Minus points for a cliffhanger ending. Not just 'to be continued' but a real 'we're stopping the action right here suckers' cliffhanger. I hate that. I'm tempted to dock a star entirely just for that. Oh well.
In volume 17 the author says that he loaded it with 'angsty emotion' instead of action. He said he was joking and I disagreed. Now I've seen what happens when he's being serious, and I take back what I said. There's a Mother's Basement YouTube video about surviving being the MC in a harem anime, and the characters in this book could really learn from many of the lessons made there even if this isn't really a harem story. Talk to each other for God's sake! Admittedly, Tatsuya does try only to be conversation-blocked by a video call, but he lets things slide after... Well, conflict drives plot, even if it's contrived conflict.
Oh, and poor Pixie seems to have been relegated to a picture in the character list section at the front. Said section is now growing so much that I suspect it will exceed the length of the novel by the time this series finally comes to an end.
The actual conflict here is pretty good this time. There are some fairly good fight scenes in this volume. There's also a new character, a psychometry specialist, that I'd love to hear more about. Like why does she dress like 'The Invisible Man' all the time (minus the bandages)? Does she get heatstroke a lot in Japanese summers? If you stripped the book down to the hunt for the bad guy, you'd have a very short book, however. There's a lot here that involves social interactions which have become a bit irritating to watch.
Overall, a fairly solid volume. My rapid consumption may have a little to do with cold weather and the clocks changing. I didn't really want to do anything else today. However, good pacing and an interesting story did nothing to harm me swallowing the thing whole. (And now I can't read the next part for over a month!)
Part 2 (of 3) of the Master Clans Council Arc has Tatsuya helping with the hunt of the terrorist responsible for the bombing. Meanwhile tension rises against magicians, non-mages blaming magicians for the evils in the world. The world building is great. So are the characters. It does ends with a cliff-hanger, but considering I knew it would be a trilogy that did not come as much of a surprise. Not much attention is given to the high school, which might be a bit of a disappointment for some, but I don't mind. Lots of switching points of views, which I did found a bit irritating. Finally, I really dislike mind control even as a villain especially those that work quickly, on a fundamental level without clear limitations. It raises too many questions about why the villain is ever caught. Still, it was a good read and I am looking forward to the final of the arc.
I really liked this series across the first few books, but I'm running out of steam. There's just too many characters to keep track of. The light novel format makes this worse since you have to remember all the characters but then only get to read a few hundred pages before having to wait long enough to forget all of them and repeat the cycle with the next release.