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A review by sandraagee
Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 1 by Kiiro Yumi
4.0
I'm absolutely convinced that if I were to write a children's book, I'd write about libraries. Every library in the US would purchase a copy because we librarians have just as much vanity about the awesomeness of our jobs as the next person - perhaps more because our jobs actually are that awesome.
So needless to say, a book titled, "Library Wars" was certain to grab my attention. The premise has been seen before - in the not-to-distabt future books are being censored and inappropriate titles are confiscated by a federal government task force. Not cool, say the librarians. They in turn form their own task force to oppose the censors and keep their materials safe for public use. What makes this rendition of the concept interesting is that many of the librarians on this task force are trained in combat along with librarianship. Sweet! These are librarians for the modern age - capable of finding whatever it is you need, but who also kick butt on behalf of freedom of information.
Enter our main character, Iku Kasahara. She has dreamed of being part of the Library Defense Force ever since her teens when a gallant Defense Force member rescued a book for her when the government attempted to confiscate it. She looks up to this mysterious man as her hero, her idol, her knight in shining armor. Iku is actually very good at the combat training and has passion in spades for the cause, but lacks focus and has fallen behind on her library studies. She butts heads with her superior officer and one of the other new Defense Force recruits. Antics ensue. All in all, it's a fun story and I will happily track down the rest of the series.
Keeping the characters straight was kind of tricky in the beginning, because several of the characters have pretty similar designs. But once you get it all straight you see that the art is clean and interesting to look at. And not that this first volume wasn't a lot of fun, but I have a feeling that as the series progresses and characters become better developed the story quality will improve as well.
So needless to say, a book titled, "Library Wars" was certain to grab my attention. The premise has been seen before - in the not-to-distabt future books are being censored and inappropriate titles are confiscated by a federal government task force. Not cool, say the librarians. They in turn form their own task force to oppose the censors and keep their materials safe for public use. What makes this rendition of the concept interesting is that many of the librarians on this task force are trained in combat along with librarianship. Sweet! These are librarians for the modern age - capable of finding whatever it is you need, but who also kick butt on behalf of freedom of information.
Enter our main character, Iku Kasahara. She has dreamed of being part of the Library Defense Force ever since her teens when a gallant Defense Force member rescued a book for her when the government attempted to confiscate it. She looks up to this mysterious man as her hero, her idol, her knight in shining armor. Iku is actually very good at the combat training and has passion in spades for the cause, but lacks focus and has fallen behind on her library studies. She butts heads with her superior officer and one of the other new Defense Force recruits. Antics ensue. All in all, it's a fun story and I will happily track down the rest of the series.
Keeping the characters straight was kind of tricky in the beginning, because several of the characters have pretty similar designs. But once you get it all straight you see that the art is clean and interesting to look at. And not that this first volume wasn't a lot of fun, but I have a feeling that as the series progresses and characters become better developed the story quality will improve as well.