I can't believe I caught up with all the Haruhi novel releases within 3 months! Unfortunately, the story is losing steam. It's questionable if the author has a clear goal in mind. Anyway, this volume contains two stories, "henshuuchou * icchokusen" and "Wondering Shadow."
"Henshuuchou * icchokusen" is about Haruhi becoming an editor-in-chief in order to save the Literature Club, whose only member is Nagato Yuki, from the threat of the student council. Basically, the Literature Club must come up with a club periodical-like thing in order to stay being an approved club. Of course, the main reason, if not the only reason, to make it happen is to be able to keep using the club room. The problem is, the threat is artificial, as in made up, literally. I suppose there is some information we can get out of the stories written by the SOS-dan members, but as far as I can tell, they either don't add much (Mikuru-chan's fairy-tale picture book), doesn't make much sense (Nagato's poetry-like fantasy horror), or is too obvious (Kyon's romance novel). I imagine most people would have no trouble figuring out the joke in Kyon's short romance novel.
In "Wondering Shadow," another space alien with a non-physical existence comes to earth and effects some ghost stories. Of course, it's Nagato who figures it out and "takes care of" the situation. Haruhi makes a new friend thanks to all the fuss, but all in all, I don't think this story added anything to the big picture either.
We got Haruhi, multiple earth organizations, multiple alien races, multiple time travelers, and Kyon, who is apparently the key. I imagine Haruhi is the "gate" and Kyon is the "key," possibly from a different universe. So, in my opinion, there's no point in dragging things out with filler episodes like the ones in this volume. I think it's about time to get the main story rolling.
On an unrelated note, have you wondered if "Kyon" means something? Apparently, Greek origin word "kyon" means "dog." Hmm....
