After the war with the Principality of Amidonia comes to a close, provisional king Souma receives an unexpected message. It's a request for annexation from his former enemies in the Principality. Facing a civil war and an invasion by other countries, the Principality now needs the Elfrieden Kingdom's strength in order to fight back. Souma agrees to the annexation and summons those who play an important role in the defense of the Principality to Van for an awards ceremony, but the Princess of the Principality, Roroa, is hiding in with the mountain of gifts they give him?
Imagine being summoned to a fantasy world and given the opportunity to rebuild a country using modern economic and political theory and see those results bear fruit in front of your eyes.
This is the fourth book in a light novel series with a novel concept. At it's surface it seems like a generic isekai (popular genre where protagonist is summoned or reborn in another world); but reading it, it becomes obvious that much though was put in the world building and character development. What makes it different from the other titles of it's ilk is it's use of the popular tropes. The favorite ones are present, like a harem of love interests, and the use of magic, but the main protagonist is not too overpowered. Granted, application of real world concepts can be found in other titles but he's more of a student of the humanities so science, mathematics, and engineering isn't his forte. It's his application of modern socio-economic and political theory that's the main draw. He can quote both Machiavelli and Sun Tzu; and understand the impact of the Cold War and the fallout from the collapse of the U.S.S.R.; in that way, it's fascinating.
I've experienced this story before in manga form and I admit I prefer it that way. The novel can be all over the place. It happened that its manga adaptation had a capable artist who has cut a lot of the fat from the novel and still produced an epic adaptation that has tighter plotting. The original form is still very good, so it may be a matter of preference. It's still a damn good story.
This seems like a good place for me to stop reading this series. The harem aspects are really beginning to annoy me, and since this completes the first story arc, I'm going to go ahead and say I'm done.
★★★★☆ For all around entertainment and excellent writing. ★★★★★ For the informative peek into the writer's creation process in the Midword, the excellent use of foreshadowing and reveals, and the fact that a book filled with side stories was written so well, I never lost my patience or got bored as I have a tendency to do when the story arc isn't King. I am not a fan of the polygamy/harem aspect of the story, but I am a fan of this author's writing style. In this volume, the author tackled slavery, refugees, museums, history, technology, and romance, all with a deft touch while maintaining a good balance between characterization, entertainment, and serious topics. Bravo!
Este volumen estuvo muy interesante, en especial los capítulos dedicados a la esclavitud y cómo tratarla, me sorprendió su idea y su visión sobre el tema.
En general esta novela me gusta por lo diferente que es con respecto a otras del género pero el tema del harem le resta puntos desde mi perspectiva. En pocos casos me ha parecido que el harem sumaba a la historia a pesar de no ser de mi agrado.
Otro detalle que me hace imposible abandonar la novela a pesar del harem y el fanservice son las clases de historia universal, política, filosofía y economía que recibo 😂 que no se diga que ser Otaku no enseña nada productivo. Juro que aprendo más con estas novelas que en la escuela. Si los profesores de historia emplearan las analogías de Souma u otras igual de ingeniosas para explicar hechos históricos que normalmente un estudiante promedio encuentra tediosos nadie se dormiría en las clases de historia. Es una materia que me interesa y que disfruto investigando y leyendo por mi cuenta pero sigo encontrando aburridas las clases que recibí en el colegio.
Por ahora me gusta el rumbo que ha tomado la trama y espero grandes cosas de la novela. Me emociona pensar qué está por venir 🤭
The more I read of the series, the more I am surprised by it. By now you know it is not a tense action heavy story, instead focusing on kingdom and character development. The surprise is mostly with how the author draws in world history and literature to deal with the local trouble even going so far as to point out that his conclusions might be wrong. Of course, I also like how little things from earlier parts come back and make a lot more sense. Here we get a new member to his inner circle, how some of his plans work too well and we finally learn some of the behind the scene planning by others. Looking forward to the next part. Of course, by now you should know what to expect and this part does not disappoint.
King Souma can finally take it easy. Almost. The Principality of Amidonia, to the west, is a recurring thorn in his paw, but it goes without saying that after multiple military battles, suppressing a protracted civil war, and cleaning house of a dozen or so corrupt nobles . . . after all of these adventures, Soma deserves some respite. REALIST HERO . . . #4 represents the breath of fresh air the king and his subjects take for themselves as the cool and calm winter season approaches.
This volume is a bit dull and includes a rather protracted flashback. Given the events in the previous entries of this novel series, one may be excused for skipping this volume and settling for a five-page summary elsewhere. One can't help but pine for the amblings of war or the curiously twisted politics of negotiating with the Gran Chaos Empire witnessed in previous volumes.
Roughly speaking, one-third of REALIST HERO . . . #4 is a reflection on Souma's encounter with princess Roroa Amidonia, whom through one or two clever tricks, managed to vend herself and her nation to the ruler of the Kingdom of Elfrieden. Too bad Roroa is a horrible cliché and it's too bad the narrative refuses to free itself from this patch of brambles for several hundred pages. The girl herself is thorn in the book's otherwise merciful dalliance with domesticity. To wit, Roroa speaks with a south-central dialect, eschews general manners and permits her ego to take flight as she pleases; the girl, oddly and obviously, is the most unneeded and out-of-place facet in a novel whose out-of-placeness has long since found its stride.
The book's lone highlight is a somewhat-cheesy but ultimately sweet side story involving a slave trader who falls in love with one of his charges. A young man named Ginger Camus inherits a trading post for human labor. But instead of selling the people on the cheap and splitting up families to make a quick buck, the guy does his utmost to find legitimate housing and work for the people under his care. Camus even goes so far as to properly feed, clothe, and educate the enslaved people. Sandria, a raccoon-person slave, takes to helping Camus through this series of good deeds. And in the end, Camus, Sandria, and the reader are rewarded for wishing and hoping for making the most of a desperate but uniquely dark scenario.
REALIST HERO . . . #4 isn't a particularly good volume because nothing consequential actually occurs. Here and there, some secrets leak out, and there's a hearty conversation between Souma and Maria (Gran Chaos Empire), but all in all, this volume reads like one long side story. Roroa Amidonia comes into the household, furthering the harem subtheme, but this was predictable ages ago. As the next phase of the novel series shifts into gear, a few obvious elements emerge: conflict with the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria, building relations with the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union, and the ever-crowding of the royal palace with suitable second-wives.
From the border war with Amidonia, and the inner conflict with the armed forces and corrupt nobles seen on previous volumes, this fourth volume went into a coma. Yes, I fell asleep reading it from its lack of excitement. I feel the author extends activities and accomplishments a little too much. Instead of explaining objectives in a page or two, it takes the author 20-30 pages to talk about every single thing Souma (main character) and his "managers" or retinue do. You can see it better, in that, this 4th volume holds only 5 chapters, while most of the previous volumes have 9-10 or more chapters. The less chapters, the more the author focuses only in a few areas, themes. The Research and Development (new inventions and improvements) through Genia, the slave welfare improvement (Ginger) through requiring nobles to be educated (read, write, math, bookkeeping, etc.) made most of the uneducated nobles purchase literate slaves educated by new character Ginger. Another new character, elf Hilde, is in charge of healthcare within the Kingdom. Brad develops surgery and traditional (Earth) medicine (without use of magic or artifacts). Poncho develops and adapts food recipes from Japan. The Lorelei's finish the volume with a year's end event and get Colbert (finance minister) as their agent (to manage their idol-like success). Then the "new" but somewhat expected relationship of Roroa (princess of Amidonia) with the main character (Souma). Roroa has vast knowledge of economics, politics and the history of Amidonia. I feel her character looks way too young but the author insists on this new bride because of Amidonia being absorbed into Friedonia (Elfrieden and Amidonia joint new name). The author in the Midword (Afterword - his thoughts on the LN) expressed that he saw this 4th volume as the conclusion to his light novel (maybe the first part), because he closes all of the pending story arcs. At present, this light novel has reached 16 volumes, so I hope the author finds divine inspiration and imagination to make the following 12 volumes, all action packed, interesting and worthwhile volumes.
Volume 4, the anime still does it better but the quality is still steadily climbing back up.
To pull from an earlier review. Its an Isekai that fulfills a very specific type of nerdy fantasy that is otherwise very rare. What could you accomplish with your modern knowledge of the hard sciences, economics, and politics if you were sent back in time 500-1000 years. And for once it feels like we actually get the time to dig into it.
Its finally outside the military arc we had to get through in volume 2, and after all the cleanup there we are finally really getting back into the parts this story does best. The world building and the nerdy fantasy are the strongest they have been since book 1, and its a delight. The future harem members are all still unique characters, and the author hasnt just started adding more for no reason instead choosing to develop them all and keep giving them personality. Its still not high tier literature, but im willing to cut it a lot of slack considering the genre and how occasionally wholesome the romantic development is. Particularly since they dont seem to be in a rush to get to it.
Finally, the translation quality seems to have leveled out approximately where volume 3 did. Which is not as good as volume 1 but its maintaining a much higher level than you normally get to see in light novels past the first volume.
This volume of Realist focuses more on Souma's relationship (or lack thereof physically) with Liscia and on what happened to Amedonia after volume 3.
I really enjoy the real world history that influences Souma's decision making. Lots of stuff that I, as a horribly ill informed and not big lover of history, have no prior knowledge of. Some of it was tough to get my head around though, so I'll definitely want to look into some of these further, and re-read these volumes when the opportunity arises again.
Sort of a mixed bag for me, which is unfortunate coming off of an already weak chapter in volume 3. I felt like the harem aspect has really taken over. I do enjoy seeing a focus on side character relationships, though obviously those get less time to develop and are more rushed than Souma's slow burn fiancee relationships. This volume does end with something crazy, and I'm hopeful that the series will continue to challenge us in that regard, betraying expectations about the world and about our characters. If this series remains "comfortable", I think I might be disappointed. We have the setup for insanity if they play their cards right.
This is a very anti-religious volume. Unlike the prior volumes, it feels more biased towards certain ideologies and political systems.
As for the story itself, while it starts with the annexation of Van, it continues with the reforms in Elfrieden, which makes it lack continuity. Many of the events, just like in the prior volumes, seem random, and the story lacks a plot. Also, there is a lot of repetition where it is not needed. Finally, the characters are way too stereotypical. The setting and conversations are not realistic in the slightest. And, this story is obviously geared towards young boys with certain proclivities... This, in effect, makes it frustrating for female - or respectable - readers.
On the other hand, the historical examples are interesting. While the bias seeps through the words, the examples are informative nonetheless.
Read through mostly text to speech, novel is good, tries to do slow unfurl/ solution of many problems presented during previous books. Watched the anime before reading this and it matches the anime adaptation, just has some more internal thought processes sometimes but pretty much all the major chaptets here are also shown in the anime.
Can agree with some other reviewers about how since it is a harem genre it can have some questionable portrayals of women but personally the admin / kingdom building / social policies sides of the story balance it out for me. The author uses a lot of historical references and references to food and songs in the real world which I like, leads to some interesting Google rabbitholes when the protagonist references something.
I really love this series. Yes, I first saw the Anime then found the Light Novels and now I am almost past all the parts depicted on the anime. In the Kingdom of Elfrieden a Hero was summoned his arrival changed things but the biggest change was that the Hero was named the new King. Souma has made so many changes in order to rebuild the crumbling Kingdom. Even defeating there antagonistic neighboring country The Principality of Amidonia. Now one more thing has come from Amidonia, the Princess Roroa. She has decided to marry Souma and in that fashion secure his annexation of the Principality. But that is just a small part of what is happening in Fredonia.
Volume 4, and if you have read the previous 3 books you will know what to expect from this one.
Volume 4 is the final book in the Rebuilding the Kingdom Arc that made up the original web-novel in Japan. It ends in a way that will let you put the series down at a satisfying point - but you can also keep going with the next story arc too. (I am)
The usual Light Novel fare of Isekai shenanigans occur with an emphasis on he upper management and admin of the Kindom. The hero Souma also manages to bag yet ANOTHER future wife too.
This book marks the end of the first arc in this serie. Unfortunately most of the characters are not developed at all, although nothing new is introduce in the story. A new character is introduce in the relationship of the main character but it feels forced and not in line with the story. The author repeats the same subjects many times, making this book a little boring and slow to read compared with previous volumes. This book marks a good ending in this serie for me.
After the excitement of the last 3, this one came to a screeching halt. It was a lot more of Souma developing the relationships with the girls, especially Liscia. I felt that the harem aspect took over the story instead of propelling the plot forward. There was the twist with what truly happened and Souma finding out the truth of why King Albert and Queen Elisha abdicated in favor of Souma. Other than that and what happened with Amendonia, it was a pretty boring volume. The anime did it better. Now 5 is continuing past the anime and I'm so excited to see what's next.
Not a whole lot happened in this book. It does get a bit tedious when every gorgeous, pretty, high-ranking/highly gifted woman wants to marry him and becomes his fiancee. And then he waffles about consummating his relationships even though every one of them wants to have sex with him. He sleeps with them sometimes but nothing sexual happens. And theoretically he's hot for them. Seriously?? Seriously??
The series started really well, but it's gotten a bit same-old, same-old.
3/4 del volumen estuvo aburrido, 3/5 de calificación, y pensé en dejar de leer la novela porque se estaba yendo a una historia de romance/harem. La última parte estuvo muy buena, elevándolo a 4/5 de calificación, ya que se respondieron unas dudas que se plantearon desde el primer volumen y hubo una sensación de que la historia que se estaba contando finalizó. El autor mencionó como la historia ahora irá en otra dirección, a tal punto que la novela web cambió de nombre a partir de este momento, ya que el reino ya fue reconstruido. La historia todavía tiene mucho potencial. Estos primeros 4 volúmenes fueron la base del mundo e historia.
Souma is Integrating the newly annexed territory, stimulating education, increasing the economy, reorganizing the military, sorting out his feelings and intentions for his wives to be, and finding answers to his summoning. I like the action, humor, intrigue, and romance. I look forward to the next book.
Too slow, whats the point of a harem novel where the MC is afraid of commitments, talks about how important family is all the time and hasn’t even kissed his fiance. Wierd ass book
All this potential for world building and the intelligent MC who remembers everything he has ever read apparently is doing stupid shit as page fillers. Dnf
Book is still too good and still too short!! I want more content per book. This book is expensive!! I can get a 500 page book for 99 cents though I admit just cause it's along book doesn't mean it's a good book
Honestly there was very little conflict in this volume. It dragged a lot and not much was accomplished during the volume. It was still cute, and the character interactions kept me reading. Hopefully the next volume advances the story more and deals with more major conflicts. 2.5/5
You will find it very slow in the beginning 2/3s but then the ending is the savings grace also the midword by the author helps you understand why it the starting book had to be the way it was hence you see it in completely different light.
I really love this series, I Can't get enough of how they incorporate our histories past into lessons learned for the fantasy world...Can't wait for volume 5
E chegou ao fim a primeira parte da história. Ate agora me diverti lendo apesar dos seus porblemas, mas espero que a partir de agora os próximos volumes corrigam os erros que teve até agora.
This is where my suspension of disbelief faltered, as everything progressed too smoothly, and too fast. Would have been alright if everything had been skipped between Roroa joining the gang and the new years' chapter.