セピア×セパレート 復活停止

Action Packed True Sci-fi

Premise: This sci-fi novel takes place in the near future, where after a wave of technological innovation, humanity has grown past the need to worry about inadvertent death. Through the use of so-called "Gizmo" (which are essentially replacement bodies for you to upload a backup of your consciousness to if you kick the bucket) life's convenience and mortality are quite different from the real world. The protagonist, a promising young engineer called Sono Haruichi, works for the company that develops Gizmos, only when something goes wrong with the system, he finds himself accused of sabotage. This system failure causes damages across the globe, and Sono is faced with the task of proving his innocence whilst being a most wanted fugitive.

Difficulty: This was the first sci-fi novel I read in Japanese, and I found parts of it, especially the beginning, to be quite difficult compared to a lot of other light novels. This book uses a lot of engineering, scientific and computing terms. There is also a ton of katakana used for custom words or technical jargon, so if you're like me and read katakana much slower than you should be able to, maybe this would be a much needed workout. I would not recommend this book to a beginner, but if you think you could stick it out for something interesting, this is something interesting.

Thoughts: I really loved this novel, it was an honest to god true sci-fi, with an exciting plot, a prevailing mystery, and a ton of action. I find myself wanting to read it again now that I know what's going on, and looking for things that I missed. The characters were great, the world was amazing, the conclusion was satisfying, 10/10.