The Summoned Hero Is a Historical Materialist??

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

This is a fanfiction of The Rising of the Shield Hero (the anime), except Naofumi is a socialist, an anti-monarchist and a slavery abolitionist (but I repeat myself). You don't need to have seen the anime in order to enjoy it.

Originally posted on Sufficient Velocity.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: melmonella

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 119
Views: 56,010

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(5)

MoonloonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story has three things that'll turn a lot of people off when they start reading. One, it's a script fic, two, it's a Shield Hero fanfic, and three, it's blatantly political themes, themes a lot of readers wouldn't agree with.
It's the first script fic I've ever stuck with, and it's very obviously not a cheap cover for someone who struggles with descriptions and prose. It's done in an interesting way, and manages to be both engaging and amusing.
It's not hard for a Shield Hero fic to be better than the source material. Just on a character and story level, it manages to come out on top relatively easily, with a lot of the primary antagonists and characters having genuine motivations beyond "I am genuinely incapable of not being a horrendous bastard." While it follows the general story for a while, it branches off into its own territory, with different characters, plot hooks, and overall, a superior structure.
The political themes serve to enhance it. Shield Hero is, on a lot of different levels, a pretty gross story, and Naofumi being so different, and being so intensely motivated to actually change the abhorrent system of the world he finds himself in, makes it a whole lot better. It's still a power fantasy, but it's a power fantasy without a fucked up pedo-bait slave-harem party, and that makes it so, so much better.
PissLord64646464Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
this series is just a lot of fun to read and way better then the source material
even unlikeable characters from the original are giving the bare minimum character traits and motivations to not just make them dull targets for revenge porn
kinda good characters are now just good and even great
there's now actual worldbuilding
it's engaging with its premise wholeheartedly, but not so much that it can't laugh at itself
fun read, read it in a day
ZentoyoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I used to have a more mild review of this, back when there were only 10 or so chapters. It was a fun read with a bit of complexity and overtly political. But this takes itself seriously in the best way possible. Revolution is not easy, tyrants might be evil but they are not stupid, and toppling the current order has its price taken in blood. It does not stop having a lot of humor, action and just imo very cute and genuine character moments.
So the best leftie propaganda you will ever read is this: a compelling fun and well crafted story that takes time to update because its... you know built with care and passion.
advocatezzRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
edit at 26/10/23. The story was a lot better than I gave credit for and so here's a more proper review.
TL;DR. I'm probably not really a socialist & yet still enjoy the story and its political undertone greatly. It has a lot of insightful points but also addresses leftist flaws (with cheeky & humorous narrative)
Style: 4.5 stars boosted to 5 because I love the Dramatis Personae footnote so much
The script fic format take some getting used to but after a while I like it as much as most other orthodox novel format. This type of format requires well written dialogues to do the heavy lifting to bring out characterization, and imo Author pulled it off with flying colors.
lots of witty humors and tongue-in-cheek character remarks too at Dramatis Personae which I absolutely look forward too every chapter. Read them and you'll see what I mean.
Story: 4 stars on early parts. 5 stars after ~chapter 20+
the first couple chapters the story still follow the canon overarching plot point with minor changes before greatly deviating with a lot of tasty political intrigue later on.
In regards to the political undertone:
let me preface this by saying I knew near nothing of political concept & had to even google what left/centre/right/socialist are.
The synopsis said mc is a socialist, but as someone who's neutral (is that a thing) I feel the story has been insightful and an entertaining read regardless of what your ideology alignment is as the story takes place in Melromarc which has Monarchy as government system, where:
let's say idealistic Monarchy could potentially exist but Monarchy in Melromarc is as dysfunctional and corrupted as it gets for the civilian's overall QoL.
Blatant slavery? Ethnic cleansing? Nobles working peasants to the bone with jack-all welfare? Nobles false charge civilians with zero evidence? you name it, Melromarc has it ( I believe some of these are heaviliy implied in canon too)
The only way any reform can go is up. Now in most novel the hero protagonists w
horosphereRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Review title says it all, really. Though to be fair, "better than canon Shield Hero" is a low fuckin' bar...
Anyway, the story has a very clear idea of what it is and wants to be, and executes it perfectly. It even manages to make Trash Panda Waifu into actual Best Girl, a truly breathtaking accomplishment.
Don't let the script format deter you, either--rather than being a crutch to cover for poor writing, this fic goes all in on the pseudo-stage play style and makes it work as its own thing.
All in all, 100% worth a read.