Infinite Dendrogram: Volume 4 (Infinite Dendrogram (light novel))

by Sakon Kaidou

[sa090]

I don’t know why I waited this long to read this after the cliffhanger of the previous volume, but I believe that I actually made the right call to ready my mindset first.

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The book immediately picks up where the previous one ends after Franklin’s declaration, with the extra restrictions and games that he will play on all the other masters in Infinite Dendrogram who are in the same vicinity as he is. Despite how fun this was to see, I was actually more impressed with the level of control this game allows masters to have in it. I’ve said it time and time again, but Sakon Kaidou-sensei doesn’t cease to impress me on that front, moreover, when it’s grey characters like Franklin it’s even better. Even though he seemingly is just a straight up villain, I can’t help but feel that he’s also not, the politics in Infinite Dendrogram has been dictating some master actions for a while now and I didn’t think that Franklin was all that different.

The characters in this series are pretty fun, and despite the growing cast members, they’re so far distinct enough for me to continue remembering them despite the months apart I read this series. Of course not all of them will make a bigger impression, but if the recurring ones continue to do so then that’s just beyond awesome. Having each of them do something was cool as well, I really enjoyed seeing how each one of them played in this war and how their actions continued to affect it till the end. I was really looking forward to “some” characters to join as quickly as possible to confirm my suspicions about them though.

Obviously in series like these the protagonist will most likely be super rigged in some way and this volume continues showing Ray in that way to me, he does struggle a lot, I won’t say that he doesn’t. However, more often than not, Ray has these abilities that make him way stronger than implied and although I did enjoy his earlier encounters, it has started to get on my nerves a little more than expected in this series. Of course, our talented author doesn’t make make Ray alone the star of the show, there ARE many masters here with superior jobs so they get to be incredibly badass too, however, that annoying voice in the back of my head that says “he’s powerful because he’s the MC” refuses to shut up and therefore makes me roll my eyes a bit more than I would have hoped. Again, it’s not too much yet, emphasis on the yet so I’ll savor it.

One of the pluses in this series is its lack of romance, honestly, Fantasy is amazing when utilized correctly. This series has enough material or more accurately enough happening that it doesn’t need to lean on romance to get the attention it deserves. Nor does it have sexual fan service to bait the readers either, which is immensely appreciated by yours truly. In this medium, I have learned that the advise of not judging a book by its cover doesn’t actually work too much here. I have yet to see an anime that has scantly clad individuals on the cover actually end up being worth anyone’s time, people have preference of course, so consider this my incredibly biased and judgmental opinion.

The book like its prequel does end in a cliffhanger as well, thankfully I have not read this while it was being released so I could easily jump into volume 5 which I obviously did :)

Final rating: 4/5