The Rising of the Shield Hero, Volume 1

December 1, 2015

Gr 7 Up-Naofumi Iwatani is a geeky college student who is transported to a role playing game-inspired fantasy world where he discovers he is one of four legendary heroes. As the Shield Hero, having the least impressive weapon, he begins his adventure with a decided lack of popularity and is betrayed on the third day of his adventure. Left penniless, alone, and bitter, Naofumi must struggle to survive and has only his shield to help him save the world. This light novel originated as a web series, and the writing remains amateurish with a singular lack of proofreading. The dialogue is often unclear, especially when there are several characters speaking at once, and some characters never even get names but are simply referred to by their job titles, as though they really are nonplayer characters in a video game. The world-building and explanation of the story line are severely lacking, as well. The manga-style illustrations, in color and gray scale, are well done, however, and show a lot of action and emotion. VERDICT Because of the many typos and the questionably worded sentences, this confusing novel is not recommended. A much better choice for fans of this format would be Mamare Touno's Log Horizon (Yen, 2015).-Kelley Gile, Cheshire Public Library, CT

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