The die is cast. During one of his usual raids, the young man who has come to be known as Goblin Slayer discovers a ring that glows with a mysterious fiery light. In is quest to identify it, he's introduced to Arc Mage, an eccentric wizard who lives on the edge of town. She enlists Goblin Slayer's help in revising the Monster Manual, a task the Guild has entrusted to her. It just so happens that the article she's been assigned to write is about...goblins.Arc Mage and the young Goblin Slayer's ongoing research will take them to the ends of the earth, where they eventually reach an ominous dark tower... It'll take some teamwork to get all the way to the top!
Delving further in to Goblin Slayer's past, this volume chronicles an encounter he has with Arch Mage, that leads him to discover something quite out of this world.
This was actually quite a confusing book, where the real plot never really gets going until almost halfway in. It does have vignettes of other familiar characters in the original series to tide things over, but I'd say there is a surprising lack of focus overall.
It would've been a good entry if it focused on some character development, but the one that got the most screentime here is surprisingly Cow Girl, albeit in a rather boring fashion of getting one-sidedly jealous when she sees our hero interact with his female compatriots.
While the first volume gave interesting insights in to the beginning of our hero's career, this one feels rather pointless and tepid at parts. An easy skip if you're not that invested in to his backstory.
The continuation of the story of Goblin Slayer. A thoroughly enjoyable read filled with early versions of the characters whom we have come to know. In this adventure we see the beginning of the cracks in the hard shell of Goblin Slayer's that will be exploited by his later companions. The story follows Goblin Slayer as he learns more about his foes and we get to see his use of the transport scroll to devastating effect for the first time, however if your like me then you'll of seen this move during the main series, through the anime, manga or light novel series, but still it was a nice touch. The later quest in this story was intriguing and I could see how it was lifted out of a Dungeons and Dragons game, the smooth inclusion of the other characters such as Spearman and Witch was nice and ultimately it was compelling enough to force me finish. A great purchase for fans of the series.
I liked it. It is imperfect, but it was decent. We get to see Goblin Slayer learning more about his chosen trade by doing a number of Goblin Related jobs for Arc Mage. While doing jobs for her, Cow Girl gets a bit jealous, but never really does anything about it other than brood. But then isn't she just a middle-teen at this point? Is that not the time of angst and bad poetry (the latter of which we were not truly subjected to!) The final quest GS does with Arc was perhaps the weakest part of the book, but it was alright. If nothing else you see GS experimenting with ways to kill goblins and learning better ways of going about it. Getting to see more about Witch and Spearman was a fun addition too.
Oh the whole an okay book, rated 4 stars because I just enjoyed reading it. I'm not rating for great literature, just my reaction to the book.
Mixed feelings about this one. The world building was good (especially the Witch and Spearman parts), and it was really great to see Goblin Slayer develop and become more knowledgeable and proficient at killing Goblins. Now the main quest was confusing and vague. I liked the quest giver, but not the quest itself... a bit moronic. Say you prepare all your life for something, you know there're going to be risks and you take a single bodyguard with you? It felt forced. Add Cow Girl and the numerous needless references to well endowed chests and that's a 2 star for me...
We get Spearman and Witch’s story, the origin of the gate scroll and breathing ring, apple cider, and dimensional magic and edge of the world which sort of went over my head. And plenty of goblins.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.