James Nicoll Reviews

2016’s Adopted Daughter of an Archduke, Volume 1 is the first instalment of the third arc in Miya Kazuki’s Ascendance of a Bookworm secondary-universe fantasy series. Illustrations are by You Shiina. The 2020 English translation is by Quof. 

Myne is dead! Long live Rozemyne, recently acknowledged daughter of Karstedt, knight commander. Her very existence has been hidden for years to protect her from the nobility’s incessant squabbles; now Rozemyne will now be formally adopted by Sylvester, Archduke of Ehrenfest.

That’s the official story.

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2016’s Apprentice Shrine Maiden, Volume 4 is the fourth and final volume in the second arc of Miya Kazuki’s Ascendance of a Bookworm secondary fantasy world series. The 2020 English translation is by Quof.

Urano has built — well, more stumbled into — as comfortable a life as she could expect under the circumstances. Reborn after a fatal book-related accident into the body of a sickly peasant girl named Myne living in the city-state of Ehrenfest, she has used her memories of a wide variety of arts and crafts to enrich herself by upending the local economy. The malady that threatens her health also makes her a prodigious source of valuable mana; this has earned her a position as a shrine maiden despite the social impediment presented by her adopted family’s low status. 

She is about to get a pointed lesson about power and law in the archaic society in which she is living.

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2016’s Apprentice Shrine Maiden, Volume 3 is the third instalment in the second arc of Miya Kazuki’s Ascendance of a Bookworm secondary-world fantasy series. Illustrations are by You Shiina. The 2020 English language translation is by Quof.

Myne kept the secret of her past — that she contains the memories of a Japanese bookworm who died when her books collapsed on her — a closely held secret. True, she possesses great knowledge of many topics utterly unfamiliar to her new homeland. She thought that she could conceal this advantage. She couldn’t. Circumstances forced her to confess all to High Priest Lord Ferdinand. Magic has confirmed her story. 

Myne believes that she is now free to return to her avocation of upending society through the introduction of innovations. These innovations may cause side-effects, but she’s not worried about those. All she wants is realize her dream of mass-produced books. 

She’s wrong. Pursuing her dream has become more difficult. 

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2016’s Apprentice Shrine Maiden Volume 2 is the second volume in the second arc of Miya Kazuki’s Ascendance of a Bookworm series. Illustrations are by You Shiina. The 2020 English language translation is by Quof.

Since her reincarnation in a new world, bookworm Myne has been working to recreate books, publishing, and libraries. The culmination of her long efforts appears to be at hand. Perhaps. What Myne doesn’t know about her new society (and doesn’t care to learn) is going to present difficulties. 

This is not the first time Myne has run up against this problem. Too bad she is a slow learner.

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2015’s Apprentice Shrine Maiden, Volume 1 is the first installment in the second arc of Miya Kazuki’s Ascendance of a Bookworm book series. Illustrations are by You Shiina. The 2019 English translation is by Quof.

Reborn into the body of a sickly peasant girl named Myne, a Japanese bookworm is determined to return to her life of reading. This requires the invention of books, publishing, and the tech that supports publishing. In this, the second story arc, she is sent to serve in the local church, as apprentice shrine maiden. Myne embraces this opportunity as she does all others: headlong, without bothering to do any research.

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Daughter of a Soldier, Volume 3 is the third volume of the first trilogy in Miya Kazuki’s 27+ volume Ascendance of a Bookworm series.

Having died as an adult bookworm in modern-day Japan, then having been resurrected as a child in a pre-industrial secondary fantasy world, the person now calling themself Myne has used her modern-day knowledge to carve out a potentially lucrative commercial niche. She has done so to survive, yes … but it’s also one step in her quest to re-invent a thriving book trade. 

Myne has to deal with four major impediments: her knowledge of bookmaking is fragmentary; her knowledge of her new society is likewise fragmentary; her family occupies the bottom rung of the social ladder; and her host body suffers from the Devouring, an illness likely to be fatal sooner rather than later.

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Miya Kazuki’s Daughter of a Soldier, Volume 2 is the second of three Daughter of a Soldier instalments, which in turn form the first arc of Miya Kazuki’s Ascendance of a Bookworm series. The manga was illustrated by You Shiina; the 2019 edition was translated into English by Quof.

Fanatical bookworm Urano Motosu eluded the homicidal embrace of Truck-Kun, only to be crushed by her own books during a minor earthquake. To her surprise, Urano woke in the body of five-year-old Myne, a sickly child born to an honest but very poor peasant family. Her new society is sufficiently pre-literate that the language in which Urano is now fluent (as Myne) does not have a word for book.

Urano has been working as hard as her frail body will allow to drag society into literacy. This has born fruit, although not quite the fruit she intended.

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2015’s Daughter of a Soldier Volume 1 is the first of three Daughter of a Soldier instalments, which in turn form the first arc of Miya Kazuki’s Ascendance of a Bookworm. Ascendance of a Bookworm is an Isekai young-adult light novel series. Illustrations are by You Shiina. Daughter of a Soldier Volume 1 was translated into English by quof,

Urano Motosu loves books above all other things. Pallid skin, social isolation, parental disappointment, all are small prices to pay for a life spent glorying in books. 

Alas, Urano is so focused on her books that she steps into traffic without looking. Hello, Truck-Kun! Only the timely intervention by a friend saves Urano from decorating Truck-Kun’s grill.

Saved from an untimely demise, Urano returns home where she is killed by falling books during a minor earthquake. 

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