5 stars. And enjoyable twist on the iseaki genre.
There is an interesting premise to this series. Two friends from Earth are killed at the same time, and are iseaki’d into another world. One is the hero, and one’s purpose is to support the hero.
The book “I’m Not the Hero” is mostly focused on the “support” character as the MC.
This is an interesting dynamic because the hero feels pressure from being the “savior” of the planet from a coming scourge, and the friend (the MC) feels pressure from not being strong enough to support his friend and fight alongside him.
It’s rare to find a book that is like a “buddy cop” movie. This book does pretty good at that.
Nothing is perfect, and there are compelling challenges along the way. But two friends support each other and make each other better.
So far, so good. I’ve read the first book, and will read the next at some point.
Things I Liked:
- Easy to read
- Well-written
- No major plot holes or inconsistencies
- Buddy-cop energy
Things that Could Be Improved:
- At times, the characters act irrationally although this is explained as a feature of the system
- The main character keeps so many secrets from people, that he’s actually a bad friend
- The main character seems to accept quests from people (teach this skill to as many people as you can) for no personal benefit and against his own interests (if people find out you have this skill, your life will be in danger)
- The antagonist (bad guy) is vague and undefined
- Certain bad guys (like, the healers) have unknown motivations
Like, why don’t the healers of Dei heal people? Why would the MC be under some type of personal threat to his freedom if anyone ever discovered he could heal? Maybe this is explained in the book, but I didn’t really understand why.
I guess, it feels a bit like certain things exist in the book ONLY to provide antagonism to the MCs because there is no real bad guy. So the author has to invent an evil hospital and MCs acting irrationally to provide some tension.
Audible rating, Book 1: 4.6
