Overall it's one of the better light novels I've read, though it's still a difficult read, and probably more difficult if you haven't seen the anime or read the manga. Although this is the fullest version of the story, as it's where everything began, and the manga and anime shave a lot out due to adaptation requirements and probably censorship reasons, and there is value there, I would have been bored out of my mind with this if I hadn't at least seen the anime first.

For starters, Seigi is kind of an idiot. He's not entirely stupid, but in many ways he's quite naive and fairly clueless, which can make him incredibly rude. There is a reason for some of that, and a big part of his character is just learning things, but if you're not already used to it, it can be hard to read through. His character was one reason I dropped the anime for a time, but after I went back, I liked him, and it's that strength that let me push through this volume, which is that, but ramped up a lot. He does a lot of growing, even in this volume, and I don't know how the novels handle what comes later, but I do think, at least judging by the anime, it's worth pushing through for.

Second, and perhaps majorly, I imagine Tsujimura just really likes gemstones. And I love that they got the chance to write a whole series about it. Goals, honestly. And some of it is certainly informative. It's also incredibly boring and infodumpy the majority of the time. At least in the manga or anime, you have the art to look at while hearing a multipage explanation about [insert gemstone]. I was also curious why blood diamonds never came up in the history of diamonds, or how the diamond market being artificially inflated isn't an old-fashioned phenomena. It's sort of touched on in the way Richard notes that current diamond owners don't want to explain the scam and lose out on money, but it's not explained to the point that current diamond markets are incredibly manufactured in value, perhaps worse than they used to be. I can't recall if the blood diamond thing comes out later, but I hope it does, because it's kind of an egregious gap in this mini textbook on gemology. Like I assumed that's why Richard doesn't really handle them, but he doesn't explain it. This might be related to a late story spoiler instead, but it was an odd little plot hole, at least to me.

I do love seeing all the stuff that was unfortunately removed from the anime and even the manga, which didn't remove as much as the anime. There's a lot of neat stories here, and it's queer in a way the anime isn't, whether it's Seigi repeatedly talking about how beautiful Richard is and noting that you can find someone beautiful without being attracted to them in a way that feels very demi-ace, or the lesbian story, or Richard's frequent frustrations with I assume Seigi being too sincerely sweet in his clueless way. It's all in all quite wonderful.

I can't say I actually found any of the "life lessons" about gemstones that deep or enlightening, perhaps because of what "I" know about gemstones, and my lack of interest in ever owning any of the expensive ones myself (though I have collected a few samples of the cheaper ones). The lessons seemed kind of trite and unenjoyably cliche at best (and I'm chill with a good cliche, but this didn't work... multiple times). But Seigi's sincerity and Richard's openness and him generally as a character were quite enough to get through it. Though I really didn't get the obsession with the Jaguar. Maybe it's a thing only people who like cars care about? A car is a car to me.

The writing itself can also be awkward, and I found a few typos in the Seven Seas translation. Overall it's generally less awkward than other light novels I've seen.

Also, unlike other light novels I've read, this had no internal illustrations. There's the book cover, and that's it.

Generally speaking, it's a good addition if you liked the manga and/or the anime, and worth the read because of the stuff they took out of the two adaptations. I can't say it's a good starting place if you're completely new to the series. ( )