Books like .hack // AI Buster

The .hack series really caught my attention as I was growing up. Over time, I lost interest the more I understood the likely motivations for yet another series, book, game, promotional website, anything .hack related on a quantity scale. The series offers scant breadcrumbs over the same well tread mysteries. What's up with the world, morgana, how and why do these people end up in comas, all that stuff that never really gets strictly answered, and it's left room for yet another game or show or project, with a tale of discovery that ends up relatively fruitless.AI Buster is one of those stories. There's not enough new information learned to add much to your repertoire of .hack theories. You'll learn some things about Aura, not much. As for what it provides to the actual lore I find it somewhat insubstantial. I did not feel motivated to read the other buster novels, although this one does have some good action and description. There are also some full page manga style illustrations to establish what characters look like. There are about two of these, and both are bland shots, one of the protagonist and one of a female sidekick character. Usually with pictures in a book you want to pick a very powerful scene and show a piece of it visually. I felt the pictures were a wasted opportunity to show some of the interesting scenes in the end. We know from the cover what the characters look like anyway.What's also frustrating is that the writing and tone covers familiar territory and knowledge, treating the reader like a newcomer to the series, which makes no sense. This is a prequel, a product meant to appeal to fans.So, it was a decent, short and action driven .hack story of limited conclusions. It's decently fun while it lasts, so for a .hack fan I'd recommend it, but not with high praise.