A review by ellelainey
King in Limbo Omnibus 1 (Vol. 1-2) by Ai Tanaka

adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 ** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE ** 
 Copy received through Netgalley 

 ~ 

 King in Limbo, Omnibus 1 
 by Ai Tanaka 
★★★☆☆ 
 336 Pages 

 Content Warning: mentions of pandemic, death, grief, PTSD, gore, violence, amputation, disability, kidnap of a child, threat of death to a child, military warzone, blackmail, medical experimentation 


 King in Limbo is an interesting concept that just didn't come together, for me. 

 The story is interesting: a sleeping pandemic that locks people in their worst memory until their brain literally can't take it any longer. The story taking place in 2086 allows for a lot of back history for this sickness, which was a great idea. And the fact this was written pre-COVID kind of made it feel prophetic while a little creepy, which was a good mood for the serious plotline. 

 In terms of characters, Adam Garfield is a Petty Officer who was recently injured on duty, in a coma for two weeks, and woke up with one leg amputated below the knee. Now, this was a great choice for character development and realistic portrayal of a disability, but as a disabled person myself, I felt that his amputation was used as a tool rather than a genuine disability – and the speed with which he was provided a prosthetic, and then didn't need it in the dream-world of his work only added to my discomfort in how that was handled. 

King was a mystery right from the start, and while he's the key to curing the sleeping disease, he discovers that there may be more to this recent wave than expected. For me, he remained a mystery right to the end of this omnibus. He wasn't a likeable character, but I believed his presentation more than the always-affable Adam. 

 The art on the cover was part of the reason I signed up to read it, but that is the only place and time that the art looks that way. Inside, the art is very...sketchy. It's not as well rounded, it's not consistent, and there are times when it switches to an almost comedic style of art that doesn't work in such a serious book, handling such serious topics. At some points, the art looked like it had been badly photocopied, with patches missing or lines appearing in random places. Like static on the page. 

 Another issue I had was the serious topic part – it felt heavy, and there was zero warning about the contents of the story. I did not expect to see military personnel releasing captive POW's, just so they could shoot them for fun. In fact, this will probably be triggering for a lot of people, as various wars in our history actually did this, just think Killing Fields. The fact that it lasted for a few pages, was very detailed and vivid, only made it worse. 

 Overall, I feel like the potential for a great story was there, but the grainy, sketchy artwork was hard on my eyes, and the storyline was so heavy that I never really had a moment to process what was going on. It was very fast-paced, though oddly the world still felt under-developed. Maybe that will come in future volumes, but I don't think I'm going to keep reading. 

 For fans of sc-fi who-dun-its and conspiracy theory stories. 
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