Reviews

NieR:Automata: Long Story Short by Jun Eishima, Yoko Taro

galexiscollective's review

4.0

If you're not familiar with the game, LSS gives you a fair recap of what automata's all about, plus some extra information. For someone who has played the game, I feel like the character dialogues didn't properly reflect each individual's voice-- at least compared to how they are presented in the game. They were lackluster and not as distinctive. Not terrible, but not as great as I expected. It is as I said before, moreso a summary of the game rather than a vivid story. I would still recommend it if you loved the game, and if not, go play the game.

yokai_garden's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

meganherself's review

4.0

This scratched the narrative itch I wanted after I finished the game. Getting to hear 2B and 9S's thoughts and internal monologues was what I craved. There were some translation errors and the book pales in comparison to the game, but I think it was still a nice read.

stormblessed4's review

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I would rate this higher because I love the story of NieR:Automata, but the translation is horrible and full of grammatical errors.

kiki6k's review

2.0

There are glaring typos, and confusion with names through out the book. It can be repetitive and dry. There were parts that were interesting and I enjoyed the "another view" of the different characters. You need to know the game though to understand all of it. I almost gave up on this book but honestly it was not terrible. It is not written like regular books.

mattiuz's review

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

blackwolf294's review

4.0

Having read Short Story Long and enjoying it a lot, I promptly picked up this book. Like the other book, Long Story Short is a quick read, and the ending had the same sort of "punch" to it as each of the short stories in Short Story Long. Again, I come into this book with no experience of having played the game, but I still felt that the story was well constructed. Having said that, though, I definitely benefitted from knowing some background information from Short Story Long. I would definitely recommend reading that book first before this one.

I also might have appreciated a little more detail in places, but even so, pretty much all of my questions were answered by the end of the book. And yes, there were a few typos here and there, but not enough to take away from my enjoyment of the story. I've really enjoyed reading about this world, its characteristically human-like robots, and the war that they wage.

What I've liked the most about both of Yoko Taro's NieR:Automata books is the stories' masterful construction and the way the author constructed a vivid world and relatable characters. I would definitely read anything else that comes out about this world. And I might even play the video game just because I've enjoyed these books so much.

siannon_'s review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

claireyeah's review

DNF @ 17%

I wouldn’t say this is a bad book, but as someone who hasn’t played the games, it’s definitely not great. There was too much going on that I didn’t understand and I just couldn’t get into the story because I always felt like I was just missing something.

I think if you’ve played the games though, you’ll probably enjoy it. 

aetx's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5