If you want a story with a deep (and I mean
deep) world view and heavy (and I mean
heavy) background settings, this is it.
Kamikawa Minoru-san is a very talented writer, with a very unique writing style. It may be a little hard to get used to his writings in the beginning, but once you catch on, it's a smooth and thrilling ride.
Owari no Chronicle itself looks like a SF story on the surface, but it's really a lot more than that (much like any great stories). Well, if you're interested, you can try looking it up (
Amazon.co.jp have customer reviews, you can try there).
The series is also well known for it's thick volumes. Kamikawa-san is the kind who never stops writing once he begins, hence the ridiculous book sizes.
There's a total of 7 volumes for the series, but don't be fooled into thinking "oh, that's less than Zero no Tsukaima!":
Spoiler for true "volume" of the series:
Number of volumes: 7
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But actually, it's more like:
Volume 1 (上)
Volume 1 (下)
Volume 2 (上)
Volume 2 (下)
Volume 3 (上)
Volume 3 (中)
Volume 3 (下)
Volume 4 (上)
Volume 4 (下)
Volume 5 (上)
Volume 5 (下)
Volume 6 (上)
Volume 6 (下)
Volume 7
So it's really 14 "volumes"
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On top of that, each volume is far larger than the average light novel (the page count for an average light novel volume is 250 - 300)
Volume 1 (上) (386 pages)
Volume 1 (下) (450 pages)
Volume 2 (上) (386 pages)
Volume 2 (下) (482 pages)
Volume 3 (上) (386 pages)
Volume 3 (中) (387 pages)
Volume 3 (下) (483 pages)
Volume 4 (上) (499 pages)
Volume 4 (下) (515 pages)
Volume 5 (上) (515 pages)
Volume 5 (下) (579 pages)
Volume 6 (上) (579 pages)
Volume 6 (下) (611 pages)
Volume 7 (1091 pages)
Yes, you read that right, 1091 pages,
Akiba Blog's Entry
You can most definitely kill someone by whacking them over the head with it.
It broke the record for being Dengeki Bunko's thickest light novel ever. That's Kamikawa-san for you.
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Add the pages up, and you'll have 7349 pages.
Converted to regular light novel volume size (300~ pages), that's enough pages for 24.5 volumes.
I predict there will be an anime adaptation of this series in the future as well.
Here's a MAD movie made for the novel:
http://stage6.divx.com/members/66788/videos/2874