Any spoilers, for the current chapters must be behind spoilers or detail curtains. When we get further in you don’t need to hide details that were revealed in previous chapters.
Always mention where you are in the book when discussing, ideally by chapter so people reading different versions have a clear point of reference.
Feel free to read ahead if it’s exciting! But please refrain from spoiling ahead of the appropriate week
If you have a question about grammar, vocab, cultural things, etc - ask! That can be part of the discussion too and I’m sure some folks would be happy to help.
Even if you don’t read the chapter(s) in time, you are still encouraged to post in the thread for that reading once you have finished it. I advise not reading ahead in the threads as you may see spoilers.
Not done yet, but again, it has been fun to listen to the audiobook. That was a difference experience.
About this part, I didn’t remember Kei having a good hard look at her body after the fight… I’m going to assume that it’s just as a joke.
ロス主任 being the bad guy was so freaking obvious that the first time around, I really expected it to be subverted. Especially, I expect the part where he basically went “I’ll show them I’ll show them all” during the funerals to be unrelated to the current plot and instead part of a more overarching thing. But nah. The author does like to have basic character roles.
Finished the book. Overall I liked it, despite (or maybe in part because of?) the stuff we complained about.
Yeah, but I feel like from time to time that’s a good thing. It’s relaxing to just know who the bad guys are from the start and not have to second-guess everything.
I figured ティラナ wouldn’t leave, if only because of the future volumes, but even though it ended on a lighter note I was surprised by how close to a downer ending we got. I guess with light novels I’m just so used to the protagonists winning in the end, and here it felt more like something between success and failure. Yes, they managed to prevent a tragedy, but ティラナ failed to rescue her friend. And since there’s no corpse I don’t think we’ve seen the last of ゼラーダ either.
Same here, which is why I nominated the book in the first place. Although, I have to admit, twice in a row (well, a few months apart) is a bit much.
I haven’t (re) finished the book yet, but I remember the author really got me with his story that it was adapted from a us series. I was like wait no way… and indeed not It was also interesting to learn that it was the second version of that series. I remember being surprised that publishers would allow something like that…
That was a lot of fun, a few plot threads that didn’t get tied up, though I feel that’s par for the course for light novel series. To be honest, I didn’t see it coming that Ross was behind it, I thought the author would have been very on the nose about who the enemy is, but instead he gave us a few pages about Matoba’s weird insecurities about “losing” to minorities? Unless I misunderstood something about that section about his mom dialing tech support.
I also really enjoyed that last fight scene, it felt realistic in that Matoba didn’t pull some traditionally main hero type stunts and instead just got taken out, and managed to just eek out a deus ex machina level shot almost by luck from hearing the cloak. I can’t say that the after-fight scene brought me to tears, but it was a good emotional crescendo.
I think once I really improve at reading, I’d like to come back and maybe read volume 2, or try re-reading volume 1 to see if I missed anything important the first time around, which I most likely did. I’d be far more inclined to give it a shot if I could knock a volume out in a few hours like I could with books in English, though as it stands now I’m just not invested enough.
I skipped the あとがき after seeing this, my 6th sense was telling me it was gonna be no bueno.
That’s… very on the nose, though? The motivation of Ross is racism, and Kei is like “well, I can see where he is coming from”.
It does feel realistic, though, since, as noted by the club, Kei has been pretty much on the racist side.
Well, magic, not luck (although I guess he is lucky to have a weapon imbued with minor magic)
You should absolutely read it! There’s nothing bad in there.
Yeah, I meant more like how despite Kei having basically been casually racist throughout the book, so for him to take a very hard turn into like “sure I’m racist but I wanna win the right be to be racist by fair game” was an interesting way of contrasting Kei with Ross. Again if that sounds like an off reading then please call me on it, I wasn’t super confident reading that section.
And yeah it was surprisingly realistic though, especially Ross; both the actual racist beliefs and the willingness to carry out a false flag operation to stoke tensions. I was surprised that a light novel released in 2009 managed to portray it in such a way.
I was surprised that a Japanese book of that time portrayed any of it.
Japan is not known for it’s understanding of racism. Even when you talk with open-minded, internationally interested, well-educated Japanese. Racism is not really something they seem to be able to grasp well. At most they associate it with the US. At least, that has been my experience.
There were some interesting sections in 私小説―from left to right | L40 about that, including a passage where the characters are discussing the short story 舞踏会 by 芥川龍之介. The story features a French naval officer who (it turns out) is Pierre Loti. Loti was pretty racist about the Japanese (we have his writings and his contempt for them is clear). The point the characters make is that 芥川 must have known how Loti really felt about Japanese people, but none of it appears in the Loti of the short story. They suggest a kind of selective ignorance by 芥川 and by extension modern Japanese people living in Japan about their position in the Western racist hierarchy.
I am very, very late to finish this book but I’m behind on all my book clubs I skipped the あとがき because it seemed boring (I almost never read あとがきs for this reason, this isn’t unique to Cop Craft) and while it was clearly still part of the book I just wasn’t that interested in it with the plot wrapped up already.
Overall not bad, didn’t love it but it kept me entertained. I’m curious how I will like the show in comparison - I’ve noticed that some books that don’t charm me end up being great shows.
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It was also interesting to learn that it was the second version of that series. I remember being surprised that publishers would allow something like that…
I wish they hadn’t.