The Dragon and the Blade Saint: This Isn’t Where We End Vol. 1 by Garry: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Dragon and the Blade Saint by Garry

This is a light novel with a time travel/transmigration plot. Mitaelshuroxa, an Elder Dragon, has lost bitterly at the hands of the Blade Saint who has butchered her entire people. When he goes for a killing blow, she activates a device that allows her to jump back in time. She intends to kill him before he has a chance to become so powerful even a magnificent Elder Dragon cannot defeat him.

She finds herself on the grounds of a magic academy, in a realm with no dragons, 17 years in the past, still badly hurt and trapped in human form, with almost no mana to defend herself. She’s rescued by Karen, a Guardian (in training) who offers her an asylum at the school. The only catch is, she has to pretend to be a human named El—and wear a dog collar that restricts her power. It’s almost too much to bear, but she doesn’t have to endure it long, because the Blade Saint goes to the same school and a practice duel is conveniently set between them, so she can kill him and leave. Things don’t go as planned though, and instead, she finds herself fighting a stronger enemy with him.

This was a good start to a series, fast-paced and humorous, with no romantic plot whatsoever so far. There are several POV characters, each with their own mission and distinctive voice. El was grumpy and cranky, though she was only 15 in her own realm too, and powerful despite the restrictions. Karen was saved from being annoying by her sense of humour. Villains were truly bad, with their POV chapters too.

The first half had all the annoyances of a light novel with details changing between one scene and the next, and girls’ obsessing with the size of their boobs, but when the Blade Saint, Ca’al finally showed up, the narrative changed gears. He had a good, tragic backstory that was written like it belonged to a different book, and it elevated the story from three stars to four. Fight scenes on the latter half of the book were well-written too.

The volume ends at a natural place with no cliffhangers. But the epilogue sets the stage for the next book, revealing a new villain. I might read more (if there is more), but the first volume formed a satisfying whole, so I can leave it at this too.

There are no translation notes, so this appears to be an English original. I don’t know if the author is western or Japanese, but they can write in the style of light novels well.  

I received a free copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.