Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Vol. 3
This book came out in March and I only read it just now (whoops). To be fair, I'm reading the physical versions, and I'm waiting to make bulk orders so I can make the most of existing discounts and free shipping. Being a light novel fan is not cheap, especially when the books are so short.
This volume was all about Kim Dokja thwarting the efforts of a group of people known as "Oracles" who are basically other readers of the original "Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse" series. As we've always known since the beginning of the series, Kim Dokja is the only true fan of the novel, and everybody else has very incomplete knowledge of future events.
Because everyone keeps messing with the events of the timeline, Dokja has to find a way to eliminate the Oracles before they skew the timeline into one where Dokja can't predict the future. I'm just guessing here, but is Dokja really just aiming to replicate the winning sequence of events from the last loop, with an early loop Yu Junghyeok? I don't think his plans are that simple, given that he probably has different goals compared to Junghyeok. My impression of the original TWSA is that it wasn't a particularly happy ending, so there must be a better one that Dokja can accomplish right?
This volume was also heavy with Korean history and culture, and it had me googling quite a bit. There are explanations for who and what these historical figures/constellations are, but understandably, it's all new to me. Japanese culture and history has had quite a long time to introduce and familiarize audiences with key historical figures like Oda Nobunaga and the like, so I presume these figures are just as prevalent and famous. I would have appreciated some additional footnotes, so we could know as much about them as the average Korean reader.
The ending of the 4th Scenario was so surprising, I can't wait to see where this series goes next. The mystery of "real" people turning into "characters" is also compelling, and I'm hopeful about more hints in the next volume.
Also, a spoiler-filled guess about the future:
The next volume is out July 21st, which is not to far away. Yen Press has consistently been releasing these at the pace of 1 book every 4 months, and I think that's pretty brisk, all things considered. Let's not think about the fact that it's going to take 6 years to finish this series off 😅.
By the way, one of the things I like to do after finishing each ORV volume is to rewatch this video: "badly explaining all of omniscient reader in 6 minutes" by ferd up till where I've read. It's really fun to understand those parts of the video after having the full context of the events. Seeing the oracles explained as a bad book club where nobody finished the book is hilarious!