side of things. He expresses his frustrations and concerns regarding Benno’s many seemingly greedy, selfish, and reckless behaviors, while his assistant points out to him what things must be like from Benno’s point of view to make sure the Guildmaster understands the social blunders he’s made. It’s really kind of sad, because the Guildmaster has good intentions.

Warm Bodies

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Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
Series Name: Warm Bodies
Volume Number: 1
Genres: Dystopia, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic, Romance, Sci-Fi, Zombies
Intended Age Group: YA
Publisher: Emily Bestler Books/Atria
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1746-3
Rating: 3.5/5
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Description from the Book

R is having a no-life crisis—he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization.

And then he meets a girl.

First as his captive, then his reluctant house guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn’t want to eat this girl—although she looks delicious—he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.

Personal & Info

I saw the Warm Bodies movie back when it was new. I had no idea it was based on a book. Apparently, many don’t know it’s actually a series. The books seem relatively difficult to find after this one, especially the third and final volume. I suspect the advertising for them was poor. I only know about them because I was looking at this book online as a series listing.

There are no chapter numbers in this book. Each chapter gap has an anatomical picture instead of a number. There is text on the images, but most of it is small and hard to read. Aside from that, the book is divided into three parts that the book refers to as steps.

Characters

R is the main character. He is a zombie who lives in a 747 airplane at the airport. The story is told through his perspective.

Julie is the love interest. She is one of the few people around who still has any hope for the future.

Perry Kelvin is Julie’s ex-boyfriend who dies almost immediately. Despite that, he plays a large role in the story.

Nora is Julie’s best friend and roommate. She is also friends with Perry.

M is R’s best friend. He’s a tall zombie who, in my opinion, gives off some perverted vibes. He’s also one of the few who can speak with a decent vocabulary.

Colonel Rosso, I think, is second in command in the human settlement. He seems like a reasonable and capable man.

General Grigio is Julie’s father. He’s a strict military type in charge of the town’s security.

Story & Thoughts

I feel like this starts slow. It’s not long, but it takes a while to get going. It starts by integrating the reader into Dead society. The rules of how zombies work are kind of silly. Some of them can speak to a limited extent. They all seem to be able to understand human vocabulary. They have their own kind of church service. The Dead actually have a sense of community, if you don’t count the fact they don’t care when one of them dies. It’s all kind of weird compared to the usual zombie lore.

The story is a romance, but not in the sense of a typical romance novel. I guess you could say it’s a little bit Romeo and Juliet. Makes sense since they are a zombie and a human, but also because his name is R and hers is Julie. It’s a little on the nose. I’d categorize it as a slow burn.

More notably, the story is a philosophical delve into what makes a person human. There’s a lot of reflection about at what point someone stops being human. Julie obviously thinks of herself as human, but R also thinks of himself as human, despite being dead. The later insights into the theory of zombification’s origin are also based on the human condition. It’s an interesting spin.

I like the story. Once things got going, I was hooked. My only real complaint is that toward the end, when things were getting serious and urgent, they didn’t really know what to do. Things got a bit aimless, and the result was purely dumb luck. There is no real logic to what happens, but I don’t think it’s intended to make complete sense. If I liked it just a little bit more, I would have given it a four, instead.

The Wish List

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The Wish List by Eoin Colfer
Genres: Adventure, Demons, Fantasy, Ghosts, Supernatural
Intended Age Group: Middle Grade
Publisher: Hyperion
Edition: Hardcover
ISBN: 0-7868-1863-8
Rating: 3/5
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Description from the Book

Meg Finn is in trouble. Cast out of her home by her stepfather after her mom’s death, Meg is a wanderer, a troublemaker. But after her latest stunt, finding a place to sleep is the least of her worries. Belch, Meg’s partner in crime, has gotten her involved in the attempted robbery of an elderly man, Lowrie McCall. But things go horribly wrong. After an accidental explosion, Meg’s spirit is flung into limbo, and a race begins between the demonic and the divine to win Meg’s soul.

Meg’s really not a bad kid, but she hasn’t exactly been an angel either, so the tally of her good and evil deeds is dead even. Her only chance of tipping the scales to salvation is to go back to Earth and do good—specifically, to help Lowrie McCall. He’s got many regrets in his life to set right—a “wish list”— not much time left to do it. But even if Meg can persuade Lowrie to get mixed up with her, she’s going to have to deal with an even scarier, undead Belch—who’s now definitely on the side of the Devil.

A wild journey to the unexpected here-after, The Wish List is a heartwarming tale of a young girl’s last chance, and the love she will need to—quite literally—redeem herself.

Personal & Info

All I know about this book going into it is that it’s written by the same author as Artemis Fowl, which I have not read, but have heard good things about. This book seems almost out of print and is apparently not very popular, because it seems a little harder to find online. Barnes & Noble doesn’t even have it listed on their website as far as I can tell.

Characters

Meg Finn is the main character. The book has conflicting information about her age. She’s either twelve or fourteen. She has recently become known as a bit of a troublemaker.

Belch is kind of Meg’s associate or co-conspirator. He is sixteen, and a far worse troublemaker than she is, but he lacks intelligence. As the story progresses he becomes her enemy.

Franko Kelly is Meg’s step father. He reminds me a lot of “Smelly Gabe” from The Lightning Thief. If you’re not familiar with that, he’s basically a lazy mean slob.

Lowrie McCall is an old man with a heart condition with whom Meg must make amends with in order to save her soul.

Satan is, well, Satan. He’s the ruler of a hell and all that jazz.

Beelzebub is one of Satan’s senior demons. He takes orders directly from the devil himself and is under threat of losing his job.

Myishi is Satan’s tech support person. He wears designer suits and has a goatee similarly to his boss.

Elph is a computer program created by Myishi. His name stands for EctoLink and Personal Help Program. He appears as a floating hologram.

Saint Peter is the attendant who guards the Pearly Gates of Heaven. He basically makes the final decision on who gets in as far as this story is concerned.

Flit is a creature called a tunnel scraper or a mite. Mites are spirits of creatures who get stuck in limbo and must work a tedious job collecting baskets of soul residue in the spiritual tunnel system to earn a chance at reevaluation for entry to Heaven.

Story & Thoughts

I don’t have any strong feelings about this book. I like it well enough. It has all the traits and vibes for the age group. It’s corny in all the ways you would expect.

There are a few memorable things that might be worth mentioning. The main one, I think, is Belch. He has some body horror things happen to him. It’s not scary in the format of this book, but if seen on screen, I can see how it might be a bit frightening to some kids. The book wants Belch to be considered scary, an abomination, but it also wants him to be comic relief. It wasn’t funny to me, but I can understand how it would be to the intended age group.

The inconsistent age thing for Meg bugs me, and not just because of the age itself. So, first of all, there are several instances in the book where something is explained to her, and she is asked if she understands. In all of these instances, she says she doesn’t understand because she’s only fourteen.

It’s like a cop out response to avoid trying to understand, and at the same time making it sound like she is incapable of understanding due to her age. At least, that’s how I choose to interpret it. But, it seems unrealistic to me. I don’t think kids would bother with that kind of response. I have never heard of kids ever trying to make themselves seem less intelligent or inferior just because they are young. Realistically, it’s always the exact opposite.

As for the number of her age itself, I can’t help wondering if maybe she was including the two years she has been dead. That wouldn’t be right, because she can’t age if she’s dead, but it might feel more natural because it’s the number accurate to her birth. The main reason it bugs me is because she was supposedly fourteen for the whole book, but then the information way later about her time of death only adds up to twelve. I just don’t know if it was her counting from her birth while dead, or if something was overlooked in editing.

Aside from these few things, the book is good. I don’t know if I’ll bother reading it again, but it seems like a good children’s/middle grade book. There are demons in the story, and Saint Peter, but you don’t have to know a lot about the bible or anything to enjoy or comprehend the story.

Light Novel & Manga Haul July-August 2024

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About

I wasn’t going to have enough books for a haul, yet, but then I read a light novel I’d been sitting on for a while. I ended up loving it, and immediately had to get more volumes. Then, I found an out of print manga volume available for a decent price, so I had to get that, too. My expected three book pile turned into an eight book pile.

Everything in this haul, except one, is in new condition. Most of them were ordered from Amazon, but two of them came from physical stores.

Comics

Avatar: The Last Airbender: North and South

I bought this out of order, because it was on sale. I think this omnibus is sixth in the reading order. There are only two more of these that I don’t have. After that, I will probably have to move on to newer single editions or work on Korra’s comics.

What is it?

A comic omnibus of North and South that continues the story from the TV show, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Light Novels

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Vol. 2-5

This series is numbered a little strangely. It’s broken up into parts with their own volume numbers. These are indeed volumes two through five by the standard count. The volumes are Part 1, volumes 2 and 3, and Part 2, volumes 1 and 2.

Most of these came from Amazon, but volume three was a Barnes & Noble in-store purchase. For some reason, that volume was sold out absolutely everywhere, except for some websites that seemed sketchy. The stores near me didn’t have it either. I had to travel an hour away to get my hands on a copy. Only two Barnes & Noble locations in the entire state had it.

I’ve had volume one sitting around for a few years and only recently got around to it. It’s so good I feel like I can’t get more volumes fast enough. Thankfully, I’ve got three to work on, now, before I run out. I already read Part 1, volume 2, so reviews for that one and the first are already available.

What is it?

An isekai about a bookworm who wakes up as a five-year-old girl in a world where books are unobtainable by the general public, so she decides to make her own.

Manga

Black Cat, Vol. 18

I’m so excited to have this volume. This series is out of print, so some of them are expensive and hard to find. Now that I have this one, I’m only missing one more, and then I’ll have the whole series.

What is it?

An action adventure starring an ex-assassin gunman turned bounty hunter, and supernatural powers.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Vol. 5

This book went on a little trip. I bought it from a local store, while a friend was in town, and we shared a bag. We both forgot to take it out of the bag, so it went home with her, seven hours away. It’s back now, so I’ll be able to read it.

This volume came out August sixth, so my collection is currently up to date. Reviews for volumes one through four are already available. I’ll get this one up whenever I get around to it.

What is it?

An action adventure featuring spiritual duo companions and special powers as well as a generations old feud.

Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition, Vol. 5

I’m still working on a buffer for these. They should make a good spooky season binge at some point, likely not this year. I want a larger volume count before I get around to it.

What is it?

A fantasy setting where people are trained to be warriors called meisters and wield weapons, that are actually people who become the weapon. They collect tainted souls in hopes of someday turning their weapons into their ultimate form to be used by Death himself. Sometimes this task involves saving the world.

This series is said to be in the same universe as Fire Force, which I have not yet read.

Book Haul May-August 2024

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About

This haul encompasses the months of May through August. Obviously, I have not been buying many novels lately. Four out of five of these books are pre-owned. Three of them are from a local bookstore across town, one of them was given to me, and the fifth was ordered on sale from Amazon. Like my April book haul, most of these are by the same author with different pen names.

Miscellaneous

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Ultimate Guide

This book is multiple times pre-owned. A friend passed it along to me once they decided they no longer wanted it. It’s a bit battered and has some marker dots and smears on the cover, but the pages are clean. The design of the book itself is interesting. It has a lenticular banner image across the front, and a magnetic clip, kind of like a journal. The extra fold for the design choice will likely make it take more space on the shelf, so keep that in mind if you’re interested in getting a copy.

What is it?

The book is a companion guide for the Percy Jackson series. It’s is full of information about various characters and lore related things. There are also a few fun extra things, like Percy’s camp activity schedule. I’ve only done a quick flip through, but it seems like an interesting read to get more world building and reminders

Novels

Burning Cove, Vol. 6 by Amanda Quick

When She Dreams is the sixth volume in the Burning Cove series. Burning Cove is seven books long, and probably ongoing. The last volume released was in 2023.

I have the first book, but have not yet read it. I usually like about ninety percent of things by this author, so I grabbed this volume anyway. It saves me money in the long run, because I didn’t have to pay any shipping when buying from a local store that had it pre-owned.

What is it?

A historical romance mystery of some kind, possibly with paranormal aspects.

Eclipse Bay, Vol. 2 by Jayne Ann Krentz

Dawn in Eclipse Bay is volume two in the Eclipse Bay series. I have volume one in my TBR, and the series is only three books long. Amanda Quick and Jayne Ann Krentz are the same author, representing different time periods. This one is contemporary, while Quick is historical. It’s probably obvious by now that I tend to grab anything I see available written by this author. I found this as a pre-owned copy.

What is it?

A contemporary romance mystery of some kind.

Garden of Lies by Amanda Quick

Garden of Lies is a stand alone novel. I’ve only seen it around in hardcover until now. Normally hardcover would be fine, but paperback is cheaper and takes less space in the long run. Stand alone novels by this author make good comfort reads for me. As you can probably tell from the spine in the picture, this is a pre-owned copy.

What is it?

A historical romance mystery of some kind.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Vol. 6

The Chalice of the Gods is one of the newer books in the Percy Jackson universe. It’s book six in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Despite being new, it’s supposedly supposed to fit chronologically after the Heroes of Olympus series and before Trials of Apollo. I’m slowly going through a reread of all the Camp Half-Blood stuff, so I plan to incorporate this book, and Wrath of the Triple Goddess, into the chronological order.

What is it?

A modern adventure series focused around Greek mythology.