The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 01 (The Rising of the Shield Hero Series: Light Novel) Paperback – September 15, 2015

After watching the anime’s first season, I immediately began looking into these light novels; however, upon seeing some of the reviews regarding how horrid the translations were and how poorly written the story was, I became hesitant. IGNORE THOSE REVIEWS - THEY ARE WRONG!As a fantasy writer myself, I can definitely say that the novel doesn’t have the most advanced/sophisticated writing; in fact, when it comes to the way sentences have been constructed, I’ve read books written for children aged 8-12 with sentences constructed better.In terms of story, though, this novel was most certainly better than the anime. The depth of the characters is truly highlighted, despite the lack of sophistication in the writing style.The plot-line isn’t as fast-paced as the anime either; if you’re someone like me, that enjoys reading things that cover the more mundane tasks (I suppose you could also compare it to “slice of life” stories) then this is 100% your cup of tea.This novel is much more thorough about it’s content than the anime, and I found that despite having watched through season one a total of three times now, that this novel was a refreshing page-turner that I finished in one afternoon.Some notes of criticism:(R) CHAPTER 3 - Information error; Motoyasu says: “[...] Okay, then, Ren. The game you mentioned, ‘Brave Star Online’. [...]” however, that was the game Itsuki had mentioned, not Ren.(Y) CHAPTER 9 - Unnecessary explanation; Naofumi goes through an entire inter-dialogue paragraph explaining the concept of slavery and what a slave is.(B) CHAPTER 9 - Grammatical error; the slave trader says: “This are the cheapest slaves I can offer you today, sir.”(Y) CHAPTER 18 - Lack of explanation; another inter-dialogue of Naofumi’s, where he first brings up the term “lolicon” and the phrase “Lolita complex”. For anyone just being introduced to the world of manga/light novels/anime/etc. an explanation that’s more in-depth than implying pedophilia would have been useful. (I find it hard to believe that the concept of slavery needs half a page of explanation, but the Lolita complex only needs a few sentences.)Some noteworthy content that differs from or isn’t present in the anime:CHAPTER 12 - The very last scene.CHAPTER 15 - The entire chapter.CHAPTER 17 - New shields.EXTRA 1 - How Motoyasu actually obtained the ‘miracle seed’, and just how naive his character truly is. Also, I’ve seen comments in various places about how the anime makes Bitch look worse than she is, but this chapter ALONE, imo, makes her worse than how she’s portrayed in the anime.EXTRA 2 - Somewhat familiar but still slightly different enough to note.TLDR: No serious issues, no substantial complaints, great character development, excellent pacing, and written so simply that someone younger than 8 could understand it.Image: My copy of the book, in which you can see tabs in place for the aforementioned criticism and “new” content. - Red, mistake; blue, grammar; yellow, lacking/abundance; green, different from the anime.

There's good and bad to say about this purchase. I'll start with what matters most:GOOD: The story is GREAT! Refreshing, not another mainstream "saw that coming" light novel about overpowered heroes and near-harem level company. The characters are very interesting to read about, and I immediately loved the writers style and way of capturing the emotion of the story. I won't give anything away, but if you're looking for a worthwhile story with good character growth and an interesting plot--look no further! Honestly my review would have ended here with a glowing review if not for some technical problems I had...BAD: It took 2 MONTHS to get this book, though at checkout it said 2 day shipping when in stock. apparently they almost NEVER restock this book, so the wait was excruciating. Also, there are some color-spreads in the beginning of the book, and mine were awfully cropped and really crooked when they were glued in, so some of the character names were cropped off from the image! not that professional, looked like it had been done really last minute, but hey--I didn't buy it for that one image so I wasn't too mad about it after finding out what a good book it was.Overall? Yeah, I give it 5 stars for the content. I just hope Amazon gets better at keeping this book in stock, because I am going to be recommending this book like crazy! It's worth it to find a copy, it'll be your new favorite in no time. Already bought the second one, and am crossing my fingers that the wait won't be so bad.

I like how it’s an isekai, but has a different feeling to it. The overarching theme of this is a real world that just so happens to be like a video game is really good. The out the gate hype of being in a new world, then getting plunged into despair and humiliation, was a great way to start the story and give vast amounts of room for character development. Him finding a person that has shared Naofumi’s pain is a great touch. Again giving a great foundation for development of story, and character interaction.Would highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of isekai, but want a much deeper story and emotional ride. This story showcases how dark being in an unfamiliar world with seemingly everyone against you can be.