I expected the novel to give me what the anime couldn't. Unfortunately, even this volume felt incredibly episodic - more like a short story collection rather than a novel. Regardless, I do love the writing style (though it can be quite exposition-heavy), and I appreciate the extra bits that we didn't get to see in the anime (though it's not much).

All in all, I wish they had dragged the first "arc" a bit more, and that it's written more like a novel as opposed to a short story collection.