It is a land filled with magic, dangerous beasts roaming the land, professional Adventurers, elves, and so much more. Although one of the weaknesses of this story was that it was rather info dumpy when it came to explaining things in the world (especially the magic system), I feel like book 1 only brushed the surface of what this world will eventually contain and that excites me! Absolutely amazing and that cliffhanger! I need to read the light novel now, I want the rest of the story! Much of the story reads like it is for children as nearly every character seems childish, especially in comparison to the young Arthur with an adult intellect. The story primarily is just about Arthur being unprecedentedly awesome while Arthur expects more of himself. I was immediately intrigued by the premise of this book. A powerful king is reincarnated into the body of a baby boy and is raised by brand new parents in a world that he knows nothing about. As you can imagine this led to some hilarious scenes and also contributed to some very interesting character dynamics. Wir starten die Geschichte bei König Grey und bekommen gerade noch mit wie er stirbt und wiedergeboren wird als Baby Arthur. So hat er die Chance, noch einmal von vorne anzufangen, in einer Welt voller Magie.

King Grey has unrivaled strength, wealth, and prestige in a world governed through martial ability. However, solitude lingers closely behind those with great power. Beneath the glamorous exterior of a powerful king lurks the shell of man, devoid of purpose and will. Das hört sich theoretisch ziemlich cool an, aber Art findet es so gar nicht gut, dass er nun ein Kleinkind ist und seinen Eltern bedingungslos ausgeliefert ist. Der Geist einen Erwachsenen im Körper eines Säuglings, nicht unbedingt die Traumvorstellung für einen ehemaligen König. Aber Art ist ehrgeizig und arbeitet hart an sich. The elves seem to have no culture except a mild racism towards humans. MC lives there for what four years and we see just about nothing of them because of the time skip. The princess has a crush on him, the grandfather talks familiarly with him about him marrying the elven princess with a vocabulary like idek, an old man from the southern US? and he doesn't associate with the King and Queen. Whom he lives with. He has an enemy amongst the nobility who just sort of stops being a problem because. This is an interesting premise, very well written. King Grey dies and is reborn fully cognizant of his past life. His new world includes a family full of love and support and that's something he has never had before. And the magic is close enough to what he is familiar with that he becomes a magical prodigy at age three. Which might have tipped us into a power fantasy (and that's still part of the story, actually), but what really grabbed me is how poignant it is for Art to cherish his family so much because it is more valuable than anything he had as king. Ein Highlight hier ist, dass der Manga in Vollfarbe ist. Und Art als Baby mit seinen riesigen blauen Augen ist schon arg süß. Ansonsten sind die Zeichnungen völlig ausreichend, der Hintergrund ist oft nicht vorhanden und der Fokus liegt auf den Charakteren und der Mimik und Gestik. Ich muss gestehen, dass ich bei den Kämpfen zum Teil etwas die Übersicht verloren habe.Winner of the Ridibooks 2019 BL Awards. Published in English for the first time in full color and fully uncensored!

Early Years is an ok book. I'm not sure I would continue the series if I didn't already have book 2. And I found as more of the power fantasy presented itself, the less attached I became to the story. Also, it became clear that this is gearing up for a high fantasy type of story as we get hints of higher powers and greater conflict. Okay, I'll be honest and admit that the blurbs for the rest of the series clued me on that more than what's actually in this story. It's too bad because I think I'd like it more if it remained more idyll/pastoral than higher-concept conflict. King Grey has unrivaled strength, wealth, and prestige in a world governed by martial ability. However, solitude lingers closely behind those with great power. Beneath the glamorous exterior of a powerful king lurks the shell of man, devoid of purpose and will. But while the first 2-3 books are fun progression lit, the author doesn't seem to get better at writing. The author uses familiar tropes of training montages, finding party members, discovering lost magical equipment, encounters with mysterious entities, being separated from family in tragedy, and stumbling into a vile rival, but they don't use them very smoothly. It feels very episodic, but not explicitly so, just skipping around like it's being retold competently by a pre-teen who read all of the book the day before. By book 4, it's starting to slog a little, but with a semi-exciting conclusion... but book 5 is just a glorified training montage. And the book has a weird MC with a weird romance that seems permanently awkward and uncomfortable, with basically 0 enjoyable moments. Maybe 1. I've heard about the series for a while, but I was reluctant to dive into it at the regular cost on Audible. In the current Audible sale, all of the other books are at a good discount. I decided to buy #1-2 for a credit, give it a listen and decide if I'll use the sale to get the rest of the series.The story wanders a bit as Art has some adventures thrust on him even so young and I'm not quite sure what I think of those. They worked as plot but I'm not so sure they worked as supporting the core family dynamic.

Well, at first I found the comics @ Tapas (and yes - the best comment was "They say I was born a commoner's son"). But then... something happened and whoosh! This is not the first time I'm reading this particular theme (reborn in a fantasy world with all memories and skills from previous life, as a baby), but man, this is well executed! I had a lot of fun reading this book, and I am very much looking forward to the rest of the series (currently waiting to get my hands on the audio format of book three). Saying, “Hey dad, I was the King Duelist representative of my country, in a world where diplomatic and international issues are settled by battles. I just happened to be reincarnated as your son. Surprise,” seemed unlikely to get a hearty reaction from him.”

The Beginning After the End

Normally the big problem with Isekai story like this one, is having a protagonist too overpowered, this in many case, create a kind of wall between any real threats that the story is trying to present to you, because you know everything will work out and that "nothing bad" can really happen, this also create an emotional detachment, giving the reader trouble imagining or even feeling the emotions that the books are trying to convey.