(This review may contain spoilers).

I picked up this manga book because it looked like it might be a fun read. And although it was entertaining, I was somewhat disappointed by what I felt was a lack of depth.

I did start off liking Rin, but by the end of the first volume, I didn’t much like any of the other characters. I would have liked a bit more background on the demons, especially given Rin apparently had history with the bullies he got into a fight with at the beginning of the book… but it wasn’t very clear how he knew them.

I did like being able to learn a bit more about some of the types of demon, even though I wasn’t sure why Yukio was trying to summon them during the first class.

Speaking of Yukio… I really didn’t like him very much. I didn’t get the impression he liked Rin that much… and his mood seemed to keep swinging. While there’d been a kind of cute flashback to the two of them as children, I felt that Rin cared a lot more about Yukio than Yukio did him… even though it was implied Yukio originally wanted to help his twin.

I would have liked the opportunity to learn more about the world itself. Considering Rin was new to it all, I was quite disappointed that he wasn’t asking any questions. And the whole thing with his sword completely confused me.

I wasn’t really sure what to make of Mephisto. While I thought he was an intriguing character, I didn’t quite trust him… and even though he seemed to be trying to help Rin at times, I definitely felt he had his own agenda.

I liked the side plot involving Shiemi. It was nice to see her and Rin starting to bond a little, although I did think she came across as a stereotypical manga girl character. It was nice to see her relationship with her mother… and I had a lot of sympathy for her. Next to Rin, I felt she was the character with the most development.

I thought this first book was a nice introduction to Rin’s world, but I did empathise with him as it seemed like everyone who knew what he was didn’t trust him and wanted him to die. Considering there were only two characters I really liked in this first volume, I don’t think I’ll be reading the next any time soon.

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I saw the anime of this advertised, I was immediately intrigued by the idea. And when I saw the book for sale… I immediately wanted to buy it and see the world.

Unfortunately, although this book did get off to a good start… by the end, I found myself feeling quite disappointed. While it was good to see something of how the people trapped in the game tried to make lives for themselves, by the time the plot got going, it felt like everyone had just given up.

The scenes at the beginning of the manga, when the players found out they were trapped inside the game, were done really well. It was heartbreaking to learn about the memorial that appeared and immortalised the names of each player who had died. In that respect, I could understand why many of the players chose to stop trying and just eked out lives to survive.

I didn’t really like Asuna. She kind of set my teeth on edge and I found it very difficult to believe she and Kirito had real feelings for each other. I was disappointed that there was very little time spent developing the romance… and even by the end of the book, I was left completely lost about how most things worked in the game.

There were some good elements of artwork in depicting the characters, in particular the contrast when all of them were unmasked when they realised they couldn’t leave. I found the idea of the guilds to be an intriguing one, but most of the information I had was coloured by Kirito’s experiences with them… and although I was being told a lot of the characteristics of those guilds, I wasn’t being shown.

I didn’t feel there was much in the way of different characters shown. I would have liked to see more than just Kirito and Asuna… and although it was interesting to see them gain a daughter, I found that very hard to believe when the little girl’s background was revealed.

I found it hard to form an emotional connection to most of the characters in this. I think the book would have been better as a longer one, with more time spent showing character relationships and how they interacted with the world they were trapped in.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’d probably give this book 3.5 stars out of 5. I was intrigued by the plot of the book… and the very first scene served to draw me into the storyline really well. It was easy to care about what happened to Michael… in particular given the fact he experienced a form of bullying.

It was good to see something of the relationship between Samantha and Michael, though I would have liked to see a bit more of their history together. I felt there was a bit too much in the way of information dumping about their history and the myriad of foster homes Michael had been moved between.

Although the first scene did do a good job of drawing me into the storyline, I actually felt like it didn’t add very much to the storyline. I thought there was a lot of potential that wasn’t really followed through on.

While I did feel there were a few too many point of view characters, I did like seeing Tessa and Michael interact with each other. I felt a lot of sympathy for Tessa’s situation with her father, but there were times I felt his character was a bit of a caricature. Since I was only seeing him from Tessa’s perspective and very rarely from the perspective of other characters, it was hard to see him as having much depth.

It was interesting to see the origins of Michael’s visions and I felt they were really well-written, especially with the very first one. I also found it believable that his attempts to warn people about what was going to happen fell flat.

There was a lot of good tension, but I felt there were too many characters used for POV. There were a few nice elements of foreshadowing, but there were as many areas where backstory was summarised in the narration and I found my attention dragging.

I did like how the book ended and it was good to see how things came together. I would have liked a bit more explanation about Michael’s ability, but I cared about the characters and I would be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.