Katch finished reading Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
From the best-selling author of Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, a stunning new novel—his …
This kicks off with the trapped-in-a-video-game trope and puts a few horror and thriller elements in. The world the main character is trapped in combines some excellent dark fantasy plotlines with common video game elements that are kept interesting by having unique twists. The basic premise is that players are healing kaiju to fight demons; however, there is so much more to the story as it evolves than that. I thought the fantasy world explored in the book was expertly handled, but the frame story that involves the world outside the game felt underdeveloped. On the whole, I was pleasantly surprised by this title, even if the bookends of it felt less adequate.
There's a lot to take from this title about effective worldbuilding in this isekai genre-adjacent format. It made me think about how so many of the stories currently being written in this subgenre often feel very similar …
