By the grace of the gods (light novel volume 11)

Top reviews from other countries

3.0 out of 5 stars Plot stuck in the muck...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2022

Volume 1-6 was great, fun to read, and then the whole story became the mundane and plain. There is hardly any protagonist, action or anything. The volumes have shrunk to almost 1/2 the size of most other Light Novels.
I had read this when it was an online novel calls "The Man Hand Picked By the Gods" and it was significantly better. The story moved along and glossed over the mundane, now it looks to be a catchup on every single details no matter how trivial.
This has been adapted into an Anime, but with this, the whole series will be dropped, there is nothing of substance to make more than 1 or 2 episodes out of 4-5 books, let alone a whole 12 episode season.
I gave a 3 star out of cheer kindness for the story as a whole, but this is getting so bad it looks like the Author is not even trying.

3.0 out of 5 stars Uh...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2022

Synopsis: Ryoma went to a meeting, spoke to some people. Ryoma went to another meeting, spoke to some people. Ryoma met the gods, spoke to them.

Duke went for a meeting, spoke to some people.

I mean really? How many novels is that with next to no plot movement at all? I like the story of Ryoma, but with no plot movement, significant amounts of padding and short book length they are just not worth the money.

Last purchase for me.

3.0 out of 5 stars The story is starting to ramp up

Reviewed in Germany on August 1, 2022

The overall story has been very slow paced throughout the whole series.
In this book the political intrigues became more pronounced than in previous volumes, but a final confrontantion, or any real threat, are still far on the horizon.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. Readers who have stuck with the story so far, are bound to like the relaxing pace of the story.
However, the sheer number of projects, wich Ryoma is conducting at the same time, are becoming quite tedious. The novelty of another world, with magic and monsters, quickly gets lost, when hundres of pages are spent on rather mundane, uneventful, buisness meetings. In previous books many of Ryomas buisness ventures were centered around slimes and magic, wich made them somewhat interesting and novel. Unfortunately this book does not have anything new to offer on that front.
This would not really be an issue, if the buisnes projects were simply one part of the story. But since the books are so short, it feels as if whole books are dedicated to this subject.
This is merly my opinion, and likely subject to discussion or personal taste.

My biggest problem with this series is the price tag.
6,74€ for 175 pages is ridiculous, when compared to full sized novels. If we compare the price per page, this book series costs 2-5X as much as novels from established authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, Terry Pratchett or Brandon Sanderson.
At the same time, the quality of the writing is nowhere near as good.

My primariy reason for reading the series so far, was the likable main character and his little adventures and experiments in the new magic world. But somehow the story became overinflated with a high number of two dimensional characters who's primary reason for existance seems to be to haul Ryoma from one buiness meeting to another, whilst bringing nothing new to the table.

I don't think I will bother with the next book in this series. At least not, if its as overpriced as this one.

5.0 out of 5 stars Quien se oculta para atacar la nueva vida de Ryoma y a sus amigos; y como se defienden.

Reviewed in Mexico on August 24, 2022

Aparecen los que estaban ocultos, aquellos que se creen astutos e inteligentes como para atacar al Ducado y a los amigos de Ryoma, podrá Ryoma defenderse si destacar o hará más enemigos... y más peligrosos cada vez?.