By: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting

This is very possibly a repost from a blog I’ve since taken down, but I still love this book and want it to receive an animated or comic adaptation SO I will be posting about it here with updates. Please enjoy (and please check out this story). I REALLY want it to be adapted and translated further and cannot stress that enough!

To begin, let me mention here that I read a lot. I read for work, study, and entertainment—I read so much that I’m amazed I still manage to run an anime blog, a personal blog, work, and socialize, all while being a student preparing for more graduate school (BTW—just got my acceptance letter to the University of Oregon for East Asian Studies! I might be saying “Go Ducks!” in the near future!)

Though I usually find enjoyment in my reads, occasionally a story comes along that addresses all those small, nitpick points about a genre that I’d forgotten I had, and I Became the First Prince by Gump is precisely that story that fills those gaps.

Over the past two years, I’ve entrenched myself deeper into web novels, picking up several along the way. While not a massive fan, I do appreciate many mainstream ones, like Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (a favorite for sure) and Trash of the Count’s Family. I have my preferences but tend to avoid those for which I’ve already started reading the comic version of to prevent confusion in understanding the story’s progression. With series like Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint and Trash of the Count’s Family, I appreciate that they stay as close to the novel progression as possible, so if you are like me and are hesitant about mixing up the two, then I would like to recommend those.

However, I Became the First Prince: Legend of Sword’s Song stands out significantly. It’s not precisely an isekai or reincarnated story, yet it contains elements familiar to those genres. We witness a sword transform into a prince, encountering the political struggles within and outside the prince’s country, among various other compelling aspects. The narrative encompasses mystery, magic, legacies, and political scheming. The sword fights are epic, the training really aggressive, and the character types so new yet familiar that I can’t help but love them. The dynamics of our sword-turned-prince as he integrates into the family are an intriguing aspect too since he’s hated. Moreover, I find the main character’s sexuality-opposed nature to be a benefit as it means we don’t get bogged down by random inclusions of large chests and scenes that really have little bearing on the story itself.

I’m close to 200 chapters in at present, but I am genuinely passionate about this novel. I’m eager for it to be adapted into comics, animation, or even live-action soon. Moreover, an official translation of the 300+ chapters would be an absolute dream come true. I’d undoubtedly purchase every volume (and available merch)!

The premise was so interesting that I actually started writing my own story about a sword becoming a prince. It’s very different in terms of plot progression, context, and starting points, but inspired by this work nonetheless.

I couldn’t resist sharing my thoughts on this extraordinary work because it’s refreshingly original yet comfortably familiar in many ways if you are a fan of high fantasy, making it difficult to put down when I first encountered it and one I come back to with great joy during my breaks from work/school. I’ve paused my reading, waiting for the translation to conclude so I can binge-read the rest seamlessly, but am confident in continuing to promote this series.

It’s a revitalizing addition to the storytelling landscape, and I wish more people would read and support the author. The original publisher is Golem Factory, where you can read the official release (if you understand Korean), and they seem to be the publisher of several other interesting works in a similarly high fantasy genre as well as epic fantasies and many more.

In summary, this series is phenomenal—and I would give it no less than a hundred out of ten gold stars. ⭐️

⭐️PLEASE READ SUPPORT THE NOVEL 😭💖 & Pray that it gets an official release.

Alternate names:

Ego Sword Became a Villain Prince

I Became the First Prince: Legend of Sword’s Song

Legend of Sword’s Song

망나니 1왕자가 되었다

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Copyedited by: Katherine Cañeba | @kcserinlee