Her Majesty’s Swarm

616th Special Information Battalion

Jan 2020 · Her Majesty’s Swarm Vol 1 · J-Novel Club

About this ebook

Our protagonist is a college student who enjoys playing as the evil-aligned faction Arachnea in her favorite real-time strategy game. One day, she finds herself in a world similar to the one in the game; additionally, her body is now that of a fourteen-year-old girl. While things are a bit different from how they were in the game, one element has remained the same: she is the leader of the Arachnea. The insects under her control, collectively known as the Swarm, praise her and implore her to lead them to victory.

In order to survive, she raises her Swarm and forms friendly relations with the elves of the neighboring forest. But after a slaver traveling through the forest murders one of her Swarm and the nearby kingdom's knights burn down the elven village and massacre its people, she prepares to launch her counterattacks in the name of revenge.

However, revenge is merely a pretense for attacking the countries of this world. Her command is masterful and severe, as one who has played the game in real life...

Ratings and reviews

While the premise was interesting the development of the story was linear and boring. The motivations behind decisions were primitive and basic throughout the whole story. The development and conclusion of each arc is exactly the same it just increases in scale. The author attempts to use shock tactics and graphic imagery to evoke emotion in the readers but it's all very predictable and dull. I recommend Overlord instead if you want a "villain takes over" story. Overall a disappointing read.

Rather than letting me--the reader--make my own judgement, I felt I was being told to sympathize with the protagonist act of revenge through her series of hypocritical logic. In my opinion, the most important part about revenge plot like this: First, have your reader get attached to a character. Then, kill them in the most unexpected ways by an antagonist. Hence, spurring the reader into rooting for the protagonist to take revenge. (e.g. Berserk) Sadly, I didn't felt attachment to any character at all. None of them were interesting. Even the Arachnea sounds like a rip-off from Star Craft's Zerg. Except, Star Craft has an interesting story and characters. Something similar but way better is Overlord (even the terrible official translation). It has more interesting characters and a more interesting approach into world domination.

Way too short! I barely got anything out of this story before it ended! I got it on a discounted bundle so I hadn't noticed before. Volume 2 is also under 200 pages making it a really poor value whether you think the story has promise or not. I will not be actively pursuing this one.