Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 1 Group Read

[Selena]

PRESS "SNOOZE" TO BEGIN.

It's been a long night for Suzuki, a programmer on a caffeine-fueled "death march" in the final rush to complete his RPG. During a nap under his desk, he even starts dreaming about exploring the game's fantasy world with a new face, new powers, and even a few cute NPCs. But this dream is surprisingly vivid, and he can't seem to wake up...

Discuss Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 1 here!

Reading Schedule
8/18-8/24: Prologue, Chapters 1, 2 (Level Up & Seiryuu City)
8/25-8/31: Chapter 3 (A City Stroll)
9/1-9/7: Chapter 4 (Date)
9/8-9/14: Chapter 5 (Labyrinth)
9/15-9/21: Chapter 6 (Back to the Surface)

[Selena]

Do you ever get the feeling when you start reading a book that you're just not going to like it, even though you don't know much about it?

I'm 16 pages in and I'm getting that vibe already. I'm not sure if it's the writing style or the main character or what, but something just isn't working for me on a somewhat fundamental level.

[Selena]

How are you enjoying this book? Do you think the game world "Satou" has found himself in is something that you would play?

[Gord]

My schedule has been super busy lately but I've picked this up, along with Killing Slimes for 300 Years 3 & 4, and should be getting to it next week sometime.

[Howard]

I just got caught up on the first week and should be able to catch up this weekend. I watched the anime and it seems similar so, of course with greater detail. in the book Satou seems a little more clueless then in the show. I like the style so far.

[Howard]

Now that I finished "Date" the book is starting to flow better. The beginning felt stiff, but get, if I was thrown into a strange world with lizard men trying to kill me I would be stiff also.

[Gord]

I've started the book and I've got the part where he has entered the city. Initial impression are that this is pretty generic isekai. Blank slate OP main character, females all described in great detail and are super cute, etc. Nothing to make me hate the book but nothing that is blowing my socks off.

One thing that is kind of bugging me though was one of the last scenes I just read. When he ran into the soldiers outside of the city. They were suspicious of him being an enemy or a spy of some sort but he hands them the line about being a traveling peddler. They buy into it because of his bs skill. That's all fine. When he gets to the city and applies for his paperwork and it comes up saying that he is level one with no skills or occupation. At this point he should have been either tossed from the city or tossed into the nearest cell until his story is sorted out. Obviously what is on his paperwork doesn't match his story. Him being level one is established as being odd as it states that those his age he scanned in the area are on average level three. If they were so concerned about enemies wouldn't this be seen as suspicious? Instead they welcome into the city and send him on his way. It might be minor nitpicking but it yanked me right out of the story as I tried to puzzle this out.

[Selena]

Gord wrote: "When he gets to the city and applies for his paperwork and it comes up saying that he is level one with no skills or occupation. At this point he should have been either tossed from the city or tossed into the nearest cell until his story is sorted out."

It seems like a weird gaming mechanic, too, that you have to set your level and stuff for other users to see. I could see a featured skill needing to be set, but stats and that are always visible in these games, aren't they?

[Gord]

It would appear so. Using his scan he can tell a person age, level, and class apparently. At least from what I've seen so far. It just seems so odd that they go from super suspicious of him to just blindly accepting him.

[Gord]

Odd Narnia reference out of no where. Not sure if that was in the original or if it was a translation thing but I wasn't expecting that.

[Gord]

I finished this book over the weekend and the thing just didn't work for me. All the trope stuff aside it felt like an overly long prologue that really didn't do anything. For 50% of the book legit nothing happened. There was no character growth, no big plot set up, no villain reveal, nothing. It was essentially a tourism video for the town. I'll touch on the later half of the book later when others are caught up. I might be willing to give the second book a try but only if I can get it for free from the library.

[Selena]

So now that we're finishing up, what did you all think of Death March? Did you like it?

[Howard]

Overall a standard Isekai. It was a good start to the series and introduction to the world and menu system. I enjoyed Title and Skill Acquired pop-ups.

[Terrence]

I kind of want to read this series... But the volume 1 is still sitting on my shelf. T_T