Otaku

“Ditchtown. A city of skyscrapers, built atop the drowned bones of old Miami. A prison of steel, filled with unbelievers. A dumping ground for strays, runaways, and malcontents. Within these towering monoliths, Ashley Akachi is a young woman trying her best to cope with a brother who is slipping away, a mother who is already gone, and angry young men who want her put in her place.

Ditchtown, however, is not the only world Ash inhabits. Within the Infinite Game, a virtual world requiring physical perfection, Ash is Ashura the Terrible, leader of the SunJewel Warriors, loved, feared, and watched by millions across the globe. But Ash is about to stumble on a deadly conspiracy that will set her worlds crashing together, and in the real world, you only die once.

Right from the start, I fell in love with the world building in Otaku, from the washed out Miami, where the sea levels are always rising, with whatever land remaining being split into spaces for the rich and the poor, to the ever-present technology, especially with regard to the Infinite Game. Even the action scenes within Otaku were wonderful, tying in nicely with the pacing of the story. However, the one thing I couldn’t help but dislike was how some characters felt as if they were a little… flat, due in part to the lack of character development throughout.”