Goblin Slayer Vol. 1 Group Read

[Selena]

A young priestess has formed her first adventuring party, but almost immediately they find themselves in distress. It's the Goblin Slayer who comes to their rescue--a man who's dedicated his life to the extermination of all goblins, by any means necessary. And when rumors of his feats begin to circulate, there's no telling who might come calling next...

Reading Schedule
11/25-12/1: Chapter 1 & Interlude: The Gods
12/2-12/8: Chapter 2 - Interlude: Guild Girl
12/9-12/15: Chapter 5 - 7
12/16-12/22: Chapter 8 - 10
12/23-12/29: Chapter 11 - 13

[Gord]

After watching the anime I am very curious about the book.

[Selena]

Gord wrote: "After watching the anime I am very curious about the book."

I've heard rumblings about the anime, but nothing specific. About all I heard that something insane happens in episode one that is not in the light novel and caused some controversy. Not sure what happened or what the controversy is, though. ^^;;;

[Terrence]

It happens in the LN, but it's not shown or described. It happens "off screen" so to speak.

We actually just did a podcast on this first volume and the anime controversy. I don't know if it's ok to share a link in this discussion or no.

[Selena]

Terrence wrote: " We actually just did a podcast on this first volume and the anime controversy. I don't know if it's ok to share a link in this discussion or no"

It's relevant to the discussion, so you can definitely post it. :)

[Terrence]

Thanks. =)

https://youtu.be/K9ZwBLPcvok

http://www.lightnovelpodcast.com/podc...

So we covered Goblin Slayer volume 1 and the controversy in the podcast above. Again, the controversy centers on the manga and anime, the more visual mediums. The novel skirts around these elements since it isn't a visual medium, leaving it up to the reader to fill in that gap.

A friend of one of our podcast members who is a social worker also answered some questions we had centered around the controversy. Please give that a look if you're curious once you've finished the opening chapter / watched episode 1.

http://lightnovelpodcast.com/gs-podca...

[未知生焉知死]

Very glad to see that Goblin Slayer is chosen for group discussion.

Though I have read just about a dozen of Japanese light novel series over the last 4~5 or so years (so my exposure to LN is somehow limited), Goblin Slayer is solid enough a fantasy LN in terms of literary merit, even among super popular and/or highly regarded Japanese LNs (such as Overlord, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, Spice and Wolf series etc...).

And the series is my personal favorite. It's not that I think it's the best written fantasy LN I have ever read. I can easily come up with a (objectively) better written Japanese fantasy LN series (in terms of literary merit, writing quality) than that. But it is still my personal favorite. I have read the series 3 times (In Japanese, in Korean, and in English).

[Gord]

I started this up this morning and while it's no literary master piece it's an oddly engaging. I think there is something about the simplicity of things that just works for me.

[Rose]

I picked Goblin Slayer up as part of Bookwalker's black friday deals and will be starting it soon (just got to finish Echo). :)

[Selena]

Rose wrote: "I picked Goblin Slayer up as part of Bookwalker's black friday deals and will be starting it soon (just got to finish Echo). :)"

I'm trying to finish Parasite Eve still, so I'll be late to the party again lol. Hoping to start sometime next week.

[Gord]

I finished this up yesterday and this is a series I'll be interested in continuing.

[Rinzler]

I'm on Chapter 8 so a little ahead of schedule but I've definitely enjoyed it thus far. Love the little fantasy nods to Tolkien peppered throughout. I also love the character of Goblin Slayer, even considering the typical 'haunted past' back story. Not the most complex of narratives, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I'll definitely pick up volume 2 in the future.

[Selena]

Just got through the first twenty pages. That was pretty graphic murder and stuff, but that didn't bother me nearly as much as how obsessed the author apparently is with how pretty "Priestess" is.

She's only running for her life from goblins that will kill her and/or rape her. I'll wait though. That's not nearly as important as her gorgeous body or classically pretty face or the delicate shoulders she has.

I wouldn't care so much except for the fact that this doesn't match the tone of the scene at all. If he had sung her praises at the start, when insane stuff hadn't started happening yet, it wouldn't rub me the wrong way nearly as much as it does when she should be running for her life.

[Selena]

I think marathoning Parasite Eve to finish it before it was due back to the library is making me impatient with books. Sorry if it sounds like I'm being overly critical of Goblin Slayer. ^^;;;

On a different note, what do you all think of Goblin Slayer's use of titles in place of names? I saw this once before int he Maou Yuusha anime, so it's going to take a lot of getting used to for me. I keep wanting a "the" before everyone's "names" in this series.

[Rinzler]

You're def not being overly critical. If it's not Priestess' looks it's Cow Girl's ample bosom. I feel for anyone not in the targeted male demographic who has to read that stuff. Even as a guy I kinda just have to chuckle and roll my eyes when I stumble upon them.

[Selena]

Rinzler wrote: "You're def not being overly critical. If it's not Priestess' looks it's Cow Girl's ample bosom. I feel for anyone not in the targeted male demographic who has to read that stuff. Even as a guy I ki..."

Normally I don't care too much one way or the other, but this is a 3rd person omniscient narrator that's getting distracted during a goblin attack. It would be a little different if it was 3rd person limited to one character and so that character was being a weirdo, but here it really doesn't mesh well.

Speaking of the characters and names ("Cow Girl" made me think of it), I did get a laugh from the translation: ...Guild Girl attending her was a girl... (page 5 in the Yen On print release). I'm kind of curious what "Guild Girl" was translated from because in English, it's kind of obvious she's a girl lol.

[Rinzler]

I completely missed that lol. Yeah, reading this after finishing the first 3 volumes of Overlord it just seems like the fan service was implemented in a much more creative way than it was here. While Albedo is certainly there to service male fantasies, there is a reason for her "antics" and it makes her character unique and endearing since her loyalty will never be questioned by the reader. Just my opinion, of course.

You make a good point though. When it's spun into a 3rd person narrative by the author it just really feels out of place and foreign to the rest of the story, especially when it's added at inopportune moments for the characters. Not to mention, it just feels lazy on behalf of the author.

I finished it last night and I really liked it but I'm hoping Kumo gets a little more creative in future volumes instead of just shoehorning it into the story.

[Gord]

This may sound really odd but I didn't really notice the fan service stuff in the book. Maybe I'm just horribly desensitized to it now. I noticed it in the anime a lot more especially with Cow Girl.

As for the titles in places of names I think that it's a creative compromise. I've never tried writing before but when creating characters in a game or in my head the hardest part is coming up with a name for them. That being said it should be interesting to see what happens when the cast gets larger. You are are Archer One and you are Archer Two and you over there are Red Warrior. Not to be mistaken with Green Warrior or Blue Warrior.

[Dani]

So, I realize this post is 6+ months old, but I just finished reading v1 and I really enjoyed it! One thing I particularly like is the nod to classic RPGs: referring to characters by archetype/role rather than individually naming them, the Gods' rolling dice, etc. It stood out to me because of these touches. Also, the 3rd person narrative others have mentioned finding weird seemed normal to me since it just felt like the Dungeon Master dictating the scene in a game of D&D.

I will be starting on v2 later tonight. I am looking forward to seeing where this goes since volumes 1 and 2 were both covered in season 1 of the anime and I know there are several more books yet!

[Selena]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! If you want to start a thread for volume 2 to discuss as you read, go for it! We like buddy reads here. :)