Berserk: The Flame Dragon Knight

ive heard this novel isnt too great compared to the manga masterpiece, but still gonna give it a go x

Bought for my partner he lives the series and lives having the next book

As a fan of the manga, I was excited to read this light novel, but its bad reputation is warranted. It's not just about its content, but the way it's written, and answers very few questions while raising many more.The Flame Dragon Knight is effectively just an account of Grunbeld's origin story. It does help to fill out the world of Berserk a little more. The Tudor Empire features prominently, most of it in the one year gap between the end of the Hundred Years' War and the Eclipse that ended the Golden Age Arc. We see the world beyond Midland, in Berserk's rough equivalent to Scandinavia, glimpses of a culture never seen otherwise. Grunbeld himself, though, exists not to be his own character, but out of necessity for the story. The reader knows where he will eventually go and there is admittedly very little to flesh him out. He is a vehicle for violence and action scenes first and a character second.The violence and action is, by comparison to its father text, kind of juvenile. Some dedicated Berserk fans have criticised the amount of sexualised violence in the book, and I'm inclined to agree. While Miura's own work has an inconsistent record on how it's treated, there is usually some additional purpose to it, even if it sometimes pure shock. The sexual assault in The Flame Dragon Knight is edgy without being transgressive, the violence 'epic' without being grounded. There is an uncomfortable juxtaposition with this not feeling like Berserk: The Dark Fantasy Epic, but being wholly congruent with Berserk: The Edgy Schlock That Dark Horse Ad Copy Paints It As.Here I will readily admit that I do not read light novels outside of this one, and maybe reading more would clear my expectations, but Makoto Fukami's - or rather, how it is translated by Duane Johnson - prose feels awkward and stilted. This is not a pleasant book to read. I was surprised when I double-checked and realised that Johnson also translates the manga volumes. Maybe he's just better at translating speech - monologued or dialogue - than prose, or some agreement with Fukami lead him to translate it the way he did. There is a lot of insistent terminology, deathly afraid of using different terms of phrase. The young prisoners of war under Tudor are subjected to 'conversion education' and only ever 'conversion education'. Grunbeld's mother is introduced as an 'eccentric noblewoman' and then referred to as an 'eccentric noblewoman' a couple sentences later - as her assault is detailed - as if it were a singular noun. There is a regular impression that the book was translated strictly and the result is English prose that never maintains a flow. Point of view is chosen on a whim, sentence-by-sentence, for the benefit of the reader's knowledge rather than the reading as an experience. Little is given to any character's point of view or interiority (least of all Grunbeld's) when every paragraph exists to propel the story along no matter how disjointed it feels. It has, additionally, a terrible, clinical description of (consensual) sex, but at least it's mercifully short.I wanted to read this book to get some insight into the viewpoint of an Apostle, and nothing surfaced because the lives of individual characters simply do not matter to the book. It exists to give a blow by blow account of Grunbeld's life, not necessarily from his perspective, and it ultimately raises more questions than it answers. Chief among these is how much Miura was involved in its authorship. Some speculate that Miura provided the 10 illustrations and Fukami wrote around them, or that this book is Fukami's 'reward' for his work on the 2016/2017 anime adaptation. I understand where this perspective comes from, but I think that cutting Miura out of the picture is just a way to avoid interrogating the possibility that he was involved, and what the book says about the greater project of Grunbeld as a character.The novel was published the same day as Volume 39 of the manga, after Guts' party reaches Elfheim. Grunbeld had received some characterisation as had other members of the New Band of the Hawk, but was mostly remembered for featuring alongside the introduction of the Berserker Armour. This and his history detailed in the book suggests that he was being set up as a foil to Guts. Equivalent in strength through supernatural forces while themselves near-superhuman by default. While Guts' impossible strength is explained through his life story, wielding swords bigger than him since childhood, Grunbeld is simply an extraordinarily large man from a nation of large people. Grunbeld's hammer is explained to be, like Guts' Dragonslayer, an ornament, impractical to wield, repurposed as a weapon.It leaves the question hanging of if Fukami wrote Grunbeld the way he did to emulate Guts just to give the fans what he thought they would want, or if it's a part of Miura's larger design to set Guts up against Grunbeld. If the latter, we have to ask 'why?' What purpose does Grunbeld serve to Guts as a character after he's already been contrasted to Zodd - individuals initially fighting for the sake of fighting without direction - and Griffith - two men trying to chase their own dreams and ambitions? What more does Grunbeld have to offer, given that Guts seems to be managing the Berserker Armour and Beast of Darkness by himself? These are all questions that I would have loved to receive answers for, but I believe that, even with Studio Gaga's continuation, the real answers died with Miura.I can't even recommend The Flame Dragon Knight as a curiosity, or a piece of fanservice, let alone as a book. Avoid it.

This reads a lot like the stories I wrote in English lessons when I played a lot of Warhammer and tried to grow my hair out. Awkward, jarring sentences and bad grammar. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and blame it on poor, rushed translation. Give this to a halfway good editor for a polish and re-release it.

The God Hand is a quinquevirate of demonic sovereigns who act as executors of the Idea of Evil's will, by virtue of their desires being intrinsic to the entity. They reign over the apostles as their masters, and are responsible for facilitating the demonic reincarnation of beherit bearers during sacrificial ceremonies. They have orchestrated many significant events that have largely affected the course of humanity and the state of the world. Each member of the God Hand was once human and is a previous owner of the Crimson Beherit, which distinguished them as individuals destined to be reborn as the demon sovereigns they serve as. In 216 year increments, they each attained their proper forms during the festival known as the Eclipse.

The book itself was a nice way for me to end off my berserk reading, I was left unsatisfied with knowing there will be no more authentic berserk written by Kento Miura, but seeing the last parts of his final work and the splashes of incredible art inbetween certain parts of the story was really nice. Also this story makes Grumbeld and all of the apostles feel more human which is very nice.

La novela es de lectura rápida y es gráfica con la violencia, lo cual es bien característico de berserk. Muy entretenida y las ilustraciones son excelentes

Berserk por si só é uma obra de arte. Gostei muito do book, apesar de não terem traduzido pro português ainda, recomendo a leitura.

Certainly there are many points to talk about, so I will start with the negative ones and then move on to the positive ones.Honestly, the things that I really didn't like are just a couple:The first point is that the volume arrived slightly damaged but I don't know if it is Amazon's fault or whoever took care of bringing it to me.The second point, which is also the most important, is that there are too many detailed scenes of sexual assault throughout the novel, and I admit that they bothered me too much especially for the high number of scenes and details, In fact the original artist would never have put so many horrible details in these scenes...The number of things I liked are really a lot;First, Very unexpected but also pleasant thing is that the volume will come to you with the original plastic intact.Second, The drawings are very beautiful and pleasing to the eye and give an excellent overview of the situation that is happening, but from Kentaro Miura we could not expect better.Third, The thing I liked most is the addition to the Berserk phanteon of new nations, wars, places, folklore legends and religions (Religions inspired a lot by Norse mythology, with interesting reinterpretations of Odin, Siegfried and the Nibelungs, and more) .I have read that many people complain about Fukami Makoto's grammar and writing style;Honestly I have not seen even one of grammar errors, then for the criticism of the author's writing style I think it is quite cringe, Fukami and Miura are two totally different individuals and each has their own style of writing in life, if you wanted something that it was written by Miura himself then read an opera written by him, not a collaboration of him.In conclusion, I am of the idea that as a work for those who are passionate about Berserk and the character of Grunbeld it is excellent to have in your collection.