Log Horizon, Vol. 9: Go East, Kanami!

Log Horizon #9

by Mamare Touno

When the Catastrophe hit, American Elder Tales player Leonardo was one of the many people trapped. Stuck on the Chinese server with none of his friends and surrounded by thousands of monsters, his situation is hopeless...until a headstrong girl comes to his rescue! Kanami, the former Debauchery Tea Party leader, recruits him for her party. Along with the hero Elias, the blank-faced healer Coppélia, and a strange white horse that can talk, the group resolves to travel to the Japanese server, the only place where the new expansion pack unlocked before the Catastrophe struck. The long trek eastward begins!

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Manga, Young Adult, Science Fiction, Japanese Literature

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 27, 2015

About the author

Name (in native language): 橙乃 ままれ

Mamare Touno real name is Daisuke Umezu (梅津 大輔, Umezu Daisuke).

Blog: m2lade JAM

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the previous entries in the series for two major reasons: the all-new cast means that Touno feels he needs to reintroduce basic series concepts that we're more than familiar with by this point, and the incessant reminders that Leonardo is from NYC. Still fun, just not quite as.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of wasted potential.

Being the 9th book in a series, readers will already be familiar with the world and its mechanics. Introducing us to international characters is great, but unless their mechanics are totally different (and they're not) you do not need to spend so much time reminding your readers of things you introduced in the first volume. It seriously feels like you could remove 20 pages from this book (or have written 20 more pages of actual plot or character development) if you didn't remind us so many times.

Next, while introducing some new characters is interesting, especially since they may have a different perspective, telling the reader over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over (are you sick of this yet) and over and over and over... that the character is from NYC... well, there's another 10 pages. Not to mention, just how many of your original cast haven't had their stories told. I was glad to see Kanami and her getting some story, even if the focus was Leonardo.

On the whole it wasn't really bad, just imperfect, or rather, still a lesser volume of Log Horizon than many of the previous books. As I can tell there are only a couple more so I'm not sure how introducing Leonardo so late in the game was a good idea, but ya know what -- Touno-sensei has 11 books published and I have none so...

[Jack Keener · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kanami's journey east is the kind of crazy you'd expect from the hints about her up to now. A whole volume dedicated to her was great. I really liked Leonardo's character and how he slowly accepts what Shiroe and the Akiba crew already wen through in the previous volumes. The interaction with him and Coppelia at the end of the volume was great. The battles were better done than even the raid in volume 7. I hope to see Kanami's group and Shiroe's group combine. Leonardo and Akatsuki as dual assassins would be amazing. My only dislike is that they swapped the Froggie-Nardo for Croaknardo which didn't have the same flow to it. A little more of the story comes out at the edges and we learn why the Chivalric Orders abandoned the People of the Earth. It is a big reveal and though we don't get to know what the geniuses are, they seem to be the real evil that Shiroe has been brooding over all by himself since volume 1 or 2.

[Eldon Siemens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having enjoyed the anime, I was excited to get new information on the world Touno has created. I like the new characters, and feel there was a lot of potential for them to grow, but that is was a missed opportunity. I am now left with so many questions surrounding the Adventurers, heroes, villians, other characters. I can only hope the author one day returns to this storyline.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book introduces a completely new set of characters on a different server. Way better than the previous book.

[Andy Febrico Bintoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are new characters here from the American server. The band became more powerful and the actions scene come back in this volume.

[Kayleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous

[C.R. Saxon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the series in general, but this book felt like it was an interruption. And though a couple of the characters were fun, I didn't feel the same connection to them as I did the others in the series.