The wildly popular Korean novels that inspired the hit webtoon! A man who wants nothing more than to kick back and relax must use his wit and wiles to survive the fantasy novel he's fallen into.
Ever dreamt of waking up inside a novel? For Kim Roksu, this dream becomes reality when he finds himself in the shoes of Cale Henituse, the lazy, wine-loving son of a count—and punching bag for the novel's destined hero. Determined to dodge his grim fate, this new Cale Henituse vows to rewrite his story, aiming for a life of leisure far from heroic deeds and inevitable beatdowns.
But the path to a peaceful life is twisted by irony. As Cale plots his escape from destiny, he inadvertently gathers a motley crew of magical allies—including a haughty baby dragon and two mischievous kitten shapeshifters. Every attempt to avoid heroism entangles him further in a whirlwind of unforeseen adventures, proving that sometimes the best heroes are the ones who resist the call.
This book was an adorable, fun, and easy to follow read which was exactly what I was looking for. I was quite attached to the entire crew by the end of the book which unfortunately had a very abrupt ending. Thankfully the next book comes out December 3, 2024. ✔️Fantasy ✔️Found Family ✔️Aristocracy/Royalty ✔️Magic/Magical beasts (🐉🐈🐺) ✔️Transmigration into a novel ✔️Adapted from a webtoon/manwha
I love how Cale internally feels “annoyed” at everyone wanting to be a part of his entourage but then does anything and everything he can for them. The writing is pretty simplistic but I didn’t mind because I had just finished a politically complex novel.
The cover art is gorgeous (Cale reminds me of Sasaki ❤️) Love the manhwa art as well.
Cale, "the Lout", has plans to allow him to live comfortably in his later life, but as he goes along with it, the unexpected effect is that his entourage grows. I love how Cale thinks he hardly cares about anything, while he's actually saving people, looking out for his own, and has never turned his back on anyone in need.
There are so many interesting characters in this book, too. Assassins, hero, cat shifters, dragon, wolf shifters, priest, mage, and of course the aristocrats. Cale might be OP, but it's still very enjoyable to follow his journey.
Cale shook his head. In the end, I guess my family's grown.
First volume done and I’m hooked! Our transmigrated mc Cale is just too good. All dude wants in life is to use his knowledge of the plot to get the plot as far away from his as he can. He just wants to sit back in his own sea-side home that he has yet to acquire and spend the rest of his life in leisure but the plot has other plans!
The side characters are fun and interesting. And we’ve got magical animal companions including a dragon, so what more can a girl want!
After a slow start I can honestly say I'm invested in this series. I felt like I was reading a video game set in a fantasy world. The characters are great especially Cale (MC) and the shape shifting kittens.
First time readers, buckle up, you're in for a riiide! I envy you. This is the novel/series I'd like to read for the first time again. Getting hit with one plot twist after an other was epic. It's truly a gem amongst high fantasy webnovels, and I hope it gets the recognition it deserves. As this is going to be published in volumes, keep going, the plot will only thicken from here on. The characters are so chaotic and fun, you'll always have a good time.
And no, the MC is not OP.
High Fantasy, Transmigration, Action, Comedy, Found Family This volume covers chapters 1~42 of the web serialisation, stopping on a cliffhanger right in the middle of the capital plaza arc. Other than depriving us of all the Cale-nim, oppa, noona, hyung, and some off-putting location names, I found the quality of Seven Seas' translation quite satisfying.
Arcs included in this volume: 1-Transmigration into birth of a hero. 2-The unbreakable shield. 3-The black dragon. 4-The vitality of the heart. 5-The Plaza Terror Incident.
Substitute "lout" with "villainess" and you have a very familiar story indeed. Kim Roksu wakes up one morning to discover that he's somehow transmigrated into a novel series he read the first five volumes of - as a minor villain. Roksu's perfectly fine being Cale the lout, but he wants to make sure that his beat-down at the hands of protagonist Choi Han (himself isekai'd) never happens. So Cale attempts to avoid that, but accidentally ends up turning himself into the protagonist, all unawares. It starts to drag after a while, but it's decent fun nonetheless.
Kim Roksu, an ordinary Korean guy who grew up as an orphan, wakes up one day to discover that he is Cale Henituse, the loutish son of Count Henituse in the novel series Birth of a Hero. He's only read up to volume 5 of the series, but it's enough to know that Cale is a very minor character, and he's about to get thoroughly beaten up by the actual hero of the story, Choi Han, a 17-year-old Korean guy who was transported into this fantasy world.
Kim Roksu, as Cale, becomes focused on a single goal: living a peaceful life. As Count Henituse's beloved but loutish son, he should be able to live a life of leisure with all the money he could ever want at his disposal. First, however, he has to avoid getting beaten up by the story's hero, prod the hero and a bunch of other dangerous characters into going elsewhere, and ensure that the Henituse family lands stay as safe as possible.
Getting all those dangerous characters to leave him alone is more difficult than he realizes, however - for some reason, he not only finds himself surrounded by Choi Han and his original entourage, but several additional dangerous characters as well. It's not ideal, but Cale figures that he can at least put all these people to good use, further preparing for his eventual peaceful life while putting himself in as little danger as possible.
In this volume, and probably a lot of the next one as well, Kim Roksu is able to rely quite a bit on his knowledge of the original novels. As a result, he ends up looking like some kind of brilliant spy master, nudging his game pieces (aka the members of his growing entourage) into position and throwing wads of Count Henituse's money at any potential holes in his plans. I can't help but wonder how he'll manage once he runs out of useful bits of knowledge gleaned from the first five volumes of the books. Considering that the dragon is already feeding him new information, I imagine he'll accidentally have set up his own spy network by then.
The writing/translation wasn't great and made this feel longer than it actually was, with lots of repetitive phrasing and clunky attempts at communicating characters' emotions. Still, I enjoyed watching Cale's plans unfold, and his growing entourage (which included a dragon, a couple of cat beastfolk, nearly a dozen young wolf beastfolk, a couple assassins, and more) showed lots of potential for future chaos. I plan on reading the next volume.
This was an anime style Isekai tale. Our lead character was sucked into a fantasy tale he had been reading. The twist was the fact that our main character ended up as the minor villain from early in the tale rather than the destined hero of the story. It was a twist on the reincarnated as a villain trope that is so popular right now in the subgenre.
Tonally this was an earnest adventure fantasy focusing on things like character growth and found family. Typical YA coming of age fantasy fare.
The main character was likeable enough. Kim Roksu, a regular Korean guy back on Earth, found himself Isekaied into a fantasy series he was reading. He woke up as Cale Henituse, a loutish son of a noble family, and minor villain in the story, and had to try and change his character’s destiny. Getting beat to a pulp by the “hero” does not sound very appealing for the new “Cale”. The easy life as a rich minor noble sounds great though so our lead sets out to use his knowledge of the story to his advantage.
Being a coming of age tale our new Cale gets to experience a bit of character growth as he grows into the role of unconventional hero in his own right.
There was some support characters including the actual hero of the tale and a few cute animal companions. They were likeable enough but not particularly memorable.
There was nothing overly wrong with this story but I felt like it lacked a bit of depth and was a bit run of the mill. It never managed to fully suck me into the tale and ended up a bit of an average read. I’ll probably not read any more books in the series.
I DNF’d around the 80% mark. I just lost the enthusiasm to continue.
rating: 2.5 stars.
Audio Note: Nick Martineau gave a decent performance of the audio.
Lol they really cut it when the most exciting part was starting...
I really liked the translation, the only "name changes" that I found a little weird were "Rowoon" and "the Kingdom of the Whipper", but everything else works fine.
I'm planning on doing another re-read when I get my physical copy, and maybe we get the audiobook before December, so I'm looking forward to that too.
BTW It's an excellent story, characters are the soul of it, and while in this first volume it's still not clear, the reality is that Cale and the children are chaos bringers, which turns out to be so much fun (can't wait for the next volumes).
Is there anything better than the novel you have been reading for 5 years getting officially translated and even getting an audiobook???
I don't think there is any book or any character than I love more than Cale and totcf. Can't wait to download the audiobook (if I can) and listen to the official translation as well. I will never get tired or bored of this story, especially with how part 2 is going
Maybe I just don't read enough light novels, but whoooo boy, was this tough to get through. I didn't find Cale at all endearing. I absolutely HATE characters who act like they hate everything, especially animals. Not only that, but the guy is kind of a try hard, and he treats his servants like crap. He had the opportunity to be a different Lord Cale, and he sort of was, yet he still chose to act mightier than thou with those that served him. I guess my personality just wouldn't allow me to act that way, so I despise seeing others act that way. And the storytelling was insanely repetitive. I dont know if the original Korean reads that way, but the English translation sure does. How many times do I need to hear he's a lout or that Choi Han is insanely strong because he was a loner? Speaking of, they say he's only 17, but he spent decades alone in the big, scary forest? Maybe I missed the explanation for that, but tell me how that makes sense??
All that being said, I think I find this endearing enough that I'll try book 2 when it comes out on Audible, though my expectations are low. I AM glad that there is absolutely 0 romantic subplot. That's a 10/10 for me.
I love this novel hahahahha I have re-read it so many times already, the first volume has a way of setting up the pacing of the whole story that's just really really good.
Kim Roksu falls asleep one day reading the fifth volume of Birth of a Hero and wakes in the body of minor antagonist character Cale Henituse. Which is great except for one small thing; in a week Cale is going to be beaten half to death by the Hero Choi Han! Determined to avoid that fate and live his life as the spoiled, loutish older son of Duke Henituse Cale immediately sets to work to increase his reputation not knowing that he'll end up far more embroiled in the novel's events than he ever intended.
This was so much fun! Cale is the absolute perfect reluctant Hero because everything about Kim as Cale screams Hero. Kim/Cale may come across as calculating and selfish but as we learn more about his life as Kim it's pretty easy to see that these are defense mechanisms. As an orphan Kim/Cale is very defensive especially when it comes to getting close to other people but because he was an orphan he also has an ingrained need to protect those he sees as being in a similar situation he was as a child. It's those contradictions that make Kim the perfect person to become Cale, Kim doesn't want to be seen as caring too much but also doesn't want any major responsibilities. Inhabiting the body of a lazy, selfish, drunk jerk allows him to get away with this while the people around him just think Cale has finally grown up.
There's an exceptionally diverse cast of magical humanoid creatures in this that makes it even better. So far there are Cat People, Wolf People, Bear People, Whale People, Mermaids, and Tiger People. I think that's every race that's been mentioned, if I missed one I apologize but as you can tell there's a lot. Oh shoot I totally forgot Dragons. See a lot. Animal-based characters are always a plus in my book as they allow for the magic systems to be expanded upon greatly, in this series in particular though we get some absolutely wonderful forged family members for Cale. Because Cale can't help himself he saves Ohn and Hong the exiled heirs to the Cat Tribe who are absolutely adorable little kittens. He also rescues the Dragon who is a four-year-old, which makes him even more adorable (baby Dragon c'mon more books need baby dragons), and finally Lark who is of the Wolf Tribe. We don't know much about Lark yet but yup he's adorable too.
The world-building though has to be what puts this over the top. There is just so freaking much going on in this world that if we didn't get semi-decent world-building building it would have devolved into a giant mess. Politics, religion, magic systems, geography, and in turn geopolitics, are all introduced as they are needed not before except for small bits of foreshadowing. This really helps stop confusion before it even starts. I really can't stress how important this is especially when you consider that there is both a civil war and an intercontinental war that will happen in the future.
I will definitely be continuing this series, especially since this ending was a complete heart-stopping cliff hanger!
First novel by this author and in this genre. Recommended by one of my scholars...and it matched EVERYTHING she described! Long, funny, random yet kinda predictable-but not- and it kept me anticipating the next step.
I loved it it was so good and funny I felt so bad for roan but I genuinely love all of the characters and their interaction cale is genuinely such a funny character
I may be somewhat biased as I've read this series before (albeit not to completion) and I really adore Cale. He has just the right amount of sarcasm and laziness and cleverness where I'm half exasperated at his thought process but also enjoy watching things unfold. I do hope that Seven Seas up the word count for this in the next installment. At this rate, it'll be years before they finish the first part of the story. This only goes up to right before the Plaza attack (but the main ensemble is together).
After hearing so much about the web novel, I saw the actual novel at the bookstore and decided to read it. It did not disappoint. It was a humorous read with a plot that continues to thicken. I will definitely read the next volume when it comes out in English.
Cale Henituse, aka Kim Roksu, is hilarious in the most blunt way possible. And the more he tries to distance himself from the plight of those around him, he becomes so much more interwoven with them. Main character energy in spades!
The non-main characters (calling them side characters would be too dismissive, in my opinion) are just as interesting and amusing as Cale at times. They exude all kinds of understated chaotic energy, and I love it. They kept me laughing throughout the story.
I am rooting for Cale and his unassuming life of peace. However, I know that's going to be a pipe dream. 😆
Notable Quotes:
Kim Roksu had had a fairly simple motto: "Live a peaceful life - a long, healthy life - for its small joys." ++++++++++++++++
"No need to go down in history. Just live for peace and happiness." ++++++++++++++++
"Where are you going?" "I have a promise to keep. And someone to meet." Hans was shocked anew. "Lord Cale, you're going somewhere to keep a promise?" "You've been pretty rude lately." "My apologies," the deputy butler said quickly. ++++++++++++++++
[Ron about Cale, aka his "little pup master"]
"I can't believe my distaste has grown into affection," he muttered. ++++++++++++++++
Responsibility was a heavy burden. ...Kim Roksu knew people's lives were the greatest and most frightening weight one could carry. ++++++++++++++++
[Ohn and Hong about their dragon "sibling"]
"I think he's going to follow us, Sister." "Uh-huh. I think so too." "Are we going to get a younger brother?" "Looks like it." ++++++++++++++++
Cale started blankly at the mumbling kittens, then asked, "What did you wish for?" Hong...shouted in excitement. "For everybody, including my new little broth-" "Rejected." ++++++++++++++++
"Wow. I really like you!" Kage marveled, smacking her knee with her free hand. Then she coyly asked, "Have any interest in getting to know a surrogate older sister with a great personality?" "No." Taylor slipped in his question. "What about a surrogate older brother with a great personality?" "Even less so." Instead of being disappointed by Cale's answer, Taylor and Kage laughed out loud. Cale couldn't figure out what was funny about his response, but he lifted his glad anyway, "Cheers." ++++++++++++++++
After ignoring Rosalyn's glances for a while, the dragon stopped eating..., then turned to look at her. "Eat your own food," he finally said. "This is mine." The black dragon pulled the dish of sausage toward his chest. ++++++++++++++++
[The Black Dragon to Cale]
"This insignificant man is definitely plotting something. Be careful, weak human! "I think I'll be fine if you stop talking," Cale thought. "Hmm? This man isn't weak either. Be extra careful, weakling. You'll get killed!" "D@mn it."
I’ve read the first part (776 chapters) of this web novel translated on and by “EatApplePies” 3 times and continue to follow along as part 2 gets written and translated. I just love this story so much. I mean… I got a character from it (Raon) tattooed on my arm so I think that says it all. I got so excited when I saw it was gonna be turned into books by seven seas and I’m so gonna buy them all as they come out. Some names are changed or written differently compared to EatApplePies’s translation though, which is a little jarring, but whatever.