Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha
The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

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I've been following this series after the translations by J-Novel started, and I'm happy I picked it up.


The Unwanted Undead Adventurer is a fantasy novel about - as the title states - a guy who died and returns as an undead. If this had been some other random fantasy novel, I imagine that would be the end of it, and there would be very little information or research about the how or why of his condition.
In this novel, the search for how and why Rentt Faina got turned into an undead and the developments of his condition and the impact it has on his life ... are actually quite central to the story. While he gets a power boost over time, that not all there is to it. I like that.


The story itself progresses quite slowly, but I find that this isn't a problem for me. The pacing is consistent and the author introduces new, interesting characters and tidbits about the world on a regular basis. It's slow, but certainly not boring. A great deal of the story revolves around Rentt dealing with his new condition and interacting with the various people he knew in life. Of course, there are action parts as he gets stronger and stronger as the story progresses, but these action scenes are there to serve the story and not just because the author wanted more meaningless action scenes. The worldbuilding is done well, with new information being provided to the reader frequently. I understand that this might be a bit too "boring" for some readers, but it really works well to keep me entertained.


The characters are quirky but realistic and not as over-the-top as is to be expected in a fantasy light novel. Less like cardboard cutouts than I expected and their various interactions work out well. The dialogue and the banter between Rentt and the people close to him is well done, in my opinion.


Now, the artwork in this novel is.... mediocre. It's not bad, but it certainly isn't going to blow your mind. If the quality of the artwork is important to you, this might be somewhat disappointing.


Overall, I find that I greatly enjoy this series and am looking forward to reading the next volume once it's translated. I admit that it's slow at times but I still find it to be a very enjoyable read and I would recommend you check it out if you're interested.

A good novel if you're not against exposition and slow pace.
It's a pure fantasy novel, with some very slight video game elements (like dungeons and something which vaguely resemble exp).
Despite what the covers may let you think, it's not a harem, there's a main girl Lorraine who is the only one to really interact with the MC, the other girls on covers are clients, enemies, allies, friends, student, or unknown, but their interaction with the MC is fairly limited.

To start with what doesn’t work:
- Too much monologue, if you have ever heard of that series, it's likely you've also heard of how much the ... MC like doing long monologues. And overall that not much of a problem, in fact, it helps flesh out the world and characters and for the most part they're well-timed. But the problem is that they're too frequent and some time they break the rhythm or the atmosphere of a situation.
- The pace, once again not that problematic but it's at times a bit too slow.
- The art, which is a real problem, well it's a novel so not that much but still it's ugly. Not entirely that said, the cover and color pictures are okay, but the insert pictures are terrible especially in volume 1, hopefully, it's getting better and while it's still definitely not fantastic, vol 5 pictures are okay.

Into the good parts:
- First the characters, only a rather small number are really fleshed out but it's also the only one we consistently see, and they're good, nuance, with for most a good development.
- The world-building and power system: with all those monologues and exposition the contrary would have been strange but still it's interesting and original.
- The tension, it's not that great, but it still does a good job at showing us how some characters or monsters are way above the MC, despite the fact that he appears a bit op at times.

Overall it's a good fantasy novel, with good characters and world-building if you don't mind exposition and a rather slow rhythm.

The manga is also good, with really good art but it heavily cut on the exposition.