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Reign of the Seven Spellblades Light Novel
七つの魔剣が支配する Side of Fire 煉獄の記
学生統括ゴッドフレイ。後に「煉獄」と呼ばれる男の、苛烈なる青春の軌跡。
★TVアニメ2023年7月放送開始の魔法学園ファンタジー初の外伝小説!★
オリバーたちが入学する五年前。魔法使いの家に生まれながら落ちこぼれと蔑まれた少年・ゴッドフレイの人生は、ひとつの報せによって一変する。失敗だらけの受験行脚で得たひとつきりの合格通知。それは「魔法使いの地獄」と称される名門キンバリー魔法学校のものだった。
初歩の呪文ひとつ満足にこなせない状態で入学したゴッドフレイ。当然のように授業では爪はじきにされ、他の生徒たちからは笑いものにされる日々が続く。が、唯一の癒しである友人カルロスの窮地に直面したその瞬間から、彼の状況は大きく変わり始める――。
後に生徒最強と謳われ「煉獄」の異名で呼ばれる男。これは若き日の彼とその仲間たちがキンバリーで駆けずり回った灼熱の日々、青春の記録である――。
本編最新11巻と同時発売!
★TVアニメ2023年7月放送開始の魔法学園ファンタジー初の外伝小説!★
オリバーたちが入学する五年前。魔法使いの家に生まれながら落ちこぼれと蔑まれた少年・ゴッドフレイの人生は、ひとつの報せによって一変する。失敗だらけの受験行脚で得たひとつきりの合格通知。それは「魔法使いの地獄」と称される名門キンバリー魔法学校のものだった。
初歩の呪文ひとつ満足にこなせない状態で入学したゴッドフレイ。当然のように授業では爪はじきにされ、他の生徒たちからは笑いものにされる日々が続く。が、唯一の癒しである友人カルロスの窮地に直面したその瞬間から、彼の状況は大きく変わり始める――。
後に生徒最強と謳われ「煉獄」の異名で呼ばれる男。これは若き日の彼とその仲間たちがキンバリーで駆けずり回った灼熱の日々、青春の記録である――。
本編最新11巻と同時発売!
- GenresDark Fantasy
328 pages, Paperback
First published March 10, 2023
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 4, 2025
On its own it is a fairly typical wizard academy light novel if a bit more brutal, but with many of the shounen action tropes there. Protagonist struggling with his powers in a dark world, collecting friends to fight against its injustices and deal with them head on. The characters are interesting, the world a lot darker then usual and accepting treatment on non-binary gender roles (especially for LNs were the effeminate muscle man crossdresser is all too often the joke character). Some great evocative environments in the final part. Bit predictable at the start.
As part of the Spellblades series it adds a bit of background to important side characters and forms an interesting mirror to Oliver with Godfrey being a talented heroic character and Oliver being a mediocre tragic (anti)hero.
Still, that also means the story lacks some of the elements that makes the main story so interesting to me. So while an entertaining read, it doesn't really add much to the series. A good read for fans of the series, but not a must read.
As part of the Spellblades series it adds a bit of background to important side characters and forms an interesting mirror to Oliver with Godfrey being a talented heroic character and Oliver being a mediocre tragic (anti)hero.
Still, that also means the story lacks some of the elements that makes the main story so interesting to me. So while an entertaining read, it doesn't really add much to the series. A good read for fans of the series, but not a must read.
February 9, 2025
Side of Fire feels a lot like a redux of the first three books (what the manga and anime adapted) but with the Campus Watch in the Sword Roses' role. Which made it a little predictable, but wasn't bad, and I strongly suspect it was a deliberate artistic choice: Bokuto-sensei tends to use the two groups as thematic foils.
So we start with an extended prologue showing Alvin Godfrey as a first-year in 1528, entering Kimberly, struggling because can't cast for shit, and making friends with Carlos Whitrow. Then we jump to 1529 to bring Tim Linton and Ophelia Salvadori into the story, and can I say, first-year Ophelia tugs at the heartstrings, she's so freakin' cute.
TW: school violence.
Then we get the beginnings of the rivalry with the old council: Leoncio Echevalria tries to recruit Godfrey into his clique, Godfrey gives him the basic "thanks but no thanks", and Khiirgi Albschuch and Gino Beltrami promptly target Tim and Ophelia... and then the shit hits the fan a la the end of volume 2/episode 11 because a monster-summoning seventh-year has chosen that exact moment to get consumed by the spell.
So more delving into the self-destructive obsessiveness of mages, this time in the person of a new character named Severo Escobar, who makes living paintings and has a huge guilt complex over all the bodies mages tend to step over to perfect their craft, leading him to become obsessed with the concept of Hell punishing sinners and paint a hellscape a la Hieronymus Bosch (though it's patterned more after the Sino-Japanese vision of it), which has now come to life. Godfrey, Lesedi, and Carlos all dive into a painting to go after him, with Eche accidentally dragged along for the ride. There's a lot of really interesting thematic stuff in here about the nature of sin and salvation, and the role of religion and faith in a world whose power structure is normally militantly anti-theist.
Verdict for the volume is that book 10 set the bar much too high for Side of Fire to measure up, but on its own merits it's still enjoyable, and it's nice to get so much of Tim and Ophelia playing off each other.
So we start with an extended prologue showing Alvin Godfrey as a first-year in 1528, entering Kimberly, struggling because can't cast for shit, and making friends with Carlos Whitrow. Then we jump to 1529 to bring Tim Linton and Ophelia Salvadori into the story, and can I say, first-year Ophelia tugs at the heartstrings, she's so freakin' cute.
TW: school violence.
Then we get the beginnings of the rivalry with the old council: Leoncio Echevalria tries to recruit Godfrey into his clique, Godfrey gives him the basic "thanks but no thanks", and Khiirgi Albschuch and Gino Beltrami promptly target Tim and Ophelia... and then the shit hits the fan a la the end of volume 2/episode 11 because a monster-summoning seventh-year has chosen that exact moment to get consumed by the spell.
So more delving into the self-destructive obsessiveness of mages, this time in the person of a new character named Severo Escobar, who makes living paintings and has a huge guilt complex over all the bodies mages tend to step over to perfect their craft, leading him to become obsessed with the concept of Hell punishing sinners and paint a hellscape a la Hieronymus Bosch (though it's patterned more after the Sino-Japanese vision of it), which has now come to life. Godfrey, Lesedi, and Carlos all dive into a painting to go after him, with Eche accidentally dragged along for the ride. There's a lot of really interesting thematic stuff in here about the nature of sin and salvation, and the role of religion and faith in a world whose power structure is normally militantly anti-theist.
Verdict for the volume is that book 10 set the bar much too high for Side of Fire to measure up, but on its own merits it's still enjoyable, and it's nice to get so much of Tim and Ophelia playing off each other.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews