Hack//AI Buster

This novel is a prequel to the .hack anime, games, and manga. It is set shortly before the anime, Sign, and tells the story of Albireo, a player in very popular online role-playing game The World, and the mysterious AI girl he encounters in a dungeon. Albireo is a solo adventurer in The World -- he is proud to have gotten his character to a high level playing on his own. One day while playing the game, he encounters a silent little girl in red, Lycoris, who is a NPC (non-player character, or AI). Meeting her activates an event that he is determined to finish. Shortly after, he runs into an annoying newbie player, Hokuto, who knows nothing about the right way to play the game. Alibreo is desperate to get rid of Hokuto, but she blackmails him into playing with her. So Albireo is forced to try to complete the Lycoris event with annoying Hokuto following him around. Along the way he uncovers some surprising truths about how The World really works. As a fan of the other .hack stories (the games, animes, and manga), I was very glad to see this novel translated into English. It gives a more detailed backstory for the creation of The World and helps set the scene for the events that take place in the later stories. I'd highly recommend this novel to all .hack fans, and if you're new to The World, this is a great book to start with.

Anyone who plays MMOs/RPGs or has seen the show .hack needs to get this book. The feeling I got from this book is exactly the feeling that I want to have every time I pick up the controller and login to an MMO. It is a totally unbelievable sensation that I don't know I can ever express in words. I was completely engrossed by the story, all the rich details. I felt the wonderment as if I was first seeing The World for the first time. Completely and totally amazing.

This book is a very simple written book. Nothing overly the top fancy, just a book you could imagine sitting down with a cup of coffee or whatever & reading (which is what I did). The cover is beautiful enough, but after seeing the story on the inside, You learn to appriciate it more. I don't want to say to much, but I will say that reading this, made me cry at the end. It was amazing & it touched my heart & it is just an awesome book to read. I know I will read it many more times to come. (And probably cry each time)

This story takes place before all the other .hack//'s and gives a bit of insight into the .hack// world. Albeiro, the main character, is a member of a group that hunts down wandering A.I.'s. So, in accordance with his job, he "deletes" the A.I., only to find that it/she has returned to "life". Who exactly is "Lycoris" and what does she have to do with Aura? You know you want to read this. It's a great story, and is in a written novel format. THAT MEANS IT'S NOT BRIMMING WITH PICTURES. However, Rei Izumi has done a couple of wonderful illustrations of Lycoris at the beginning of chapters, so it's still reminiscent of .hack//Legend's artwork. I'd recommend this book to people that have already gone through .hack//SIGN and .hack//Legend of the Twilight. Even better if you watched Liminality and played the games. You'll understand what they're talking about if you do.

Well...unlike the other person, I actually had read the book. I'm both a .hack//fan, anime fan and gamer fan so...this book seemed to suit me. For all who are .hack//fans, this book takes place before .hack//sign and the games, this is during the time when Orca and Balmung were not that well known, but it's also the time when they became the legends they are in the series that are out. It's got a few other characters as well, a new one never seen else where, Albireo, who is also the main character, and Hokuto, another main character. Albireo, is a very experience player, he was in during the beta verison of the game, Fragment. He is a very high level, and might even to be considered as high as or a little higher then Orca and Balmung. He usually solos areas and got very strong that way. Hokuto, is a newbie to the world. With only a weeks worth of experience, she makes a lot of mistakes through out the story. She is also to be considered to be around junior-high or high-school because of her obnoxious attitude. She is a very fun character to read however, and many of the interactions with her and Albireo give a good laugh. They also come across a small little girl, not to be confused with Aura, she is described and in some of the pictures, looks a lot like her, but one thing sets them apart is both her name, Lycoris and her red dress. Lycoris, is a varient AI, and needed Albireo's help to find the items she scattered, to hide from someone. This is probably one of the best reading material, for people who are new to .hack or mmorpgs. There is a lot of explanation in it, from NPCs to how the world is played. But, it still has the same .hack action that is loved by all fans. I enjoyed this book a lot, and couldn't let it down till I finished. I would recommend this to any .hack//fan (this has a lot of answers to a couple of questions, scattered throughout the series, but it also provides new questions to ponder), any RPG fan (it's pretty fun, I thought to read a book about a fantasy mmorpg.), anyone who has not seen any .hack or has seen a few episodes/played the game a couple of times (tons of explanation, terms and that, that can help you understand what's going on in the .hack series), any fan of an anime with both comedy and action (this is so much like a manga, but with a lot more explanation to it and less pictures....but there still are a couple of very nice pictures in it) and to anyone who wants to read a very good fantasy novel. This is also a nice novel to see what an mmorpg is really like. Albiero explains a lot of stuff relating to mmorpgs, seeming that not all fans are hardcore players. So, pick it up if your intrested in games, .hack, or anime. Very nice book, and quite addicting once you get close into it. I'm very eager to see the next one as well.