The Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Vol. 1 (light novel)

Carlo Zen

Dec 2017 · The Saga of Tanya the Evil Vol 1 · Sold by Yen Press LLC

About this ebook

High above the blood- and mud-soaked trenches, a young girl pits herself against army mages in high stakes aerial duels with bullets, spells, and bayonets. Her name is Tanya Degurechaff and she is the Devil of the Rhine, one of the greatest soldiers the Empire has ever seen! But inside her mind lives a ruthless, calculating ex-salaryman who enjoyed a peaceful life in Japan until he woke up in a war-torn world. Reborn as a destitute orphaned girl with nothing to her name but memories of a previous life, Tanya will do whatever it takes to survive, even if she can find it only behind the barrel of a gun!

Ratings and reviews

Reads like a high school essay. Switches back and forth between first and second person perspective; presumably to demonstrate how the main character doesn't see Tanya as "himself", but the switch is random and off-putting. Sections tend to circle the same point for literally dozens of paragraphs, such as when the author wanted to make it clear how stupid the Entente Alliance was for attacking. The dialogue follows the manga and show in many places verbatim, yet somehow it falls flat; likely due to the uninspired internal monologues the author sprinkles between lines. I don't know whether it's the light novels themselves or this translation, but it's not really worth the $8.

This book makes me feel sick. The main character is ridiculously anti-God and just continues to spew hatred. I can just feel the hatred for religion coming from the author. I really wanted to like the story, and I did overall, but I finally had to stop reading after a couple hundred pages. I couldn't do it anymore. There are many good isekai out there that can use serious themes and still not drip with such hatred. Despite my serious reservations for the author, they are an excellent writer overall and I enjoyed the many sources linked throughout the novel. If they don't feel as strongly as the emotions that came across in the writing, then kudos to them for portraying a character so well.

Found this via the anime. The differences between the two are odd to say the least, but this makes for an interesting start to one of the more unconventional isekai genre stories.

About the author

Carlo Zen is the author of The Saga of Tanya the Evil.