Solo Leveling

by Chugong

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels
Pages: 350
Series: Solo Leveling (light novel) #1
Rating:

Synopsis:

THE WEAKEST HUNTER OF ALL MANKIND!

E-rank hunter Jinwoo Sung has no money, no talent, and no prospects to speak of-and apparently, no luck, either! When he enters a hidden double dungeon one fateful day, he’s abandoned by his party and left to die at the hands of some of the most horrific monsters he’s ever encountered. But just before the last, fatal blow… PING! [Congratulations on becoming a Player.]

Having read the manhwa adaptation of Chugong’s Solo Leveling, I decided I wanted to give the light novel a try and just start with getting volume one. This might’ve been a mistake: I started it on Christmas morning and instantly knew I was going to want to read the whoooole series in pretty short order. Luckily, I was saved: someone bought me volumes two and three for Christmas.

As that story suggests, it’s a pretty quick read, and not that different from the manhwa if you’ve read that first. You get a little bit of extra insight into Jinwoo’s thoughts, but it’s amazing how much the manhwa manages to directly translate into that format. You get maybe a liiiittle bit more of the side characters as well in volume one.

Honestly, this first volume is probably the most I ever felt Jinwoo facing real peril, which makes sense. Once he’s figured out the system and started leveling up, he’s got the protagonist’s halo. When he’s still just an E rank hunter — the worst hunter of all mankind — then he could genuinely die.

Mostly, the fun of this series is watching Jinwoo go from zero to hero to obscenely overpowered, and enjoy the nods to typical video game systems as you go. It’s really not that deep, it’s just fun. That’s the same in both the light novel and the manhwa, but it’s fun to experience it again in another format, and actually more so than I thought it might be.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)