Edit: I found a scan to check against
By any chance, does anyone have the chapter page numbers for the first book of 灰と幻想のグリムガル ? I’m reading the Kindle edition, but the book position is measured as Xの4067, and X doesn’t update by any regular interval (eg turning pages good from 64 to 78, 88, 100).
I can try going by percentage (eg X / 4067 = P (percent) and 2% of 320 = p6.4), or in a worst case find raw scans to match (I’m buying the digital editions anyway), but thought I’d check here first
I think it’s probably based on character count, which would explain why the position changes differently depending on the page.
I don’t have the page counts for you, but is this just for Natively tracking or something else? Just curious.
That makes sense, and character count is a cool metric, in it’s own way.
It’s just for natively tracking
Probably easiest to just use percentage then.
Please share your thoughts on the book as you go or when you finish. I enjoyed the anime back in the day and have considered reading the series too, so I’d definitely like to hear an opinion on it.
Will do! I loved the show as well, and I think it’s too bad it never got a season 2. I’m still in the prologue, but so far my main thought is “this is way easier than I was expecting”… But I shouldn’t speak too soon lol
Edit: it took me like 2 hrs to get through an 11 page prologue 
b/c of vocab lookups, but the sentences are easier to understand than other fantasy LNs I’ve checked out, so far.
@seanblue I just got through chapter 2, and am really enjoying it. Unlike the anime, it’s completely linear so far, starting from when they first arrive in the cave. So they’ve had the first meeting with Bri-chan, and are starting to cluelessly explore the town. The narrative is in 3rd person, but with Haruhiro’s thoughts. Ranta is even more obnoxious, and Renji is even more of an asshole. (Might just be my memory tho).
Difficulty-wise, it feels like a lighter read than 本好き or SAO, but I have to check the translation a lot, whereas SAO I check it occasionally (sometimes I can get through a chapter) and 本好き I’m not using it at all. It’s the first time I’ve had to actively break sentences down in a while, and sometimes when you have 3 characters talking back and forth, it’s a little difficult for me to figure out who’s talking. For someone with more reading experience, I don’t think it would be that difficult though. It seems like it has more varied vocab than 本好き 1 (I’m only at the Neighborhood Boys chapter tho), and less vocab (esp technical vocab) than SAO. There’s a lot of repeated vocab as well, nice descriptive words, and some cool expressions like 地獄の沙汰も金次第.
The pacing is nice so far - steady, and doesn’t drag. It’s nice getting to more details on how things started out. I’ll report back in a few more chapters, but so far would recommend.
As an aside, it’s cool seeing words transfer from one series to another - vocab I learned in 五等分の花嫁、本好き, and SAO all show up here. And as I was finishing SAO 27, some vocab from here showed up there. It’s also interesting seeing a lot of WaniKani vocab that I didn’t think I’d run into show up. Makes me glad I completed so much of it (I gave up in the last 10 levels, bc non-targeted SRS bores me to death, and it seems more efficient to pick things up via reading or jpdb.io decks now)
Finished chapter 6 (on p.94 out of 320). I’d say my impression largely remains the same, and I’ve gotten more accustomed to the writing style. There aren’t any major differences from the show so far, just some extra details. At this point the party’s gotten together, we’ve gotten a rundown of guilds & classes, and they’re setting off on their first adventure. Edit: one thing that can be a bit challenging is Yume’s accent - a mix of Kansai + her own cutesy quirks. She plays with words a lot, and it’s usually all hiragana. I’d be fairly lost without the translation there.
The majority of the content has either been Haruhiro’s experience & narrative, or Haruhiro & Ranta bickering b/c Ranta can’t stop being an ass for two seconds. I think/hope there will be more input from the other chars going soon. Anyway I think I’ll wait a bit to report back again, and put any further plot stuff in spoiler tags.
By the way, I watched the anime 7 years ago, so I really don’t remember the details. Other than one major plot point (you know the one) the only thing I really remember is the beautiful artwork. I appreciate you saying you’ll put anything more behind spoiler tags, but I wanted to give a heads up that I probably won’t read or respond to those since I want to go in “blind” whenever I decide to pick this up.
It sounds like you’re making quick work of this, though I find one of your comments interesting. You said back when you were on chapter 2 that you felt is was lighter than 本好き or SAO, but that you were relying on the translation more for this. On the surface that sounds contradictory, so I’m curious if you still feel that way after chapter 6 or if your view has become more nuanced after reading more.
Ahhh ok. I’ll probly stop w/ the updates then and save my thoughts for a review, unless anyone else expresses interest.
You said back when you were on chapter 2 that you felt is was lighter than 本好き or SAO, but that you were relying on the translation more for this. On the surface that sounds contradictory, so I’m curious if you still feel that way after chapter 6 or if your view has become more nuanced after reading more.
Yes. In summary: I’m a bit of an SAO otaku & have also finished 3 of the LNs in JP. The content is more dense/complex, and there’s way more domain-specific vocab, but I’m overly familiar with SAO, so it’s easier to understand overall. 本好き has simpler vocab and sentence structures, but compared to Grimgar, much more inner monologue, analysis, and slow pacing (I’m only on p. 85 though). Also it has 18-column pages, whereas Grimgar is 16-column. Grimgar’s writing style is more action-based, and there’s more dialogue. I also finished rewatching the anime in JP last week. So while I have to check the translation for certain sentences, I still know what’s going on in general.
More details:
I’ve finished 3 SAO novels, and watched the entire anime in JP (and before that w/ EN subs, multiple times). I’ve also read all the EN novel translations, and most of the side stories, and video games w/ EN subs. So I’m very comfortable with the author’s writing style, the world, how the characters think/speak, etc. The main challenge for me with SAO is the amount of vocabulary (and domain-specific vocab). Otherwise, there is a lot of internal monologue, analytical thinking, description, and world building. The pacing varies immensely, and It’s much denser than 本好き (so far) or 灰と幻想のグリムガル. At this point I can read the chapters and get things mostly right, but miss certain details or confuse some points. So more work to read overall, but easier to intuit/comprehend the meaning.
I’ve been first reading along to the chapters with the audiobook, then reading them without audio. While that probably helps comprehension and reading, it’s also more cumbersome. On one hand, the vocab and grammar are pretty straightforward. Otoh 本好き has a lot of inner monologue, analysis, and description so far (I’m only up to p. 65, but so far I’d say it’s like 80% inner monologue). Additionally, the pacing is pretty slow so far. It’s also the only story I’m not already familiar with. Also 本好き has 18-column pages, Grimgar has 16 columns. My reading speed for the two is about equal (Grimgar is slightly faster rn)
I’ve already seen the anime twice (incl. a week ago with JP subs), so even when I’m stuck on a sentence, I know what’s going on in general. The hard parts for me are vocab (domain-specific stuff, hiragana words), some of the speech patterns and grammar, and some really long sentences. In general, the writing is more action-centric and dialogue-based. You get Haruhiro’s thoughts, but it’s not generally not that deep. So besides the world building stuff, it’s less dense, and faster-paced than the other two. (I wouldn’t describe it as fast-paced, but it’s never felt slow so far)
Curious if that sounds less contradictory now.
Yep thanks for clarifying! Sounds like the difference is specific to your situation/experience and probably can’t be assumed for other readers.
Coming back to this, I just finished Book 2 and got through a good amount without translation (tho there are a few scenes I’ll probly reread in English). It’s definitely a much easier read than SAO for me now, and I’m through where the anime ended. So, curious to see if Book 3 still feels easier.
