Review: #780
Title: The Isolator 3: The Trancer
Series: The Isolator - 3rd volume
Author: Reki Kawahara
Comments: The Trancer deviates quite significant in its beginning, with Minoru undertaking a mission that has nothing to do with the rest of the plot. Despite that, it was interesting on its own take with the nuclear disaster that devastated Japan a few years ago. This is the volume where the powers of the Jet Eyes and the Ruby Eyes escalate rapidly, with seemingly no limits. Not only Minoru’s protective shell has plenty more uses and hidden abilities, we now have villains who can change the states of matter and allies who can turn invisible. The author tried hard to justify their abilities with science and it works in that sense. Unfortunately, the author’s tendencies to repeat chunks of plot and inner monologue slow down the pacing to a crawl at points. A significant portion of the novel is exposition with the plot progressing an inch, until the end where a lot more action takes place but it ends too quickly. There are plenty of clichés with Minoru’s inexperience with people of the opposite gender, and the tsundere moments from Yumiko. Despite the flaws, The Trancer is an improvement over the first two novels and is finally starting to become quite interesting.
Rating: 6.5/10