Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, Volume 1

I would definitely give this novel a rave review--I'm a sucker for anything featuring the Gundam SEED story--if it weren't for all the mistakes. The novel isn't adapted very well, although sometimes you stumble upon a sentence that does a great job of describing something or someone, like "There was a cold sort of fear, a shudder up the spine like a hot blade, whenever they fought each other." The biggest problem, though, are the rampant misspellings and other assorted mistakes. If you want to read this, you'll have to suffer a lot.

Don't be confused by the inclusion of "graphic novels" in the item description; this five-volume series from Tokyopop is a novelization with very few illustrations. However, I would definitely recommend this novelization of the Gundam Seed series over the manga published by Del Rey. Unlike the manga, the novelization allows a bit more insight into the events of the series and the thoughts and motivations of the characters. The lack of visuals is no loss, especially not considering the poor quality of the artwork in the manga series. The quality of the writing - or rather, of the translation - is what prevents me from giving the novelization five stars. Unfortunately, it's clear that the translator is not also a writer, and so the choices of word and phrasing seem somewhat amateurish. However, that's really my only complaint. If you enjoyed the Gundam Seed series enough that you'd like to revisit it in more depth, the novelization is definitely worth checking out. If nothing else, it will provide some extra insights on the characters that I personally find very entertaining.