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リアデイルの大地にて [Leadale no Daichi nite] (Novel) #3
In the Land of Leadale (Light Novel), Vol. 3
Now a full-fledged adventurer, the high elf Cayna is back on the road to find the next Guardian Tower. She stops at a fishing village where there's talk of a castle at the bottom of the ocean, but she finds the village covered in a strange mist and overrun with scores of undead! After a chance reunion with one of her former guild members, Cayna has another boss battle awaiting her...and it involves a pirate capain and an eerie ghost ship!
392 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 30, 2019
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106 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 18, 2021
Hm.
When I was looking at reviews, I noticed that the first volume of this got criticism for the lack of events. It's true that nothing much happens in the first book, but (I thought) it was an interesting nothing much and the writing was good.
About half of volume three is Cayna playing house. She takes in a young girl, Luka, whose family have been killed, and promptly decides that she needs to retire to the unnamed village near her tower. We are treated to glorious detail of the new house she builds. It is, I'm sorry to say, a bit tedious. The fights she gets into aren't bad, and there's intrigue brewing (too slowly) in the background, but you have to drag yourself through all the mud to get to that. Frankly, 'If it's for My Daughter, I'll Even Defeat a Demon Lord' did this trope much better.
And the writing is not as good. Or it's my belief that the translation isn't as good. Translating fiction can be very difficult. Translating Japanese to English is supposed to be a real chore. Translating Japanese fiction into English has to be horrendous. But some are better at it than others. I suspect three different translators have worked on these volumes, and the one who did the first book understood writing English fiction, not just how to translate the languages.
So, I did not enjoy this as much as the other volumes, especially the first. Two stars; it was okay.
The fourth volume isn't available in English yet, so I'll have to wait to see if things improve.
When I was looking at reviews, I noticed that the first volume of this got criticism for the lack of events. It's true that nothing much happens in the first book, but (I thought) it was an interesting nothing much and the writing was good.
About half of volume three is Cayna playing house. She takes in a young girl, Luka, whose family have been killed, and promptly decides that she needs to retire to the unnamed village near her tower. We are treated to glorious detail of the new house she builds. It is, I'm sorry to say, a bit tedious. The fights she gets into aren't bad, and there's intrigue brewing (too slowly) in the background, but you have to drag yourself through all the mud to get to that. Frankly, 'If it's for My Daughter, I'll Even Defeat a Demon Lord' did this trope much better.
And the writing is not as good. Or it's my belief that the translation isn't as good. Translating fiction can be very difficult. Translating Japanese to English is supposed to be a real chore. Translating Japanese fiction into English has to be horrendous. But some are better at it than others. I suspect three different translators have worked on these volumes, and the one who did the first book understood writing English fiction, not just how to translate the languages.
So, I did not enjoy this as much as the other volumes, especially the first. Two stars; it was okay.
The fourth volume isn't available in English yet, so I'll have to wait to see if things improve.
June 10, 2022
Slow, careful world building is a plus for this LitRPG
A lot of reviewers here **hate** this story's pacing. Please allow me to inform you about a Japanese genre cheekily described in the West as CGDCT (Cute girls doing cute things). In Japan, it is referred to as 空気系 (kūkikei) or 日常系 (nichijōkei), which means air-based or everyday-based, respectively. Usually, the air-based genre stars a cute girl or a gaggle of them doing, yes, cute things. Leadale is an offshoot of this genre where action scenes are alternated with Cayna figuring things out, talking to people, and generally being cute while stunning her friends with her OP ways. As an Air-based LitRPG Fantasy, Leadale can be a slow-paced tale of game mechanics, magic, and village life as the heroine learns how to survive in the world. It might be an acquired taste. Then again, I feel puzzled over the readers who read three volumes of this series and still hate it. Three volumes and you still don't understand that this series moves slowly? Okeh.
Since this book is first and foremost LitRPG, Cayna takes a side-quest, encounters danger, resolves it to the astonishment of her peers, then goes home and does something domestic before heading out on another quest. This is no Lord of the Rings. However, it's not trying to be. Cayna is a 17-year-old girl suddenly finding herself not only trapped in a video game, but responsible as a mother for other characters that she created. That's where the cuteness comes in, as well as ditzy overpowered moments where she displays godlike powers in mundane situations. It's like Kuma Kuma Bear without the anime suit and the food porn.
In volume three, Cayna continues her questing to find the other Guardian Towers left behind by her guild mates from before Leadale became real. This time, she hits the beach, but gets interrupted by zombies and a pirate ship commanded by skeletons first. Unfortunately, finding the Guardian Tower had all the impact of a fetch quest for fruit in an online game. The real purpose of the journey was to meet two other players also trapped in the game, and to rescue Luka the orphan—the ultimate character to tap into Cayna cuteness as a mother.
What I enjoyed about this volume was the camaraderie between characters, Cayna's growth as a person due to her responsibilities, and the well-crafted world building. There is a wealth of concrete backstory to make this world feel real that most other light novels lack. Since the story is also air-based, the backstory is mostly revealed through conversations. It's not quite exposition, but it does plod along slower than most action adventure fantasies. Also, there are lots of LitRPG discussions about gaming systems and details.
My only complaint is that Ceez feels compelled to play repeatedly one particular note on his piano of gags: Let's get Cayna drunk. She's a "non-drinker" who is forced to drink for social reasons. That's the joke. In this volume, Cayna never uses her poison protection once to prevent herself from getting blotto. So, if you think drunk girls are cute, then cute drunk girls doing cute drunk things might be right up your alley. Except nothing happens. There is no point to these scenes. This isn't like the trope where alcohol uninhibits characters so that they can discuss their real feelings. We are simply told there will be a party, Cayna goes to the party, we are informed she drank too much again, and she has a hangover. Next scene!
Fortunately, the situational comedy and the fun characters keep this story fresh and interesting. The world building is also well done. The book is far and away better than the anime, which covers up to volume three. There is a depth to this world that the anime merely scratched. The characters are more nuanced. The world lore is deeper and more intriguing. There's even another kingdom that makes an appearance in this volume (as a followup to an incident in the last volume), widening the world's scope and size while also filling in details of the two hundred years that passed after Cayna died and was reborn in Leadale.
Don't let the pacing detract from a good book. If you were a fan of the anime, you'll enjoy this more expanded story.
A lot of reviewers here **hate** this story's pacing. Please allow me to inform you about a Japanese genre cheekily described in the West as CGDCT (Cute girls doing cute things). In Japan, it is referred to as 空気系 (kūkikei) or 日常系 (nichijōkei), which means air-based or everyday-based, respectively. Usually, the air-based genre stars a cute girl or a gaggle of them doing, yes, cute things. Leadale is an offshoot of this genre where action scenes are alternated with Cayna figuring things out, talking to people, and generally being cute while stunning her friends with her OP ways. As an Air-based LitRPG Fantasy, Leadale can be a slow-paced tale of game mechanics, magic, and village life as the heroine learns how to survive in the world. It might be an acquired taste. Then again, I feel puzzled over the readers who read three volumes of this series and still hate it. Three volumes and you still don't understand that this series moves slowly? Okeh.
Since this book is first and foremost LitRPG, Cayna takes a side-quest, encounters danger, resolves it to the astonishment of her peers, then goes home and does something domestic before heading out on another quest. This is no Lord of the Rings. However, it's not trying to be. Cayna is a 17-year-old girl suddenly finding herself not only trapped in a video game, but responsible as a mother for other characters that she created. That's where the cuteness comes in, as well as ditzy overpowered moments where she displays godlike powers in mundane situations. It's like Kuma Kuma Bear without the anime suit and the food porn.
In volume three, Cayna continues her questing to find the other Guardian Towers left behind by her guild mates from before Leadale became real. This time, she hits the beach, but gets interrupted by zombies and a pirate ship commanded by skeletons first. Unfortunately, finding the Guardian Tower had all the impact of a fetch quest for fruit in an online game. The real purpose of the journey was to meet two other players also trapped in the game, and to rescue Luka the orphan—the ultimate character to tap into Cayna cuteness as a mother.
What I enjoyed about this volume was the camaraderie between characters, Cayna's growth as a person due to her responsibilities, and the well-crafted world building. There is a wealth of concrete backstory to make this world feel real that most other light novels lack. Since the story is also air-based, the backstory is mostly revealed through conversations. It's not quite exposition, but it does plod along slower than most action adventure fantasies. Also, there are lots of LitRPG discussions about gaming systems and details.
My only complaint is that Ceez feels compelled to play repeatedly one particular note on his piano of gags: Let's get Cayna drunk. She's a "non-drinker" who is forced to drink for social reasons. That's the joke. In this volume, Cayna never uses her poison protection once to prevent herself from getting blotto. So, if you think drunk girls are cute, then cute drunk girls doing cute drunk things might be right up your alley. Except nothing happens. There is no point to these scenes. This isn't like the trope where alcohol uninhibits characters so that they can discuss their real feelings. We are simply told there will be a party, Cayna goes to the party, we are informed she drank too much again, and she has a hangover. Next scene!
Fortunately, the situational comedy and the fun characters keep this story fresh and interesting. The world building is also well done. The book is far and away better than the anime, which covers up to volume three. There is a depth to this world that the anime merely scratched. The characters are more nuanced. The world lore is deeper and more intriguing. There's even another kingdom that makes an appearance in this volume (as a followup to an incident in the last volume), widening the world's scope and size while also filling in details of the two hundred years that passed after Cayna died and was reborn in Leadale.
Don't let the pacing detract from a good book. If you were a fan of the anime, you'll enjoy this more expanded story.
December 28, 2022
See at first I didn’t enjoy how mother henny cayna was like then I learned that it was a popular style of book and I started to understand it better. Understand that this is a usual thing in other parts of the world is the key to understanding and perhaps enjoying other book!!!
I enjoyed the book immensely and am very excited to get the next one and even though it has slightly gone down in my personal rankings it’s still in my top three favorite fluff series.
I enjoyed the book immensely and am very excited to get the next one and even though it has slightly gone down in my personal rankings it’s still in my top three favorite fluff series.
October 2, 2024
There's an amount I was looking forward to reading this, since it's been quite a while since I read the prior two books (which I regret not having reviewed while I had them so I could remember better what they were like). However, it is so laid back that almost nothing significant happens in the book until a fourth of the way in... not that that should be surprising, since it's about one of the top players who grinded through the game to become such a high level that almost nothing can compete. (The book does remind the reader that she did this because she was bedridden and unable to do much else, so don't judge. Not sure if the "disabilities" tag applies for this volume if that's in her past, though.)
The other thing is I can't *quite* remember if this was all already covered by the anime? It's been a while since watching that, too! If so, then it feels like it will be at least book 5 before I hit new territory. I don't know... there's laid back, and there's "watching paint dry." At least it isn't Classroom of the Elite Vol. 2, which was a very lot of pages devoted almost entirely to a single fight (which felt like it dragged even in the THREE episodes of anime it took); things happen here, but not very quickly.
The major issue is I find the writing in this book slightly more confusing than normal for light novels. I don't know if it's the specific translation, but there are places where I'm not quite sure who is talking, and there's no context to be able to puzzle it out, especially after having forgotten a lot of the characters other than Cayna (and her peculiar adopted kids).
(update)
Actually, I'm surprised Kee is described as male (male default?), especially since I vaguely recall the anime having Kee with a higher-pitched ("female"/androgynous) voice. Also surprised, the "largest" house blueprint in Cayna's repertoire has rooms that are each "about nine square feet"—three foot on each side?! Nobody can live in THAT!
I'm going to assume it's a translation error, especially since it's in feet (almost uniquely English localisation) rather than metres, though it's possible Ceez doesn't know how rooms are measured (square footage being the total area of a room rather than its dimensions).
There are some other small things that bugged me, but I can't remember them after how long it's taking me to trudge through the story. Like, it's not bad in the moment, but I also don't remember a damn lot happening!
(completion update)
I really feel like my eyes were just going over the words without processing any of them. Seriously. I mean, things happened, yes! Did I retain ANY of them? Nope! It's weird, because more things happened in this book than in Bookshops & Bonedust, yet the latter held my interest much more thoroughly! I feel like there's some disjointedness to the writing in Leadale—either in its translation or just how it is, period—that just doesn't lend itself well to the written form. The anime was great, and I clearly loved it enough to actively seek out the light novels AND the manga (though, off the top of my head, both were prior to me creating a Goodreads account and, therefore, don't have reviews other than this volume). It's a little disappointing having such a rough time of the book, then.
Not that this is restricted just to this series; I've had similar complaints about No Game, No Life, though THAT is even harder to read due to a ridiculous number of... "quirks"... in the writing. I think the only worse book to try to read would be, like, Emoji Dick. I shouldn't have to fight the writing to get to the story!
Too bad, since I'd really love to see how this turns out. I mean, there's not a lot of ways a story where "VMMORPG ends service and all online players are transported to that world for real" could "end" happily. The best would be sort of an open ending where the characters retire and do exactly what Cayna's trying to do, just exist peacefully.
I don't know. I guess I prefer the anime, then the manga... light novel a distant third. There's just TOO many points of interest being shoehorned in without a deft touch tying them all together in the light novel.
The other thing is I can't *quite* remember if this was all already covered by the anime? It's been a while since watching that, too! If so, then it feels like it will be at least book 5 before I hit new territory. I don't know... there's laid back, and there's "watching paint dry." At least it isn't Classroom of the Elite Vol. 2, which was a very lot of pages devoted almost entirely to a single fight (which felt like it dragged even in the THREE episodes of anime it took); things happen here, but not very quickly.
The major issue is I find the writing in this book slightly more confusing than normal for light novels. I don't know if it's the specific translation, but there are places where I'm not quite sure who is talking, and there's no context to be able to puzzle it out, especially after having forgotten a lot of the characters other than Cayna (and her peculiar adopted kids).
(update)
Actually, I'm surprised Kee is described as male (male default?), especially since I vaguely recall the anime having Kee with a higher-pitched ("female"/androgynous) voice. Also surprised, the "largest" house blueprint in Cayna's repertoire has rooms that are each "about nine square feet"—three foot on each side?! Nobody can live in THAT!
I'm going to assume it's a translation error, especially since it's in feet (almost uniquely English localisation) rather than metres, though it's possible Ceez doesn't know how rooms are measured (square footage being the total area of a room rather than its dimensions).
There are some other small things that bugged me, but I can't remember them after how long it's taking me to trudge through the story. Like, it's not bad in the moment, but I also don't remember a damn lot happening!
(completion update)
I really feel like my eyes were just going over the words without processing any of them. Seriously. I mean, things happened, yes! Did I retain ANY of them? Nope! It's weird, because more things happened in this book than in Bookshops & Bonedust, yet the latter held my interest much more thoroughly! I feel like there's some disjointedness to the writing in Leadale—either in its translation or just how it is, period—that just doesn't lend itself well to the written form. The anime was great, and I clearly loved it enough to actively seek out the light novels AND the manga (though, off the top of my head, both were prior to me creating a Goodreads account and, therefore, don't have reviews other than this volume). It's a little disappointing having such a rough time of the book, then.
Not that this is restricted just to this series; I've had similar complaints about No Game, No Life, though THAT is even harder to read due to a ridiculous number of... "quirks"... in the writing. I think the only worse book to try to read would be, like, Emoji Dick. I shouldn't have to fight the writing to get to the story!
Too bad, since I'd really love to see how this turns out. I mean, there's not a lot of ways a story where "VMMORPG ends service and all online players are transported to that world for real" could "end" happily. The best would be sort of an open ending where the characters retire and do exactly what Cayna's trying to do, just exist peacefully.
I don't know. I guess I prefer the anime, then the manga... light novel a distant third. There's just TOO many points of interest being shoehorned in without a deft touch tying them all together in the light novel.
April 17, 2022
In this volume Cayna adopts a young orphan called Luka. Luka is the most boring character in this series, in fact all the kids are a bore to read about. Barely anything happened in this volume and it dragged in many places.
Honestly, this series is boring. I would have dropped it had I not enjoyed the antics of Skargo.
Honestly, this series is boring. I would have dropped it had I not enjoyed the antics of Skargo.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 13, 2025
Volume 3 was about at the same level as Volume 2 though since it didn't have much more to it, it ended up being less interesting to me. There were some moments I enjoyed quite a bit, most of which surrounded getting to know the world more and seeing hints at possible avenues to explore in the next books. Otherwise, this was just as cozy as the other two!
August 6, 2022
Toujours un régal ce manga! J'adore le personnage de Cayna et tous les paradoxes qu'elle contient. Et cette fin :O
August 31, 2022
Such a beautiful series
September 29, 2022
Toujours un plaisir
October 1, 2022
Great volume, and I can't help but look forward to the next one. Loved that we're meeting more players!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews