"Practical War Game" is basically a second a second look at Disboard's Great War era. Volume 6 was about the Human perspective, and this volume includes the Elves and the Flügels.
For the Elves, the situation is pretty stable. Their high skill with magic enables them to build many great cities and keep them in existence, mostly safe from danger. There's always the possibility of some living weapon flying by and blowing you up, as if they were pouring water down an ant hill, but that is a remote possibility. Battles are won and lost, and any one of them doesn't mean much in the long term; wins are celebrated, and losses are troubling, but it all evens out in the end. The Great War continues much the same. Like with the humans, this is just how the world works.
It is in this situation that Nina Clive meets Think Nirvalen. The latter believes she can end the war by killing everyone, including the elves, and she is serious about this. She's also crazy. Her reactions with Nina form the bulk of their story, and it is like a Straight-Man and Wise-Guy routine.
For the Flügels, their situation is the most stable. As a race of living weapons, they delight in the chaos and the bloodshed of the Great War. Yet they live on a floating homeland far from the destruction. Jibril spends her time searching for challenging opponents and couldn't care less about the deeper issues that occupy the minds of humans, elves, dragons and even her own creator.
As I read this book, it sounded like Yuu Kamiya was using "ways to respond to existential crisis" as a theme for all the stories here. It is the only thing I can think of that links all the stories here.
Finally, this volume includes raunchier material than previous volumes. The book says, "ages 16 and up", and it is not kidding. Nothing is explicitly sexual. That line isn't crossed. But the bar is higher than in previous volumes. This is hinted at by the book's cover page, which is why I'm not including it here. I'm not factoring this into my overall rating because I don't know how to do so. My rating system was not made with this sort of thing in mind.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "No Game No Life: Practical War Game" an A+
Click here for my next book review: BOFURI - I don't want to get hurt so I'll max out my defense - light novel volume 2
Click here for my previous book review: Princess Juniper of the Anju (read for fun)
Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.
No comments:
Post a Comment