Review as of V5.

This is a military story involving swords, spears, knights, politicking between princes and rival countries. There will be plenty of descriptions of tactical warfare, from cavalry charges to sieges written in a way that tries to emulate the epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but for a younger audience. If you have read/watched Legend of Galactic Heroes, then you will find that the author of Altina tries to evoke images of that hard science fiction. The male lead Regis is a JRPG version of Yang Wen-li, a... more>> bookish person who is only in the military purely to alleviate financial distress, displaying none of the martial prowess or aggressiveness of their respective peers and yet unrivaled when it comes to strategy and tactical acumen. Just like Yang Wen-li, Regis puts forth his suggestions reluctantly to save the lives of his fellow soldiers, only to be rebuffed and ridiculed by his inflexible superiors whose idea of strategy is simple weight of numbers.

The female lead Altina in the story is a warrior princess, wielding a huge sword, determined to prove herself. The typical anime trope of a tomboy-ish but kind, strong but clumsy female character. One look at illustrations of her shows you the fantasy feel of the series: a young girl who is thin and yet able to swing a sword of ridiculous weight. Despite her love of personal combat, she dislikes actual war itself, seeing it as a waste of lives unlike other commanders who think war is glorious.

In between serving in the military this duo would cross paths with factions who intend to move them around like chess pieces for their own selfish reasons, only for such plots to be derailed (or accelerated) when an actual crisis invaded their country. You have the typical hard-headed types who think wars should be fought “honorably”, decadent nobles who think it’s all a big game, a distant and unconcerned Emperor who watches everything impassively and growing foreign powers eager to tear them apart. The author tries to inject some creativeness in the battles, having the MC resorting to ruse and strategies to overcome numerical inferiority. Sprinkled in between these dramatic moments and set piece battles are moments that show the growing attraction between the two, as well as humorous slice-of-life events involving their close circle that includes maids and a disguised knight-in-training.

Altina reads like a typical JP novel, in that the characters are well developed despite being stereotypical. Characters have their individuality and you can easily see this novel being adapted to anime once it has enough content. <<less

The MC have a job that is similar to an advisor like zhuge liang/kong ming. He also gets to have word fights with some of the nobles..

Its pretty interesting and a pretty good read.

Well.. Not every MC is a fighting genius..

As they say.. The pen is mightier than the sword.

First I will list pros than talk about the cons and how I feel about the novel in general.

Pros:

1. 1. the politics are not in your face (however the author makes a point to get politics in when he can)

1. 1. the story progresses in a fairly logical direction and there is not much to complain about in that regard

1. 1. the characters are well developed; they have clear motivations for what they do (expect the new empress of high britania who does things just for the hell of it all)

1. 1. the novel does not out right tell you the plan you discover the plan as the events on the field of war occur or about to occur. which is better than you being told everything at once.

Con talk/rant:

They have muskets and no one bothers to ever use muskets... literally no one bothers using muskets. What the bloody hell? An the novel passes it off as "o are not these rifles so much better; muskets are useless and that's why no one bothered using guns till High Britania invented the rifle".

One; muskets can penetrate plate armor just as effective as rifles.

Two; these are not match locks they are flint lock full blown muskets (for those who don't know the difference the match lock literally uses a match as its firing mechanism while the flint lock uses well basically flint or sparks as its firing mechanism). If it were match locks I would understand but even than people still used match locks along with the normal knight and milita man. Guns are powerful tools.

Three somehow your average musketeer can't get off more than one shot when the enemy is still at least 3-4 minuets away on horse back. Muskets can reload and fire every 20 seconds an this means in a minuet they can get off at least 3 shots unless they are utter tr*sh and the unluckiest of people. An the rifles mind you are said to be such a great improvement in the novel the fire rate is increased (due to breach loading). so how come Regis D' Auric decides to fire one volley than pull back a rifle man unit of 200. he coulda easily have gotten off several more volleys and further decimate the Erutician army well before their lines met each other.

An the politics; the author misunderstands the age of liberalism which is basically towards the end of the medieval ages to early industrial revolution. The novel basically treats liberals as socialist and they are hunted for being anti-monarch. An they are these pro social welfare people. Reality however is that early liberals were not anti-monarchs and while some were pro social welfare the vast majority of them were not.

in fact a great deal of early liberals liked the monarch and nobility and this persisted through out even the age of colonization. Even the ones who were pro social contract/limited monarch liked the nobility. they were not socialist nor were they out right hunted (in some places defiantly because they were more extreme or monarchs who did not like their authority being questioned [which was not all monarchs; it was mostly those who kept their absolute power in a age of basically parliamentary monarchs]).

liberals and liberalism as a whole thrived and have been thriving a tad bit earlier than the high medieval ages and early first industrial revolution.

the point of contention was not that liberals wanted more freedom; the point of contention of liberalism around that time frame was WHO had the power and WHY they had that power. an it had nothing to do with "we are the lower classes so give us a say". It had everything to do with who owned land.; early liberals tended to be pro-nobility because of this. The idea being land owners should be privileged and receive/given more or less guarantee rights or rights the government/monarch has to protect less they lose the consent of the "people" being ruled and over thrown. an who were the land owners at the time? nobles (well mostly nobles).

in fact the USA was originally a oligarch republic. that is to say only land owners were given the right to vote. the idea being well you own land and therefore you have a more vested interest in the nations success.

An in the novel the "liberals" appear to be obsessed with this idea of making everything equal as much as they can by re-distribution. this is not a liberal thing; it is a socialist obsession quite literally. an liberals were not socialist. sure some were pro social welfare but this does not mean re-distribution. the idea of money pension/welfare and retirement actually came from otto von bismark who was not a liberal but noticed the people were not happy and lost productivity so he literally created this as a means to get people happy and productive. prior to otto von bismark the idea of welfare was basically being given enough land to grow a garden an have a house (this is a form of welfare the Islamic empire actively par took in by the way to give you an idea on how old the idea of welfare is and were the term Islamic socialism comes from; yes socialism is older than liberalism thanks to the Islamic empire and a few others. a very different form of socialism than the kind introduced by karl marx or the socialist "democrats" mainly due to it being theocratic socialism and centered authority on well the religion hence theocracy/theocratic socialism), or being given food like the romans did.

public education funded by government; the novel tries to pass this on as a liberal thing; reality is a religious nut job wanted people to be able to read and write so they could understand the holy book and therefore none but a true heretic could deny such holy words an be executed. an his name was Charlemagne the emperor of the Frankish empire. an you could probably trace this further back to other people.

all in all there should be no reason why Regis D' Auric is hesitant to call himself a liberal in front of others. But I would not use that term to describe the underground people (or him) in the novel because they are much closer to well socialist than actual early liberals.

other than that I disagree with the author that progress mostly comes from peace. our biggest technological jump in history came from WW2 an that was a very deadly war. progress is made when there is pressure to make progress. the weaker this pressure is the lower the amount of actual progress is made while the higher this pressure is a higher amount of progress is made. progress requires both war and peace.

as for how I feel about the novel as a whole:

it is a genuinely good novel; it might not be for everyone though.

I really, really like the dialogue. Clarisse's lines in particular are constantly great. But the response of the MC to EVERY SINGLE romantic come on is "uhh durr hurr I don't care for women in particular". Because of this, outside of the military/political plot resolutions, no real character growth can exist because everyone instantly falls for the MC's intelligence on sight without any possible chance at actual action. The reason it is to try to suck readers into caring if Altina & the MC will get together or not, but... more>> it's an awful way to plot it out - either they should actually grow together romantically (even if it stays pure, just sincerely discussing their relationship at any point ever), he should move onto somebody else, or romantic partners should stop being thrown at the MC right and left and bogging down the novel without any actual resolution. <<less

This novel is really nice considering if you are looking for action, war and strategies used while doing so. It's amazing! The way author unfolds the whole plot and strategies are really nice.

Points I like about this novel---

1. MC even though having talent because of self depreciation find hard to use but as MC keeps fighting and keep facing enemies in wars he grows he uses his talent appropriately. Grows more BOLD! I really like it! To see MC grow, you can feel it, and author doesn't try to hide his bad points at all which makes it even nicer!
2. Strategies, all strategies that MC uses are really well thought and the best thing I like is the way even though they are so well planned it's possible for things to go awry and need immediate response to fix it! Really nice! Most author who uses strategies never have anything go wrong but not in case of MC since planning is never perfect!
3. Fighting for a fixed goal, MC finds a goal for himself even if it's idealistic and something which may not even happen in his life yet he takes a step forward to it. Nice!
4. MC is responsible! Not someone who goes get you killed my subordinates I will kill you, but, someone who would blame himself for having sent his subordinates to death.

Things I don't like --

• MC being dense. Like really? He can't figure out who is in love with him just coz he self depreciate himself because men in that time were more brawn instead of brains.
• Princess, her existence is pretty useless in the whole plot author could have used many other ways to spark MCs ambition. Since MC later on himself says for his goal he's supporting princess and if doesn't go forward for it and somebody else did he would support that person instead. Her existence is only to be a total brawn I don't really like it.
• Harem.. Author at first was focusing on romance only with princess but it slowly turned into a harem. It doesn't really look good more so when MC is such a dense. I want more time for wars instead! This book's selling point is wars! Give me wars not girls!!!

Overall- I would highly recommend you to read this novel if you're looking for wars with strategies where MC don't really on luck much nor does he have super power or super strength... more>> to achieve goals. <<less

Review as of finishing vol. 7

This light novel if I were to put it into words would be: okay... but it could've also done better.

This won't be a spoiler anyway, so let me get straight to the point:

If you are reading this for Altina, the female" MC" or heroine. then you are slightly mistaken. Sure, you'll get a strong (literally) female "MC" or heroine, who has dreams for the country, swings a big kitchen knife and all but other than that, she doesn't really do much. (A bad move from... more>> the author)

The strategies used throughout the LN are really good, in my honest opinion. One of the reasons I stay and read. I mean, it's really well-planned.

Kinda becomes "harem-ish" and romance from one side is kinda implied but don't be bothered, it takes a back seat and is mostly used for comedy or to show the ignorance of the MC. It also rarely happens.

the Male MC is kinda OP for me. Not in the sense of being physically strong, but in the sense that his plans always go well. He's like Narsus from Arslan. MC's development is also painfully slow.

MC's personality is like a jap guy transported from another world;except there's no magic here, and he's from this world originally.

(edited this review of mine, in case you misunderstood that I stated MC was from a diffrent world. What I meant was his personality, and, if I wasn't clear enough, I stated no magic here. So no way to transport magically.) <<less

This is a Light Novel that heavily tell story about wars, strategy, military, and politics. This LN have 70% about wars and tactics, so there will be a lot of action and strategy telling.

Personally, this have 1st rank in my list. Reason? This novel have all things that I wished, smart MC, independent Heroine, war and tactics, politics, romance, adventure, no forced situation, no forced cliche, and great story line. For me, this is the most ideal LN.

Hime is Hime! What a beautiful story.

Its nothing like what you imagine. A wonderful descriptive novel on a superb fantasy world. Read it and you will not regret.

This is a fairly well written story of a princess and her strategist. The story itself is enjoyable enough but my main problem is the main characters. In Movies, Books, TV shows and anything like that, the main characters are usually the deciding factor on whether or not I will continue to read or watch the content.

The main duo are the types of Japanese cliches that have grown old for me.

Altina is one of those girls who feels like it is fine to force things on people and is fairly... more>> air headed a lot of the time but because she is a "good person" in the eyes of the main character he puts up with stuff people generally wouldn't. In a normal situation you would not want to be around a person like her even if she help some ideals that you shared but that's just my opinion I guess.

Next is Regis our MC who is the stereotypical socially awkward young man who actually has an amazing talent but really only that one talent. To be honest the only reason I kept reading this novel to the point I did was to get to the points where he was actually performing his role as a strategist because I picked this novel up to see a smart guy doing some stuff with military strategy. But outside those parts he becomes the LN MC stereotype that most characters in Japanese LNs are. But if you are not sick of characters like that I think you could get a good amount of enjoyment from this novel. <<less

I love this novel. The MC's plans are very outside the box and I like how he isn't physically OP but is mentally OP. This is balanced by him not being able to even ride a horse let alone use a sword.

Over all an amazing novel that I would recommend.

So, this is a decent novel about a physically weak but mentally brilliant MC with little self-confidence. Most of his knowledge was gained through his love of reading, and he ends up becoming a strategist for the titular character who, up until the point noted in this review's Status, is a kind and physically powerful fighter but not a strategic thinker. The goal is to help her eventually gain control of the Empire they live in so that she can cleanse it of corrupt nobles who are leeching the citizens... more>> dry, having to deal with international enemies and their own empire's political enemies and corrupt nobility.

That said, I'm going to mention one of my personal pet peeves with it that aren't really mentioned in the tags anywhere: the harem that the MC has. Based on the tags, I'm assuming that the end-game will be a monogamous romance with the titular Altina. While I'm not exactly against harems in themselves (I would argue that it is based on the involved characters and how they're introduced/fleshed out), as of the first 3 volumes the majority of the named female characters fall in love with the protagonist (or otherwise want a relationship with him) very shortly after being introduced into the story or meeting him. And by majority of named female characters, I mean that there is a single one off the top of my head who isn't one of the Emperor's Consorts that doesn't want the MC.

I was, however, expecting a courting-type romance novel (or at least one where two leads gradually grow closer together and are moderately open with their feelings) and not one of the types of novels where many of the introduced female characters quickly fall in love with the MC. Additionally, the MC is quite dense (stemming predominantly from his lack of self confidence) and, up to the end of V3, the female characters are averse to flatly stating their interest in him. I could see this novel being the type where the Hero and Heroine just have stereotypical interactions with the female lead getting angry for his continued ignorance of her hints until near the end of the novel, where they will get together. As such, up until the stated point (and quite likely thereafter), the romance aspect tends to be the 'dense harem protagonist' style of 'romance'.

I mostly wanted to list the above for those who may not enjoy that style of 'romance' in novels, as the tags may not invoke that imagery. Overall, if you don't mind most female characters falling for the MC and the noted 'romance' style, the novel is a pretty decent read where there is interesting strategic combat, both standard and political in nature. However, if you dislike the noted elements and aren't expecting them, the novel may not live up to your expectations.

Edit: As of the time of this edit the tags more properly represent the harem aspect of the story. When this review was originally penned it did not have tags relating to that. <<less

Review as of November 2017 (Note - will also be rather long) :

When I just came off from reading the latest listed chapter of this series, marking off the end of Volume 10 I was compelled to write a review since this novel has been hands down one of the most refreshing and unique stories I have read in a long while. Well, at least when it comes to Japanese themed light novels. I don't tend to read Chinese wuhxia or whatever they call it since I have a... more>> personal peeve against Mandarin. But after taking a day to cool off from the hype the cliffhanger of the latest chapter has left me wanting, here goes!

STORY:

After coming to read various LNs from the isekai troupe, when I was looking for more light novels I honestly just looking for at least 1 unique aspect from this troupe by that point. Whether the character sets off to be a hero or does their own thing afterwards I didn't care, seeing as the basic outlines were the same.

Altina the Sword Princess however, is set in a historic non-magic themed world, where the protagonist Regis Auric has been born and raised in this world as a commoner - with absolutely no memories of any past life whatsoever. I don't know why a user on this page has stated otherwise, but even if this novel did mention science in a medieval world, it was attributed to the fact where the protagonist (being a book nerd) has come across reading scholarly material related to the concept.

Anyways, even though normally I am not a fan of reading historic setting related novels (being a fantasy genre fan in general), this novel nevertheless did not cease to amaze me with the various battles played out with a very good pacing, and in a manner which slowly but surely highlighted the strengths and intelligence of the great strategist that is Regis Auric. Given the events of the story that has played out until now, I have a feeling that this novel will not end until after at least another set of 10 volumes has been released. The reason I'll state down below in regards to its characters, but here is what I think of the story based on what has been panned out as of yet.

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Vol 1 to Vol 10: Birth of the great strategist, Regis the "Wizard" (Prelude or Part I)

Vol 11 to Vol ??: War versus Eternal Peace! Second Prince Latrielle versus Third Prince Bastian & Fourth Princess Altina! (Main or Part II)

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Overall this novel is written absolutely well in terms of pacing and character dialogue - and, as the other users have mentioned, the mechanics and logistics of military weapons, terms, and strategy. Unlike other novels such as Release the Witch, you don't need to be a military geek in order to understand the weapons or strategy used in this novel.

CHARACTERS:

For characters there were some pros and cons. The cons, in which has likely been already stated by the other reviews here, is that even though the title of this novel focuses on the princess named "Altina", it honestly has just left her in the dust in regards to her development as a character in general. The Fourth Princess Altina, as one will come to learn, is very strong physically. But otherwise as of yet, readers have yet to seen her develop as a character when it comes to leading an army and take charge as a military Commander. I personally won't count her off the list yet though, for as stated above that up until now, I feel that the events in the story has been nothing but just a big prelude to a long novel series. And it has dropped hints that the other royalty characters will (again, slowly) start to develop a good sense of their world in regards to its future and its politics. The good stories with many chapters will always end up slowly developing their characters after all.

The pros on the other hand, are very good. The novel focuses an ample amount of time to the characters, where not just to Regis, but even to the main antagonist characters of the series as well. Too much to the point where I have come to actually love the antagonists at one point. This was a huge plus for me. The reader will get to explore a vast array of characters, from commoners like Regis, to the stereotypical Noble characters, and then the side characters supporting the protagonist and the antagonists.

OTHER ASPECTS:

Romance in this series? There is romance indeed. But like with novels such as Konjiki no Moji Tsukai the romance in this novel is mostly all one-sided currently. It's not as if Regis is arrogant or anything, but given his personality in this series.... you'll just have to find out. There is some romance going on between the side characters at the very least.

World building? Nothing short of perfect. The premise of this novel is set so that in the current timeline, there is a shift going on in between the era from using only swords and horses, towards a new era of steam-powered technology and guns. And as one will come to know from reading the novel, the author has done his research of warfare extensively, to the point where he describes even the dimensions of the weapons used in addition to the descriptions of the forts, battles and weapons.

Translation quality and chapter length? OMG, when it comes to translation, skythewood is "the" most perfect group I have ever seen! And seriously, the length of a single chapter of this novel is no joke either, it's super~~~~~ long. You can obviously see the amount of effort they put into translating this.

CONCLUSION:

This has been one of those novels in which I spent nights binge reading. Overall, even if this novel does have its (rather) obvious flaws, I personally feel that the pros heavily outweigh the cons. This has been a comprehensive (and maybe to the point of annoying) review of my top favorite light novel series, "Haken no Kouki Altina" <<less

This is exactly the type of story you think about when you see Clever Protagonist and Dense Protagonist tags being together. This contradiction kills all the fun. This novel can't provide much besides strategies and warfare, still the romance is typical for JP novel and it reads like slice of life.

Sad tragedy in the making.

The story is heavily tied to the French Revolution. A lot of politics, civil issues, and military battles cover a major part of the storyline. If anyone has seen Rose of Versailles or knows French history, expect the buckets of teardrops if you invest into this novel. The fact that the characters keep stating that they would put their life on the line for the ideals does not bode well. Well aside from my assumptions...

The MC and sub characters are fleshed decently and make them... more>> unique instead of the usual 'forget me later' NPCs. The author tries to use military jargon to describe naval and field battles and it somewhat passes if you aren't a military otaku. This novel is a smorgasbord of military, civics, harem, and cheap cliches that is best rated at generic. It's an okay read to pass the gap between the teeth but don't expect anything amazing. <<less

Altina the Sword Princess is a hidden gem.

In the light novel scene where transported into another world and reincarnation stories are the norm, we have a story that doesn't do either of those two. The world has similarities of things found in history, but creates it's own unique world to fit the narrative of the story.

Altina is a princess (a sword princess!! Lol) who wants to better her country. Regis is a soldier with a unique mind perfect for a strategist. They meet and an interesting story of the two... more>> reaching their goal begins!

What I really like about this novel are a couple of things.

1. 1. Romance (though very slow).

1. 1. The story is interesting and feels unique.

1. 1. Dialogue.

1. 1. Not action oriented, but includes sufficient fights.

1. 1. No harem (you get tired of these after a while).

Of course, every has different tastes so you may not like it as much. I still believe that this is a very well written story and by far one of by favorites. <<less

In short, this novel has overall interesting plot (theme of politics, war, etc.) but flaws in the theme of romance and flatly-defined characters.

What intrigued me into reading this novel are the brilliance in the strategy employed to tackle encountered problems, the actions/fighting and some bits of political affairs.

Talking about characters, they don't possess too much depth and hence, they represent somewhat typically defined characters. Though the author is detailed in giving balance to the characters' traits.

The romance is bland and not very interesting. It lacks depth in developing the romantic... more>> feelings. Thus, it is not my main point of attraction in reading this novel. Although I would absolutely appreciate if the author develops the romance theme with much more depth in subsequent volumes.

Particularly for volume 4, I like the change of characters and settings. It is quite a refreshing read. Indeed, the story is still interconnected with the other volumes. Frankly, this is my favourite volume due to the following reasons...

Spoiler

Though having OP character is not my cup of tea, I like the chara's OPness for vol 4. The general theme for vol 4 is our OP protagonist saves a damsel in distress. It was an enjoyable read on how the MC pushes forward to save the heroine. Nevertheless, the enemy is better than the MC. In the end, the hero and the heroine failed their mission to prevent a greater conflict (the budding of plot for vol 5 and above). It was a truly heart-breaking moment for them (and me as a reader) as they endured a lot of adversaries but they finally gain naught.

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This novel has some pretty great characters. The maid is my complete favorite, everyone wants a pretty maid that's very mischievous in their life, the MC has his flaws but compliments the main heroine very well, and Altina's growth throughout the series so far has been well done. Look forward to more!

Do not be fooled by the number of chapters per book, those chapters are insanely long (worth 3-5 chapters for most novels with relatively long chapters and easily 10-15 chapters for those with short chapters).

I only read one volume so far, but the story is nice, the translation conveys the story well, the characters are defined enough to feel at least somewhat realistic...

My only problem for now is that the protagonist is your typical young Japanese type from all those novels, he just happens to not have reincarnation or transport,... more>> or memories, but he does act the same weak minded, never self confident, apologetic, and not wanting to stand out as all those protagonists from a lot of Japanese novels.

I know it's a cultural thing for them, but it does bring the value of the characters down nearly every time, which is a bit sad.

Apart from that, it is a nice read so far, but don't expect to be able to read a chapter when you have 5 minutes. <<less

I finished the entirety of Altina over the course of four months, and I deeply enjoyed the premise. It's about a strategist teaming up with a princess to quell rebellions and war with other nations through practical and brilliant tactics.

I recommend giving the novel a read. The story really picks up during the High Brittanica arc, and you will most surely enjoy it.

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But, it's extremely unfortunate to see this novel on an indefinite hiatus. It has been many years since the previous novel, but 14 main volume with 1... more>> side story should keep you busy for a while. <<less

Ok here I go, TBH when I read this I din expect much since I heard one of my friend saying the MC is kinda weak and coward, and ofc dense like any other JP novels... Just for the sake of passing my time I started reading... V1... V2... Both were okayish, the start was a little normal so don't expect much

Starting vol 3 the story starts getting interesting, ... more>>

Spoiler

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Vol 4 & 5 were pretty good... They started emphasizing on the development of not only MC but even of other characters... The only thing I dislike is how dense the MC is, , , , , I mean come on why the f**k are you so coward and we get to know about it later... and the reason was sh*t which is one of the reason why I lowered my rating...

After vol 7 sh*t starts getting real... The wars, the politics, and most of all the unexpected events... Man

Spoiler

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gave me goosebumps...

Well, in short Except for dense and coward MC this novel is pretty much likeable... If you have some time it's a must read, pretty better than those CN novels... <<less