Kugane Maruyama

The story starts out with the main character Suzuki Satoru in a dystopian future where VR is advanced and the world is covered by toxic smoke. He played a VRMMO or video game called YGGDRASIL for over 10 years but on the day of its shutdown he stayed online playing his game character. The time for the shutdown arrives but instead of being kicked out of the game he gets transferred to a new world taking over his video game character which is a skeleton and having his base that his guild made along with the NPC’s transferred alongside him to this new world. The first volume of the novel shows the difficult decisions he will face along with the changes this new world has brought. The story then progresses due to misunderstandings between him and his NPC’s (companions) with them believing he wants to rule the world. The novel is a great read and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get into dark fantasy novels with elements of video games in it.… (meer)

Well, here we are with another volume of Overlord. This light novel series has gone interesting places, and I’m always pleasantly surprised by what happens next. Overlord, Volume 5: The Men of the Kingdom Part 1 by Kugane Maruyama is the start to an interesting new arc in the series focusing more on Sebas and several human characters.

If you would like to catch up on the series you can check out our reviews for Overlord Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, and Volume 4.

Overlord Vol 5: The Men of the Kingdom Part 1 is the part of a two part arc in the Overlord series. This volume continues where volume 4 left off. In Re-Estize the criminal underworld is run by the Eight Fingers. Ainz has ordered Sebas to see what he can learn about the organization. His path crosses with Climb, a young soldier and retainer to the Golden Princess, and Brain Unglaus, who has lost all faith in his abilities after crossing paths with Shalltear Bloodfallen.

Ainz doesn’t feature in this volume almost at all. Instead, the focus is placed on Sebas, Brain Unglaus, and a young knight named Climb. The first half of the book introduces Climb, the city, the politics of the capital city and its seedy underbelly. The pacing is a bit slower than previous volumes. This is most apparent within the first half of the novel which introduces several new characters, a new city landscape, and the inner workings of human world politics. While interesting, a few of these scenes did carry on just a little too long. Climb felt like a fly on the wall for pages on end at the start of this volume. Whatever agency he seemingly lacked was played upon throughout the rest of the novel. His strength is

but he does come into his own as the story continues. His background was interesting, shed more light onto his personality.

The first half does, of course, have fantastic moments in its own right. We catch up with Brain Unglas and Gazef Stronoff, two men who have had very different experiences with the inhabitants of Nazarick. Brain is a broken man after his encounter with Shalltear. He is brought to the absolute lowest point we’ve seen him so far, utterly terrified of Shalltear and her power while no longer trusting his own abilities.

The most interesting character within the volume was Sebas, who shares the spotlight along with the newly introduced young knight. While he was always one of the more fascinating denizens of the Tomb of Nazarick, he really shines in this volume. Sebas has a softer side, a more human side, than the vast majority of his fellows, something he shared with his original creator. He has more obvious agency than many of the others, truly thinking for himself and making his own decisions rather than the obsessive focus of doing Ainz’s bidding the majority of the other character’s show. This is due, largely, to his original creator being the one who founded the guild. That player’s kindness and urge to help is something that was passed onto Sebas.

Of course, this sort of behavior isn’t something the others understand or agree with despite Ainz’s own attempts at conveying the need for his subjects to make their own decisions and voice their own needs and opinions. Sebas is at odds with himself, trying to balance the needs of Nazarick and Ainz’s wishes while following his own morals and desires. Contention between Sebas and others grows throughout the volume, and he quickly became the character I was most invested in. I have always likes Sebas, but here he became a character very easy to understand and empathize with.

Overlord Vol. 5 takes the more serious tone of volume 4 and ramps it even higher. The tropes and fan service are not at all apparent here. There are few lighthearted, comedic moments at all. There is no intermission chapter as there were in previous light novels. We see a much darker side of this world than in previous volumes, which is saying something considering our main characters are all undead beings serving an Litch Overlord. The deep underworld is explored, with human trafficking being a large plot point of the novel. This volume doesn’t shy away from the dark or the gruesome.

The last fifty pages or so of the light novel is where things get really tense. The great fights we’ve seen in previous light novels return, and the pacing increases exponentially. While there is a relatively satisfying conclusion to this volume, there is quite a cliffhanger. The arc is not concluded in this volume, with plenty of room for continuing in The Men of the Kingdom Part 2, the sixth volume in the Overlord series.

As with previous volumes, so-bin’s art is absolutely beautiful. Full page, full color artwork is included at the start to each chapter. The large foldout spread from previous volumes doesn’t seem to be included in volume 5, however. At the very least, my copy doesn’t have one. More character pages are included at the end of the volume, highlighting both newly introduced characters and previously introduced characters who hadn’t yet gotten a stats page of their own.

If you are planning on reading Overlord Vol. 5: The Men of the Kingdom Part 1 I would suggest thinking about getting a copy of Overlord Vol 6 at the same time. While this volume does have a decent conclusion, the arc clearly isn’t over and this volume does end on quite the cliffhanger. Overall, this was another good installment in a great series, and I will definitely be continuing on with Volume 6.

This review originally found on Looking Glass Reads.… (meer)

Moving is hard. We’ve all done it and we’ve all hated it. It’s stressful, it takes up all of your free time, and all of your books get stuck in boxes. Including the brand new, released-two-days-before-moving-day copy of one of your favorite fantasy light novels. But the boxes are finally empty and Overlord, Vol 4 has been read! Overlord, Vol 4: The Lizardmen Heroes by Kugane Maruyama is a high fantasy adventure following characters who, in another story, would probably be bad guys.

If you’ve watched the anime and, like my husband, don’t like reading about the events you’ve already seen, start the light novel series here. This is the first whole novel with events not seen in the anime. In this volume we see Nazarik go up against the Lizardmen, a society of lizard-people that live in a nearby swamp. Nazarik is low on support, general supplies, and test subjects and some not-quite humanoids will fit the bill just fine.

This installment in the Overlord series is different than previous titles in several waves. The most obvious is, perhaps, our main character. The story opens with Ainz returning from the events of book three to check in with the inhabitants of Nazarik, dole out new orders, and leave again. His role as an adventurer gathering information and making a name for himself never ends, and he is trusting Cocytus and the other denizens of Nazarik to fulfill his plans.

Ainz is missing from large portions of the book, off doing other probably interesting but not as narratively important things. While I did miss seeing events from his point of view for the majority of the book, I did find myself greatly enjoying seeing events through the eyes of the floor guardians and others. They are characters often seen, sometimes through their own eyes, but very often in down time. Think of the short intermission sections. These sometimes convey important points, if only personality wise, but they are most often short, concise, and humorous.

We also see a lot more of the day to day workings of Nazarik. Previous volumes mentioned the trials and tribulations of finding themselves in a different book, but this is the first volume where those repercussions were so blatant. Nazarik is short on certain supplies, the materials being unattainable one way or another in their current world. Corners are being cut, alternative methods and materials explored, and, though the lizardmen have done nothing to Nazarik, it is easy to understand why Ainz needs them.

Several new characters are introduced within this book, namely the lizardmen heroes spoken of in the title. When not following the perspective of Cocytus or other Nazarik inhabitants we follow Zaryusu and several other lizardmen who are preparing for an attack by unknown foes. The lizardmen had their own culture, their own history, and their own personalities. For only being introduced in this book and not having every chapter follow their point of view exclusively they were extremely fleshed out.

I really enjoyed the lizardmen and their culture, or sometimes lack of culture. I liked that, while they could speak, they weren’t very human-like or had a human-like culture at all.

It is easy to see the lizardmen as the heroes of the tale despite all the time we’ve spent with Ainz and his subjects. They are heroes, explorers, leaders, and are under threat of attack. Nazarick is filled with vampires, demons, and all manner of creatures and people normally found under the ‘bad guy’ umbrella, and their intentions aren’t always pure or for the greater good. They are in it for them.

Yet, as the story unfolds and we learn more of the lizardmen’s culture and history it becomes apparent that these creatures aren’t necessarily the wholesome obvious ‘good guys’ that we, or at least I, at first saw them as. This is a civilization that’s seen recent war. Recent civil war at that. While they don’t want to be wiped out or subjugated by unknown enemies, the lizardmen don’t necessarily mind another war either. These aren’t just cute lizardpeople trying vainly to defeat an enemy that the reader knows they probably don’t stand much of a chance against. These are creatures that are complicated and don’t fall into the black and white good and evil scheme seen in so many books. There’s a little bit of gray in there, and that makes them only feel all the more real.

When Ainz does come back into the story we see an aspect of him not really seen since the first volume. The stress of running Nazarick, of being a good leader, of doing the correct thing in regards to leading his people, is beginning to get to Ainz. His normally suppressed human tendencies and feelings are much more readily seen here. The immense pressure of running a small kingdom is getting to him.

I can’t help but feel that this book sets up for future events in some ways. There are still questions as to how human, for lack of a better term, the inhabitants of Nazarick really are. Where does their original NPC programming end? It’s a complicated issue, and one which, perhaps, we’ll see more of eventually.

I definitely enjoyed this book. There was a lot of character development as far as Nazarik citizens were concerned. The internal struggle of Ainz was brought more to the forefront than it has been in several books. And the newly introduced characters were interesting and quite likable.

However, having Ainz left out of much of the novel made the book a bit difficult to really get into. In some ways it was like starting out from square one. This is, no doubt, simply because we are following a brand new character and are introduced to a completely new place and society. If this proves problematic for you, stick with it. The book is definitely an installment worth reading. The pacing, while a bit on the slow side in the beginning, ramps up quite a bit as the book moves along, ending in a series of exciting battles. So stick with it, take your time if you need breaks between learning about a handful of new characters and a new civilization.

Definitely pick up Overlord, Vol. 4: The Lizardmen Heroes by Kugane Maruyama. This is an excellent installment in one of my favorite ongoing series. It shows events in multiple viewpoints, some of which aren’t often explored. I am very much looking forward to the next book in the series, which should be released in September (as far as I remember). If you like high fantasy, or are a fan of the anime, absolutely read this book. If you don’t like multiple points of view this may be a book to skip.

This review originally found on Looking Glass Reads.… (meer)