Read this as part of my review backlog. For a debut novel from ex NFL player, this is pretty solid; he's thought out the future dystopia he builds out of Florida, even if some aspects are a little cringe and underthought, and I really liked the character work. The game aspect of this does feel a bit Ready Player One and like some of the worst Jack Thompson/conspiracy bullshit, but all things considered, could've been a lot worse.

I lost Interest this book so I will not continuing to read this book. It was hard to get into this, I didn’t like the writing style.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I could imagine the target audience, but it was not me. I tried but could not get into it. Did not finish at 10%.

OTAKU is an entertaining cyberpunk/sci-fi novel. If you're a fan of video games and "geek culture", you'll find plenty of references, language, and nods to popular ideas and tropes.
Kluwe's characters are pretty well-drawn, and his prose is also quite good. It's an entertaining novel, set in a well-realized SF setting. Some of the description veers rather close to info-dumping, which upset the momentum of the story. If the premise grabs your attention, certainly give this a try. Would be interested to see what Kluwe writes next.

Otaku was a really cool book. The main character was easy to connect to and the story felt really strong. I had a good time reading it!

A little disjointed, a little derivative, but fun and full of personality nonetheless. Most characters are well realized and I can't understate how much I laughed at the bridge fight. I sometimes found myself rooting against Ashura and wish the world building had been better explored outside of the preface.

Thank you, NetGalley, for a complimentary copy of this book. The opinion in this review is my unbiased opinion!

Honestly, I don't know what to think of this book. It reminded me of another book. I can't quite remember which book. But then again, it has its own unique features.

I did love Chris Kluwe's world and character building. While I didn't understand some of the cyber tech elements he used, I could still picture them due to his description. What surprised me is that he was able to write this book from the perspective of a black female. Occasionally, I thought that a young girl wouldn't react the way Ashley did in the book, but then reminded myself that this is a sort of post-apocalyptic, cyber-tech ruled world she lives in. I'm a GenXer and often don't understand the ideology of Millenials and GenZers lol. So who am I to judge a cyber-tech girl.

Overall a good book. I think I didn't read this quite at the right time in my life, but I still enjoyed the book.

A great new voice in the new science fiction sub-genre of LitRPG . A refreshing read for fans of the genre but are tired of the Mary Sue characters of other works. Recommend for purchasing.

This was a fun book. It really reminded me a little of Ready Player One or Snow Crash. That being said some of the characters weren't as three dimensional as I'd like, but the story was still good.

Ashley Akachi is a young woman (a teen or recently former teen) living in two worlds. In Ditchtown, the slum dumping grounds for all the lowlifes and runaways, built on top of what was once a city called Miami, Ashley is a tough, scrappy girl, trying to deal with her brother who is slowly giving up on everything, and the hordes of boys and young men who want to keep Ashley in 'her place' through sex and violence.

In the other world, a digital, virtual world known as Infinite Game, Ashley is known as Ashura the Terrible. She is the leader of a group of gamers called Sunjewel Warriors. Special devices allow their every physical move to be translated in the virtual world and with tight precision and trust, the Sunjeweled Warriors are the dominant gaming team in the world. When they log in to a game, live streaming of their games sees skyrocketing numbers of viewers.

Though she tries to keep her in-game exploits separate from her real-world troubles, the same can't be said for those who compete around her and she must constantly prove herself. And when she learns about a conspiracy, the game gets real on the outside.

This was a quick, fun YA read. It will likely sell moderately well as much for the author's name (Chris Kluwe was an out-spoken professional, American football player [a punter for the Minnesota Vikings]) as for the story.

The writing is good. The development of Ashley/Ashura is done well and the building of the story flows nicely. The additional characters on the other hand...? We don't really get to know any of them too well. They are clearly there to support Ashley and whatever she is doing.

And the story itself...? Let's just say that you shouldn't be surprised if it all sounds familiar. <em>Tron</em> anyone? <em>Ready Player One</em>? <em>Ender's Game</em>? Make the primary character a tough, YA female (someone who's had to be tough all her life, so she's prepared for what's coming) as opposed to the passive, reluctant male hero who has to step it up, as in the previously mentioned books. Still, the story is essentially the same.

If I had a teen daughter who liked sci-fi/fantasy, I'd probably put this book in her hands, and she'd likely enjoy it. As an adult who often enjoys reading YA, this was good. Yeah ... I requested it based on the author's name, and not the story description. And while this doesn't turn me off to Kluwe's writing, it also doesn't make anxious for the next book, either. For his next book, I'll likely be more particular about the description and the early reviews.

Looking for a good book? <em>Otaku</em>, by Chris Kluwe, is exciting, but familiar, YA fantasy in which the virtual world and the real world collide where a wily young woman succeeds in both worlds.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Not my usual genre but I did enjoy it and really got involved with the story. I would even go so far as saying that if this isn’t your genre try it!

My opinion regarding Otaku feels split in two, as the book itself.
On the one hand, there is the Game-world: vibrant with action, gripping, with a main character (Ashura the Terrible) you can't help rooting for.
On the other hand, there is the real world: boring, rough, where our main character is a dull and whiny version of her virtual self.
I loved the Game-part. Sadly, it was just a backdrop for the real story that bored me to death.

Chris Kluwe's debut novel is an impressive feat, made all the more shocking and impressive given his previous career. Otaku is a science fiction novel, one that dives headfirst into the realm of virtual realities, and a fight against corruption.

Ashley Akachi, aka Ash, is famous for her gameplay within the Infinite Game. You'd think that'd earn her more slack, but really all it's done is make her a target. A target for those that hate women succeeding. A target for those that want to use her.

One thing is certain, in this complex world full of politics, schemes, corruption, and more, Ash is about to find herself in the middle of it all. And it will be her actions that decide the fate for not just herself, but everyone she has ever known or cared about.

“It takes a special type of mindset to run endgame encounters, the toughest challenges Infinite Game's developers can nightmare up. No one knows if they have that mindset or not until they do their first run. Most of them head back to Candyland, home of the omnipresent computer assist. I decided to stay, the darkness calling to something inside me, a thrill I can't find anywhere else.”

Warnings: Otaku covers a lot of intense and heavy subjects. You'll find everything from racism, sexism, assault, classism, and so (SO) much more covered within the pages. It's all clearly designed to make a point, but it's still very much present.

Otaku was a shocking and breathtaking read. I knew that it was being compared to a blend of Ready Player One and Ender's Game, but honestly? That description does not do it justice. This is a novel of social justice, a fight against corruption, and so much more, all wrapped into one. It's all set within a brilliant world full of virtual realities, but that just makes the darker points all the more stark.

Where to start with this review? Let's talk about the setting first. The virtual reality of this world, the Infinite Game, is not as big of an element as I expected. It is important to the plot? Absolutely. But it isn't the main setting for a good chunk of the story. But it does set the scene.

I actually kind of love that it set the scene, but then allowed the characters to move on from that world. I didn't expect that at all, and I'll admit that at first I was even disappointed. But once I saw where it was going, I got over that disappointment quickly.

Ash's character was a delight. She was crass, strong, independent, yet unafraid to love. She was intentionally off-putting, and very much a fighter. But all of that just made me like her all the more. After all, she's been put into a world that is alarmingly dark.

On that note, I absolutely adore that Kluwe didn't shy away from the darker elements in this novel. Humans were true and proper villains here, showing off the worst that people have to offer. His inclusion of this behavior was very much intentional, and I believe it was done to make a point. That the plot involved a good chunk of this was appreciated. It made the fight feel so much more real (sometimes too real). It was a nice touch, all things considered.

I am honestly quite blown away by what I found in Otaku. I'll be frank here: I don't follow sports. So I had no idea who Chris Kluwe was before this. But now? Now they're on my radar, and I'm so adding them to my watch list, because I want to read any sequel or future novel they come up with.

Sadly, DNF @ 33%.

The future world Kluwe envisions includes a flooded landscape (thanks, global warming) with no anonymity online (hello, censorship), one where pro gamers are the new pro athletes and Florida is ruled by a theocracy. Sounds fun, right?

Let's start by saying Otaku is a book about gaming that is probably best enjoyed by gamers. The first chapter is a wash of lingo that fits the scenario. If you're familiar with rpgs, it's as easy to follow as clicking "load game" on a home screen, but if not, you're left afloat without a tutorial. For me, it felt natural and added credibility to the environment. Gamers talk a certain way, after all.

However, the same overwhelming approach is taken to introducing the world, and I found this less forgivable since anyone reading is a newbie to this possible future world. Country names, technologies, and slang inundate the writing as if I should be able to follow along. World history and social context comes via info dump disguised as conversation four chapters in.

The main character is Ashley, known online as Ashura, the best gamer (called an otaku) out there and a general badass black woman. While I appreciate the direct and appropriately angry discussion of the stigmas and discrimination she faces in the game and in the real world, it comes across as wooden in the writing rather than the living, breathing nightmare it represents.

I also have to say that the violence against women in this book was astounding and at times, triggering. I'm talking all kinds: physical, sexual, and graphically verbal. The stilted, shallow telling of these events I suspect to originate with the fact that the author does not share the identity markers of the character who is being attacked and lacks the necessary emotional connection with the situations to do it justice.

In Otaku, we get to meet Ash and her friends and family in a post-climate-change world where everything kind of broke down to several levels. Ash is one of the world’s best player of the Game – think all-you-can-think-of MMORPG with haptic suits as a controller. She deals with more than her share of abuse for it, and essentially tries to scrape by – until she accidentally stumbles on something much larger than her.

I thoroughly enjoyed Otaku. The world-building is great, the action scenes are spectacularly written, and special kudos to the Game action scenes in particular – those felt real, as in “yes, this is something I could definitely imagine gaming going to”. The pacing also really worked for me – rapid, but not hectic, with some breathing time allowed between tougher scenes. It also needs to be said that there’s a fair amount of graphical violence depicted in this book – weirdly enough, it didn’t bother me, but I could see it being a problem for other readers.

As for the things I wasn’t so enthusiastic about… The characters, especially the secondary ones, could have done with a bit more fleshing out – I don’t think it lacked MUCH, but a tiny bit more would have been a good thing. What bothered me most was that the stakes of the late plot felt way too high for the context – I think a smaller scale could have been used for the same dramatic effect while feeling less exaggerated.

Still - this was a very enjoyable read, I had a very hard time putting it down when it was time to sleep. Interestingly, I probably wouldn't have picked a book with that title if not for the Big Idea piece I read at Scalzi's - https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/03/0... - and I'm happy I did eventually :)

This seemed like a book that was wanting to capitalize on the mega success of Ready Player One but fell short on story line. What it didn't have in the story line it made up for in lots of strong language, which isn't bad but it's not for everyone. The author did well with the fight scenes while the characters were in the VR universe, but the character's just weren't that great I know this author doesn't have a ton of experience yet but the way that the tag line suggests that this will be the next RPO just isn't the case. I would go for Neuromancer, Snow Crash, or even read RPO again just for fun. I felt like this would fall in line with high school kids that are big gamers.

If you’re looking for a mix of Ready Player One and badass WOC who save the world, then look no further than Otaku.

This reminded so much of Ready Player One, primarily because it is a LitRPG that centers around a global online community. The online community focuses on gaming and sponsorships that allow those beaten down by bigotry and misogynism can make enough to survive in the world. One of the topics heavily dealt with in the book is the harassment and threats of physical harm received by female gamers, which is highlighted by the fact it is considered illegal for any female to ignore or block harassing communications under threat of jail time. At the risk of sounding too pleased, let’s just say the scene on the bridge was not overly gruesome to read.

I highly recommend this for individuals who enjoy LitRPGs and want to see the heroines kick some serious butt.

This is a lightning-paced, exciting novel. It is also mind-numbingly violent, seeming to make little distinction between killing people in the game and killing people in the real. It is a Powerpuff fantasy about 3 girls who are better than men at fighting and aren't afraid to show them. I'm not sure that this is really a feminist fantasy. The ending comes quickly and without making sense. This guy can write, but I hope he has a better book to come.

I really thought this was a very unique story that is unlike anything I've read recently. The gaming and VR aspects of this story is really something I know nothing about, but it kept my interest for the whole time and I wanted to know more. The writing was also very good, with a knack for evoking a very physical feeling with the descriptions that made me feel like I was there in person, seeing and feeling all of it. So well done on that point. If I have one teeny tiny complaint, there is a lot of jargon in the book that I didn't understand, but it wasn't enough to make me stop reading or not understand what was going on. I think this is a great one for anybody who likes things along the lines of Ready Player One.

Rating: 3/5 dragons killed from the inside

Format:
eBook. I’d like to thank NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

What it's like:
It reminded me a bit of Ready Player One, but the violence, cursing and feminism themes were more like Nevernight by Jay Kristoff.

To sum up:
This story features a badass female gamer stuck in a futuristic dystopian society. A lot of people in this world play THE INFINITE GAME, which is a virtual reality type of game where players can wear “hoods” or an entire “suit” that has amazing realistic feedback to make them feel like they are really in the game. Interestingly, there are also “spheres” players can play in so that the motions their avatar performs are actually performed by them in the sphere as it moves around them. This means that the best players are also super fit, making The Infinite Game more like a real sport. Unfortunately, there is a real toxic masculinity situation going on in the virtual world, as well as the real world. Our main character, Ash, has to deal with constant physical and verbal abuse from men who find her performance (or just existence really) threatening. Then, when it appears gamers might be being used to fight a real war using some new, dangerous tech, Ash gets pulled into a conspiracy that GOES ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP. With help from her SunJewel Warrior gaming crew and some family friends, Ash tries to do everything she can to save the ones she loves, even if that might mean saving her shitty town along with them.

What I loved:
I was expecting some cool tech and some action-packed plot, but I wasn’t expecting to feel deeply for our main character Ash. She is so relatable and admirable, I couldn’t help but start rooting for her from the first page. She has a lot of responsibilities and she juggles them with efficiency, determination, and sass that any fellow Aries and Type A person would admire haha She reminds me a lot of Mia Corvere from Nevernight. She is fiercely loyal to those she loves, doesn’t take any shit, and knows how to defend herself. I loved what the author had to say about what it is like to be a woman (or a person of color, although I don’t have experience with this personally) in this world. It felt real and I felt like he really understood the fear that can permeate your life when you’re in a toxic environment and ultimately, how to keep on fighting even if you don’t think you can. I was also really surprised by some of the twists, this book was hard to put down.

What was meh:
I think the weakest point for me was actually in the action scenes, which was surprising to me. The author uses a lot of tech and societal jargon/nomenclature that seemed to pile up to a point where I couldn’t understand meaning from context anymore. The action sequences felt disjointed, but also over described in ways that didn’t quite flow for me. I found myself skimming them after about a third of the way through the book and I don’t feel like much was lost, unfortunately.

On that note, I had a lot of questions about how Ash’s city got the way it did, and whether it was like that all over the world. The focus is pretty narrow for most of the book, but when they did mention things outside their city, I had a hard time visualizing the specifics of space/distances and imagining what their wider world looked like. It wouldn’t be too big of a point to leave vague, except that her city (and later the world) and it’s dynamics are pretty crucial to the plot so I just wanted more concrete storytelling about that. I think maybe he tried to explain it in the beginning, but it was too much information and too much jargon for me to really absorb it? I might have to reread it to gain a better understanding.

Who I'd recommend it to:
Fans of Nevernight, Ready Player One, Snowcrash, and anyone looking for a virtual reality thriller with a dash of fantasy.

Favorite lines:
Turns out people love watching displays of incredible physical prowess all the more when there’s no actual risk of traumatic long-term injury, no messy cleanup of battered heroes who’ve outlived their glory.

The socials have never been welcoming for those without a pale-skinned dick.

Kiro has no idea the turrets exist, has never had to worry about some things I’ve had to worry about. Must be nice having a dick.

“I didn’t do anything to them, bro. I just happen to be better than they are at something they think is important, and I’m a girl. They’re a lot of boardshits out there living shitty lives, and blaming women’s their only escape. Same as it ever was.

War never changes, but it sure as hell changes us.

I lean the slightest bit farther forward, a deliberate motion, putting myself into his space, letting the words come out in a whisper, adrenaline singing its arpeggio across nerves and sinew and blood. “Lastly, you’re in front of me. You say you saw what I did to the boardshits, Sawyer? Then let’s go, round two, pick your fucking tune. I love to dance.”

I am Ashley, Ash, Ashura, Ashura the Terrible, and if ever there was a time to don that mantle, it’s now. Do the job, because there’s no one else to do it, and you find a way, even if it breaks you.