So You Want to Live the Slow Life? A Guide to Life in the Beastly Wilds, Vol. 1

So You Want to Live the Slow Life?, Book 1

De: Fuurou

Narrado por: Brian Nishii

Another world in the center of Japan!

Mikura Moriya expected a quiet and peaceful life in the forest when he inherited his great-grandfather’s house and enormous orchard. Someone had to keep the family business running, so he quit his job and decided to live off the land. But the house isn’t in any old forest...it’s deep in the Beastly Wilds, an area off-limits to most humans. For the Wilds are home to the Beastfolk—neither human nor animal, but something in between.

It isn’t long before Mikura meets his new neighbors and makes a pact with a girl with chipmunk ears that will change his life forever. Will Mikura get to live the slow life, or is it more trouble than it’s worth?

©2022 Cross Infinite World (P)2022 Podium Audio

Slow burn

It's not bad. Getting used to the voice may take a while, but the story is alright. This is a slow burn, fitting for a slow life, but it is interesting.

Interesting

So I thought this would be an Isekai, but it turned out to be more of an urban/rural fantasy. It certainly has a light novel feel. Especially since it has Japan as the setting. Though the story never mentioned the prefecture or nearby cities to where everything takes place.

The story definitely could have been more as an adult reader, but it makes a great story for young adults as is. Especially since the story explains preserving different foods.

Narration: Was pretty good for a solo narrator. If there had been more female characters dual narration probably would have been better, but since the story only revolves around a handful of characters the narrator did a wonderful job 👍

Lacking

I guess this must be meant for little kids. While it has an interesting premise, the actually story is nearly non-existent. I feel like it was made by a food preservation otaku to try to convince other people to like his hobby. In reality, once you get passed the few unique aspects, this is probably the most boring thing I've read in years. There is slice of life, and then there is listing steps to use an automated rice cooker. I'm not even kidding.

Kind of boring

Honestly I know it is slice of life, and that tends to be a meandering day by day plot. I enjoy it in anime, I enjoy it in manga, and I think I enjoy it in light novel format, I just can't remember if I've actually read one in light novel format. However Audiobook just isn't for me, and I think that applies to pretty much any Japanese translated book, as I wasn't very enthused with Overlord. I just prefer reading those books, with or without pictures.

I did like that the narrator sounded Japanese enough that the Japanese names and terms used sounded correct (compared to what I read them as, and in anime I tend to not be able to pick out what each word means most of the time), however didn't have an accent while reading normally. there were a few minor things, but enough of them I docked a star, I would have done half a star if that was possible.