Overlord, Vol. 10: The Ruler of Conspiracy

Overlord #10

by Kugane Maruyama, so-bin (Artist)

After a bloody turn of events, Ainz has established the Nation of Darkness, aiming to create a utopia where people of all races can enjoy everlasting prosperity-as long they kneel before him. His first goal is to expand the Adventurers Guild to nurture new talent, a task that requires him to vacate his throne for a journey to the empire. At the same time, all of the neighboring rulers have started nervously discussing plans for resistance while watching everything unfold, because when the undying king of an immortal nation makes his first move, the whole world trembles!

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Fiction, Manga, Novels, Anime, Magic

342 pages, Hardcover

First published May 30, 2016

About the author

MARUYAMA Kugane
Name (in native language): 丸山くがね

Reviews

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of a slow start as an awkward Ainz inhabits his newly conquered E-Rantel. But it gets so much better! Funny and action packed as Ainz battles another PvP match. Ainz inadvertently applies pressure on Emperor Jircniv and walks out the empire having won love, fear and admiration from all parties! Truly the quote "All warfare is based on deception" fits Ainz to a T. 😆 Next volume will take us to the Dwarf Kingdom!

[Jorge Rosas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and down time, after the impressive time in the last book, with some unexpected success events and more structure building for Nazarick.

[Nate Wynter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely hilarious, could not believe how hard someone can fail upwards so hard

[Dallas Jeter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fan of the while series

If you like the series you'll love this one my only dislike is that I have to wait for the next one

[Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overlord just keeps better. Normally I start to lose interest in light novel series after a few volumes. It usually feels like the author is running out of ideas, keeping the series going to maintain a stable income or out of a sense of obligation to his editor and publisher. This isn't the case with overlord, if anything it feels like the series has just gotten started after a whole lot of world-building.

[Edric Unsane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volume 10 of the Overlord Light Novels was entertaining. I love how Ains continues to stumble from event to event while at the same time having the best possible outcome for said events. Everyone but Ains himself believes him to be a master tactician who is on the level of a god. I'm very well invested in seeing where the story leads, and I most certainly recommend the Overlord Light Novels.

[Gabriel d'Matos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finalmente o autor começou a iniciar a trama e rumo final da historia, demorou mas chegou.

[Pablo García · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author sets up yet another contradiction. The first attack in Carne village near Nazarick was from the Baharuth Empire. This Empire sent knights to kill all of the villagers. Ainz (Momonga-Satoru Suzuki) protected the remains of the villagers from this masacre. Then at a later time, assassins from the Slane Theocracy went to Carne to try to annihilate the Kingdom's hero Gazef Stronoff and his unit.
These two foreign powers were the first to fight against Ainz Ooal Gown. To begin his new world domination, Ainz killed more than 165 thousand soldiers and nobles of the Re-Estize Kingdom amd occupies the city of E-Rantel of the Re-Estize Kingdom (Carne was also a territory from this kingdom). Killed the first prince and future king of the kingdom as well but as far as volume 10, has not acted against the Baharuth Empire or the Slane Theocracy. There is no rationality to his actions or omissions.
Ainz does not care about the Carne villagers. He is only worried about the creation of potions and its value and thus protects Nfirea and Lizzie Bareare and secondly of Enri Emmot (the new village head).
If Ainz feels nothing for the people that live in this new world, then it's really not important for him to conquer this new world. Ainz is more worried about maintaining the "image" of "genius/OP/et" that the NPC's (Floor guardians, and rest of the Nazarick personnel have of him) than to save, protect, foster the people of this new world. This is irrational. Ainz is still living in this new world like if he was still playing the Yggdrasil game. In a game, there are no consequences to human lives and to player's lives because it is not real, while life in this new world supposedly is real for everyone.
Everyone in Nazarick wishes to conquer the world, but none care for the people and beings living in the world? This does not make sense. Ainz wants to conquer the Baharuth Empire as is (in a pristine form) but does not want to destroy it. Ainz has no ambition, intelligence or ability, but wants to rule over the whole world???

[Thomson Tran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this light novel will make you leave you disgusted, yet interested and curious about where the story is heading in the future. The setting takes place inside a virtual reality DMMO-RPG (Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) named Yggdrasil. The environment and the people don’t have technology, it is very medieval like with multiple kingdoms. However it is a fantasy world, hence supernatural beings and powers exist like ogres, goblins, and magic. The protagonist of the story, Ainz Ooal Gown is transported into the game after staying up late with the game servers that were shutting down. His real name is Suzuki Satoru, and in the real world he was a businessman. He has NPCs that came to life when he was transported into the game. During this volume Ainz is mostly in his office reading and signing laws and paperwork for his kingdom (Sorcerer Kingdom). Most of this volume is political debate on how the kingdom is run and what ways to make it better. He is allied with another kingdom named The Baharuth Kingdom. The emperor of that kingdom Jircniv Rune Farland El Nix is terrified of the power Ainz has and has plans to take him out with other nearing kingdoms. The theme of this volume was power, and how power was given to those who didn’t have power, and the loss of power in those who did. In my personal opinion this volume gave us the other side of the story. Some say it would have been a boring volume, but I see it as world building. It gives us the political side of the story and shows us something that we don’t normally see in fantasy type stories. I think the author Kugane Maruyama, wrote this chapter with less action, was to calm the readers from the previous volume, and to hype the readers up for the next volume.

[Tarl · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I am done this series and I look back and think on each volume, I suspect I will be hard pressed to describe what happened in this book other than some politics, a ball, and that is about it. Well, that and the arena battle, which I will talk about here in a bit.

Yes, we are starting to see what it takes to run a country, and if you have ever thought of that as boring, you're pretty much nailing it on a head. (at least for me) The only really interesting thing is how Ainz is doing his thing and everyone is basically solving his issues for him as they try to out maneuver his 'great intellect'. I did find that aspect kind of funny.

Then there is the arena battle where Ainz has to depower himself so much to make it more realistic for the crowd, and STILL comes across as over powered, even to the person he is fighting. And here we get to the overall arching issue with this series that I have mentioned in a lot of my reviews of the later novels. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can harm any of the main characters and because of that there is no tension in this series. Ask yourself, would you enjoy reading a series where there is no antagonist? That's how this feels. Sure, there are people moving against them, but no one of any sort of power who can actually harm them.

At this point, there aren't that many books left in the series and I am starting to worry that we will never see someone strong enough to take on the Tomb or Ainz. And that leaves me wondering 'why am I reading this series'.

But onto the next book we go. Off to see dwarves, who will most likely not pose an threat, will most likely join the Tomb cause why not? And so on and so forth...

[Dex Vaughn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story just keeps getting better!

Overlord is my guilty pleasure. It doesn’t have your typical ups and downs for conflict but rather weaves a story that allows you to observe the hilarious events unfold around the MC. It has strong “The Man Who Knew Too Little” energy where the protagonist comes off as an unrivaled genius even though he is only mediocre, at best. This volume does a good job of peering into the minds of the adversaries in order to get a better idea of how lucky the MC truly is.

This volume in particular delves into the political chess game as well as city infrastructure issues. The author is able to conceptualize the problems facing kingdoms, empires, and guilds in such a real way that makes you believe it is truly a thriving world. There are many seeds being established that I can’t wait to see what blooms in the next few volumes.

This one might’ve been my favorite in the series so far. A few times I’d even let out audible chuckles, as opposed to the sharp huffs of breath previous titles coaxed out of me. Maruyama is truly mastering his craft after 10 volumes in.

[Saurav Adhikari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary
Basically this book is about a guy who gets transfered into a frictional world or a game where he is overpowered and has ~42 overpowered followers who thinks he (Momanga or something like that later he becomes Ainz) is the greatest and the best. One of my best Frictional novels I have ever read.
It joins togather comedy with the seriousness and also answers about the reality of socitey. It's fun when his followers overpraise him about something he dosen't Know.
For example one of his Smartest follower Demurgus thinks Momanga is smarter than him their conversetion goes like.

Momanga: So everything is fine right?
Demurgus: Oh how smart of you My lordyou found something was wrong So fast? You are talking about that right?
Momanga: Yes that?
Demurgus: That is amazing?
Momanga: Oh, Can you solve That?
Demurgus: Of course that is not a probelm.
Momanga (on his heart): "But i dont know what that is?"

[FaDoug · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not really sure how I feel about this volume of "Overlord".

I really liked this first half, which focused on scheming and political intrigue within the kingdom; but the second half that focused on the one tournament battle was just really...not my thing. I usually like fights in this series, but when they're so drawn out like this, I end up feeling nothing other than boredom.

I'm a little worried for the next volume(s) because season four of the anime (which is adapting this part of the novels) was, by far, my least favorite of the whole show. I'm hoping the story will be more interesting in novel form, but if its just going to be the same exact thing as the show, I might be in trouble.

Overall, this volume was okay, but it is very far from the best this series has to offer.

[Rolaka Pisarka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overlord mnie... bawi...
Książka pisana jest z wielu perspektyw, dzięki którym poznajemy zamierzenia poszczególnych osób i ich sposób postrzegania działań innych. I w tym wszystkim jest zabawa, kiedy wszyscy oceniają Ainza jako tego wielkiego, cudownego, przerażające, a biedak próbuje stwarzać pozory silnego władzy i nie pozwolić, aby prawda o jego słabościach wyszła na jaw.
Jednak jeśli chodzi o samą fabułę... Nie czułam tutaj, żeby ten tom do czegoś zmierzał. Nie było w nim jasno przedstawionego celu, raczej miałam wrażenie, że to dopiero początek większej całości, także... czekam na kolejny tom!

[Aditya Prasad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The overlord is struggling to set a broad goal for the world he wants to see. His emotions being dampened means he is forced to be like a cold unemotional robot. In this book he finally decides to make his kingdom a utopia for all races.

We see funny coincidences that keep working in his favor, he must have maxed out his luck stat. I kinda wished the Empire's blood empire put up a stronger fight.

Ainz finds the key to people's hearts. In this case, the adventurers desire to explore and be brought back to life if they die.

[Jota · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume is kind of boring, as it's the aftermath of the battle in Volume 9. There are several bits that seem overly detailed, which is a great selling point in Overlord, but sometimes really feel tiring when the volume doesn't provide enough engagement. The ending part was the most interesting and there are more comedic bits than previous chapters (the whole premise of Ainz's intellect is hilarious).
Overall, a transition story for the next big "arc".

[Argenis Gutierrez · Rating 4 out of 5]

And the Nation of Darkness continues to grow!

I just love the Overlord series overall. Lots more building of the nation of Darkness. I really enjoy getting the POV from the guardians and Ainz. Not too much of a fan when it comes to getting the POV from other characters. Solid momentum overall. Don’t wanna spoil anything.

[Lexie García · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha encantado como se desenvuelve y como accidentalmente todo le va saliendo a su favor, es que ni siquiera es acordé al plan de Satoru, el solamente quiere huir sin mirar atrás y que lo dejen en paz pero su miedo a decepcionar a los NPCs o que alguien los ataque lo hacen meterse en cada embrollo, ame a Jircniv y como entra en crisis.

[Mohammed Ghoul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series. This book had a slow start but a perfect build up, it was less eventful than most of the previous books but I appreciated the deep dive into the politics and bureaucracy of running a country. The buildup for the next books is also nice, looking forward to the rest of the series.

[Ricardo Matos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Divided into 3 parts, 1st is poor, 2nd is quite good, 3rd is spoiled by the cover and a bit idiotic tbh. Still, considerably better than most LNs around... but as an Overlord novel I can’t give it more than 3 stars

[Joana · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the battle against the Kingdom, Ainz ponders over how to rule his new conquered city.

Meanwhile, everyone keeps misunderstanding his actions as carefully planned years in advance, even Emperor Jircniv.

[Pumpkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 stars for overall plot and writing style.

I didn’t mean to binge read this book in a day, buuut here we are! This series has got me hooked. I love how the coincidences don’t feel forced at all, and how everything goes together so perfectly every time.

[MG · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought volume 1 was way too slow to keep my interest and so I thought I would skip ahead to the point that goes beyond the point in the narrative when the anime series ends. The pace slowed down even more. Nothing happens. Terrible.

[Basililouis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I think this is just okay but ainz interaction with El nix is really cool. Every other part though is whatever and I think as the series goes on it relies more and more on these cool feats of flexing while the plot and characters that are introduced grow worse and worse

[John Asuncion · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series

[Feen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. SASUGA AINZ SAMA... Really funny and definitely made the Emperor seem much more likable.

[Henrique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ains vai para a arena testar suas habilidades.

[Andy Febrico Bintoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The expansion began, this is interesting to follow.

[Adetunji Caryourday · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, It was a perfect continuation from the end of Season 3 of the Anime.

[Stephen Maunder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

I like the anime. So I wanted to read the light novel. So know that the anime has ended I wanted to read more of the story.