What do you think?
Rate this book
インフィニット・デンドログラム [Infinite Dendrogram] Light Novel #9
Infinite Dendrogram: Volume 9
The battles around the ruins are intensifying. Two agents from Dryfe enter the stage, and the superweapon built to be the hope of ancient humanity is on the verge of awakening.
The threats to the kingdom force the masked princess to reveal her power, while the demon lying dormant within Ray's bracers waits for her time to show herself.
The Quartierlatin County is in grave danger, and it's up to Ray and his allies to stand and protect it.
The threats to the kingdom force the masked princess to reveal her power, while the demon lying dormant within Ray's bracers waits for her time to show herself.
The Quartierlatin County is in grave danger, and it's up to Ray and his allies to stand and protect it.
- GenresLight Novel
228 pages, ebook
First published February 1, 2019
12 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 23, 2019
Another fun volume of Infinite Dendrogram that closes the current Quartierlatin arc. That said, there are some problems to Infinite Dendrogram that if not addressed, may derail the potential for this series to achieve its greatness in the pantheon of light novels.
First off, the good is the amazing amount of exposition in this volume that further hints of the world of ID not as what it seems. This has been really quite the major difference of this work compared to others in its genre, and raises some overall themes of ethics and morals of being a player in a multiplayer game.
SAO, as the most famous example, definitely has raised similar themes and questions, but in Infinite Dendrogram, the themes of "are NPC's human and should players freely express themselves without any restraint" are pretty much the main driving force of the story. This volume brings the same question further and further as more than half the volume is being covered from the POV of NPC characters that really reveal a depth of complexity and history to them. And more importantly, the impact from players treating their lives as a game.
There are even some major surprise revelations in this volume that further make me question the provenance of the "game", with the author constructing some major backstory and revealing it to the readers here finally. Infinite Dendrogram is really a series I can read for days just to pour over the setting and background details.
On the flipside, one of the major problems still consistently remains on the development of our main character, Ray. In essence, while Ray has definitely gained in strength, his character still remains as static as ever, which really does contribute to some frustration in me in terms of his character arc.
It is a slight letdown for me because Sakon-sensei still manages to craft a whole host of interesting characters in ID that really feel "alive" and driven by their own self, over Ray's role as a sort of reader stand-in. It's also amplified by the rather generic way he wins his fights, which is basically always in the format of fighting some crazy powerful boss that by all rights he can't win against but still prevails due to gaining the right tool at the right timing. While underdogs winning is always nice and all but if it's pretty much the only trick that's being pulled, I'd get bored.
That said, this entire volume is actually filled with really cool fights though, that feel much more natural and showcases the creativity of the author. I particularly loved the battles between one of the previous major antagonists in the series with the current arc's major antagonist as well as the amazing broken overpowered accompaniment fight between Ray's temporary partner and the final boss which was just fun to read about.
In conclusion, this volume of Dendrogram still lives up to expectations mostly and the world building is crazy top notch as usual. It's being slightly dragged down by the rather boring main protagonist but it's made up by the colorful cast of characters both in-game and out of it. Still looking forward to more of the series and hopefully the upcoming anime finally gives it the attention it deserves.
First off, the good is the amazing amount of exposition in this volume that further hints of the world of ID not as what it seems. This has been really quite the major difference of this work compared to others in its genre, and raises some overall themes of ethics and morals of being a player in a multiplayer game.
SAO, as the most famous example, definitely has raised similar themes and questions, but in Infinite Dendrogram, the themes of "are NPC's human and should players freely express themselves without any restraint" are pretty much the main driving force of the story. This volume brings the same question further and further as more than half the volume is being covered from the POV of NPC characters that really reveal a depth of complexity and history to them. And more importantly, the impact from players treating their lives as a game.
There are even some major surprise revelations in this volume that further make me question the provenance of the "game", with the author constructing some major backstory and revealing it to the readers here finally. Infinite Dendrogram is really a series I can read for days just to pour over the setting and background details.
On the flipside, one of the major problems still consistently remains on the development of our main character, Ray. In essence, while Ray has definitely gained in strength, his character still remains as static as ever, which really does contribute to some frustration in me in terms of his character arc.
It is a slight letdown for me because Sakon-sensei still manages to craft a whole host of interesting characters in ID that really feel "alive" and driven by their own self, over Ray's role as a sort of reader stand-in. It's also amplified by the rather generic way he wins his fights, which is basically always in the format of fighting some crazy powerful boss that by all rights he can't win against but still prevails due to gaining the right tool at the right timing. While underdogs winning is always nice and all but if it's pretty much the only trick that's being pulled, I'd get bored.
That said, this entire volume is actually filled with really cool fights though, that feel much more natural and showcases the creativity of the author. I particularly loved the battles between one of the previous major antagonists in the series with the current arc's major antagonist as well as the amazing broken overpowered accompaniment fight between Ray's temporary partner and the final boss which was just fun to read about.
In conclusion, this volume of Dendrogram still lives up to expectations mostly and the world building is crazy top notch as usual. It's being slightly dragged down by the rather boring main protagonist but it's made up by the colorful cast of characters both in-game and out of it. Still looking forward to more of the series and hopefully the upcoming anime finally gives it the attention it deserves.
December 17, 2020
This series should be called Deus Ex Machina. Ray continues to pull impossible like results due to all these super convenient coincidences. In earlier volumes he actually had to do some thinking. Not this time, the answer is pretty clear that super power A will be used to solve problem #1 and super power B will be used to solve problem #2.
Writing has gone down in quality too, with the author repeating background info constantly inbetween chapters.
Writing has gone down in quality too, with the author repeating background info constantly inbetween chapters.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews