An Unruly Summon: Volume 1 by Cathfach: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

An Unruly Summon by Cathfach

An Unruly Summon is a fun subversion of the isekai genre. A country at war with demons is in a desperate need of a hero summoned from another world. But they’ve summoned heroes before and things haven’t gone well. Heroes don’t have a cause to fight, their unlimited magic causes trouble, they have strange ideas about slavery being bad, and they always want to invent soy sauce.

King and his council come up with a plan to carefully curate what the hero sees after summoning, so that he’ll help voluntarily. They even gather a harem for him, so that he doesn’t have to do it himself, because that always ends up happening. And they promise to send him back if he doesn’t want to stay.

The plan works well. Thomas is summoned, and unlike so often, knows immediately what is going on. What he sees and learns makes him agree to help the country. He even turns out to be extremely powerful with magic. He learns complicated spells instantly and spells he hasn’t been taught yet. Only problems are that he tends to overuse his mana and pass out, and a dragon haunts him in his dreams, trying to kill him. Oh, and Thomas has no interest in his harem, because he has a girlfriend at home where he intends to return.

Things take a bit of a turn when Thomas learns about having been led. But since the demons are a real threat, the plan remains the same. And then it’s time for the battle. Thomas faces a massive horde of demons and kills them all with a powerful spell. Problem is, demons aren’t the only things it kills. But the hero’s job is done, and it’s time to go home.

This was a good, entertaining read. It was the First Prize winner in the first-ever J-Novel Club Original LN Contest, and I’m sure it deserved to be. Thomas was a good hero, the girls had a role other than bedfellows, because he didn’t want them in his bed, and bad guys weren’t the obvious people.

It was much too long though. The bulk of the book’s almost 400 pages—massive for a light novel—is taken by Thomas’s training. He doesn’t learn about being led until beyond half-point, and the battles don’t take place until 75% mark, after which everything is crammed in a small space. This could’ve been cut to a half of its length and the story would’ve remained the same. Epilogue sets the stage for the next volume, but the events of this one conclude here. I don’t need to read more.

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