The Rising Of The Shield Hero Volume 01

The Rising Of The Shield Hero Volume 01

Naofumi Iwatani, an uncharismatic Otaku who spends his days on games and manga, suddenly finds himself summoned to a parallel universe! He discovers he is one of four heroes equipped with legendary weapons and tasked with saving the world from its prophesied destruction. As the Shield Hero, the weakest of the heroes, all is not as it seems. Naofumi is soon alone, penniless, and betrayed. With no one to turn to, and nowhere to run, he is left with only his shield. Now, Naofumi must rise to become the legendary Shield Hero and save the world!From School Library JournalGr 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, CTAbout the AuthorAneko Yusagi was born in Kanagawa. After growing interested in reading and gaming, Aneko began to write novels. Aneko wrote The Rising of the Shield Hero and began posting it online. After updating the story daily, an unprecedented amount of readers became addicted to the rapid pace of the advancing story, and the novel became an online hit. It was first collected and published by Media Factory in Japan in August of 2013. Aneko Yusagi was recently quoted saying, "I will rise and find great success in life."