Apr 4, 2020
This is a review of the first 5 books (official translation) and the rest of webnovel version.
Side note: I spell Main "Myne" because it's easier to read especially for those who are unfamiliar with Ascendance of the Bookworm. Fun fact: the name Main is a reference to the city of Mainz, Germany.
tl;dr
The best things about Ascendance of the Bookworm is worldbuilding and relationship between people. There are lots of people and names in Ascendance of the Bookworm, but each person feels different and memorable (well of course there are some minor that are forgettable). The author takes full advantage of Myne being from another world
...
as she brings not only her knowledge of our world but also common sense and values. The fantasy part of the world feels fulfilling as the novel continues to build this new world, explores its culture, and uncovers its history. The story in general feels quite upbeat and peaceful, but the author never fails to remind the readers of the cruelty and selfishness of the people and, many times, the very world itself.
Unfortunately, because of how detailed Ascendance of the Bookworm is, I can't seem to enjoy many other fantasy/isekai since I'm now starting to nitpick small details e.g. unnaturally high literacy level of laypeople (e.g. written store sign), omission of necessity like toilet and tax, random items that are out of place like drinking straw in medieval-era-esque fantasy (yes, I saw one in a fantasy manga, lol).
World-building
Ascendance of the Bookworm builds not only the world, but also the tales of the gods, the myths and relationships between the gods, as well as how those gods and tales are weaved into culture and history itself. One thing that I really like about Ascendance of the Bookworm is that Myne, being a person from another world, is constantly challenged with things she doesn't know about the world and how her "common sense" and values are not quite a common sense in this fantasy world. The values of people of the world vary greatly depending on their status and occupation. If you think about it, that's how it's supposed to be, but most isekai/fantasy doesn't even touch upon the difference between modern world's culture/common sense and this new isekai/fantasy world, let alone people of different classes. The author takes advantage of Myne's "uncommon sense" to emphasize the difference in the new world.
Relationship between people
This is a rather interesting aspect of the novel. I don't think it's wrong to say that the entirety of Ascendance of the Bookworm is built to illustrate relationship between people.
Friendship, familial love, parental love, passion, loyalty, trust.
Then, in part 2, Myne who becomes a blue miko apprentice, is pushed to an entirely different world and sees the difference in relationship.
For instance, commoners (and we) celebrate a birth of a child, but for orphans, a birth of a child is something to be loathed. It's another mouth to feed, another person to take care of, and the end of grey miko's life as a servant (who is now sent back to the orphanage, most likely permanently).
Part 3 onward shows yet another different world: the world of nobility. The world introduces yet another new set of relationship like territorial conflict and political marriage. At the same time, the author also shows how the relationship between nobles differs from commoners. For example, since raising a noble costs a lot of money, nobles of lower status often choose, without hesitation, to raise only children who have higher potential, even if that means leaving their other children to die.
Another fun fact: Ascendance of the Bookworm is one of a few fantasy novel I read that people get PTSD (another example is Goblin Slayer). Considering how common fantasy with monster killing (and people too) and stuff like that, you'd think PTSD is common (about 10-30% of real life veterans have PTSD at some point).
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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