Tatsuya Hamazaki

I'm really torn as to what to do with these books.

Looking at purely the story being told, it's probably a better story than was told in the games -- though no doubt the transition to video game would involve the addition of a lot of filler, to pad out the playing time. After all, we've gotta keep this in multiple volumes so we rake in the cash, am I right?

But as a book? It reads rather awkwardly. Things that make sense in a video game, such as attacks being named and what have you, are show more suddenly very stilted and unnatural in text. So it's a dilemma. This is one of the few books where I feel the need to differentiate between the story being told, and the way the author is telling it. Please every English professor everywhere forgive me for this comparison, but: it's like Charles Dickens. I like the way he plots his stories, and the way he makes things fit together, but I don't think his writing style is particularly interesting. And now that I have compared a disposable light novel based on a video game to one of the classic authors of English literature, I guess I am a huge tool forever.

But! All of that is actually not why I've rated this book so low. I may need to go back and re-read the first two volumes to see if this is something that I just didn't notice until now, or if it really is something that started with this volume, but the book has a slightly infuriating habit of having a character say something, and then immediately reiterating it in the narration. It's ridiculous. I don't like my books to assume I'm too stupid to understand what I'm reading. And that, more than anything else, was the obstacle that prevented me from finishing this book faster than I did. show less

Teenaged twins Shugo and Rena become immersed in a virtual world role playing game. Rena had won a contest so that she and her brother were able to play the game as previous advanced players known as .hackers. They meet some friends and foes along the way and battle a few dastardly enemies. At one point Shugo is killed by one of the monsters but an alluring girl, Aura, gives him a healing elixir and a mysterious bracelet which not only brings him back to life but elevates the game to another show more level.

I am so not a manga fan except for the charming illustrations. Even those at times are a bit on the risque side and not quite so charming. I am determined not to skip any tags so thank goodness I am done with this one! show less

This was a pleasant surprise! I thought it was going to be uninteresting, like the Another Birth books, but no! It was actually rather well-written.

I'll not be expecting

I liked this one more than the first book, maybe because it was short stories rather than a short story pretending to be a full book. However, the story which was just... the first book from a different character's perspective didn't have enough new stuff in it to justify its existence, I thought - felt like lazy writing to me. Still, it was entertaining over all.