A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 1 (light novel): Volume 1

I started this series with it's spin off "a certain scientific railgun" anime and manga so i decieded to read the original magical index books and i enjoyed it its more in depth and better than its anime counterpart . I still like the spin off railgun series more

Received the book promptly and in good condition. Just starting to get into it now, great premise and world but since i'm only 10 pages in i'm not really in a position to say more.

originally written as a one shot which then subsequently grew into one of Dengeki's strongest long running series; spanned over 24 books in it's original run, sold over 4 million copies, won several awards for best characters and has been voted as one of the best light novels for several years. i originally read the comic adaption of the series and believed the series had potential to be something bigger and as such i gave the books a try and found that i was not disappointed and greatly enjoyed the style of writing that focused on the characters insight to the abstract elements Kazuma wrote with to show his dexterity and great understanding of his own seemingly believable world due to how well realised a magical world is. Kazuma Kamachi's a certain magical index is a story of two individuals of whom both live in completely different worlds, while concurrently living in the same dorm (as a freeloader of the sort), one from the magical side of the world and another from the science side. our hero goes by the name Touma; a righteous boy who has the power to negate any supernatural elements that comes into contact with his right hand, the other is called Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a girl who has been at the short end of the magic sides dark intentions for longer than she is allowed to remember. These two valuable assets of their respective sides end up going through multiple adventures as they deal with both the friction between the two worlds and from individuals similarly trying to find their place between the two sides. The first book in the series is tasked with selling allot of abstract yet interesting story elements by exploring all the magic and superpower stuff very slowly, as such all the magic and science isn't very prominent in this volume making the series more approachable than you'd initially think, with subsequent releases building upon the extremely well realised world using story relevant exposition. Magic is just science that we don't understand yet; Well that's nothing a good writer can't fix as Kamachi does a good job treating magic like it's a science(no one does that) and science like it's a magic (most sci-fi novels) which leaves a very fluid narrative where the abstract and down to earth elements mix together to create a rather digestible premise. My only gripe with Kamachi's writing is that sometimes it isn't very subtle (as with most light-novel literature) but after reading his work for a while i eventually came to the realisation that his writing style is pretty layered with the entire 24 volumes cleverly holding a secret under tone.

Good

Loved the anime, loved the novel!

If you have read my reviews of the anime of this then you would know that I love this series, so it makes sense for me to go out and read the original novel series that started it all. STORY, CHARACTERS & WRITING If you want to know the story then please go to my review of the anime. Anyway, the story is well written and can be both engrossing and amusing. We also get to know what some of the characters are thinking, as well as get more information than we did in the anime. The story is written in third person perspective, which is something I know some people might not like due to a lot of books these days being first person, and does a great job at utilising the style. For those of you, like me, who thought that the Railgun anime tried to change how Touma and Misaka met, well it turns out, as explained in the book, that that they did know each other before the events in Index took place. It's nice to have some things cleared up. OVERALL This is a good book and is worth the read for anyone. If you are looking at this book and aren't that interested in anime then please don't think of it as one but as a sci-fi fantasy story. I cannot recommend that people read this, or even watch the anime, any higher. It's an excellent series and is worth the read.

Academy City is a city sized school that is years ahead of the rest of the world in terms of technology, and where the superhuman abilities are developed and studied. One of the cities students is Touma Kamijou, a student with terrible luck whose unusual ability, to negate the abilities of others, defies classification and therefore is considered powerless in a city of people with superpowers. On the first day of summer vacation Touma finds a young Nun on the balcony of his dorm room whose unfortunate situation draws Touma into a world of magic that defies science. 'A Certain Magical Index' is the first Light Novel in a massively popular ongoing series that currently consists of more than twenty Light Novels, a couple of short story collections, manga and anime adaptions, and two spinoff/side story series ('A Certain Scientific Railgun' and 'A Certain Scientific Accelerator'). This first instalment of the series is quite rough in places with the setting not entirely fully formed as of yet but it is still very entertaining with some nice action and some good humour here and there throughout the novel. The writing of the novel is also somewhat rough with a habit of repeating the same phrases over and over again that I found slightly annoying. The characters on the other hand are generally quite well written and we do get a reasonably good handle on their personalities and motivations, even if a couple of them were probably a little underused. The illustrations in the novel a very good (the one of Kanzaki being my favourite) and the translation of the novel seems relatively decent, although it doesn't retain the original Japanese honorifics. The novel also includes a short afterword by the author. After reading this original Light Novel, the manga version and watched the anime adaption, I would have to say that I prefer the anime version as it feels a little more complete but as this Light Novel was still very entertaining and worth a good five stars in all.

The story of this light novel is great.

I actually started reading this series when it was still labeled as a legal translation in the website Baka-Tsuki. Using that as a comparison (though by no means am I denoting that one is better than the other), I have several opinions: 1. It might be an effect of reading Baka-Tsuki translations, but I find myself liking it more when the characters have their name kept in Japanese format (i.e Kamijou Touma or Misaka Mikoto). Reading 'Touma Kamijou' or 'Mikoto Misaka' still needs a bit of adaptation on my part, but thankfully, it doesn't affect the story-reading all that much. 2. The YenPress translators have done a wonderful job. In and of itself, nearly all of the terms are cleverly inserted just as how I've read in Baka-Tsuki. I may like the term 'magician' the Baka-Tsuki translators use more than 'sorcerer' the YenPress translators use, but it's really just a matter of preference. I do, however, get confused when I read about the church terminology. Apparently, they wrote 'Russian Catholic Church' and 'Roman Orthodox Church'. My first reaction was, "Eh? Isn't it the other way around?" because I'm pretty sure the correct terms are 'Russian Orthodox Church' and 'Roman Catholic Church'. Then again, I'm not that knowledgeable about that kind of stuff. All in all, the translation's really the only thing I have minor (or rather, microscopic) issues with. The story's a great mesh between sci-fi and magic, and the author, Kamachi Kazuma, is really brilliant in his way to write the story in a detailed yet concise manner. I honestly thought I was reading a really interesting scientific paper the first time I started reading the series. Great story! A must have in your collection!

There's a reason this is one of the top selling light novels in Japan, the concepts and ideas the author concocts, or rather takes from other places and arranges them in a unique manner are brilliant, the characters are interesting and mysterious. It blends but also opposes modern scientific technology with magic, implicitly suggesting a false dichotomy between the two by my reading which the author leverages to their advantage. Both of these 'sides' are utilized in causally coherent ways to drive the plot forward. The magic is based of actual real magical societies of history, texts, mythologies, religions, this isn't goofy Harry Potter or something, the scientific side and powers are also based on real scientific models and concepts. There are also mild sexual elements. If that sounds interesting you must check this series out.

Zum Inhalt der Serie werde ich nun nichts schreiben. Einfach weil man sich den Inhalt auf erdenklich vielen Internetseiten (inkl. Amazon!) durchlesen kann. YenPress ist der Verleger der Serie und ich bin sehr positiv überrascht über die gute (englische) Übersetzung. Selber spreche ich kein Japanisch, aber es gibt eine Internetseite die die Bücher schon seit Jahren von Japanisch auf Englisch übersetzt. Ob der Wortlaut 1:1 übereinstimmt kann ich nicht sagen, soviel Zeit wollte ich dann doch nicht investieren. Das Taschenbuch ist gut verarbeitet und etwa DIN-A5 Format. Also bedeutend großformatiger, als ein regulärer Manga. Das Papier ist griffig, dennoch dünn (etwas über 200 Seiten!). Für Unterwegs sollte man deshalb einen Schutzumschlag benutzen! Die Schriftgröße entspricht dem was ungefähr "Arial 10-12" entspricht. Angenehm zu lesen und auch die Bilder der Originalbücher (in den jeweiligen Kapiteln gibt es die ein oder andere illustrierte Szene) sind passend zu den Kapiteln übernommen worden. Gelesen wird diesmal aber nicht von hinten nach vorne, sondern westlich, also von links nach rechts. Sonst kennt man es mittlerweile von vielen Mangas (zum Glück!), dass diese entsprechend "von Hinten" zu gelesen werden. Ich freue mich sehr die Bücher endlich in Papierform lesen zu dürfen. Da ich sowieso noch einmal vor hatte alle Bände zu lesen, ist es umso schöner diese nun als richtiges Buch lesen zu dürfen. Der Preis ist fraglich, aber die Lizenzen für diese "Lightnovels" sind, als Nischenprodukte außerhalb Japans, anscheinend teurer gegenüber Manga Lizenzen. Klare Kaufempfehlung für die Fans der Serie.

tutto ok