Everything to keep you interested- evil guys, manufactured diseases, biomedicine ethics, save the world, save our daughter. So much to love. Then, bam, unneeded random boobies. - A spiciness that does not advance the plot but will, sadly, keep out of teen school library spaces.

Summary:

Petty Officer Adam Garfield woke up one day to find his life changed forever. His team was unlucky enough to find an IED - the hard way. Thankfully, he was the only one injured. Unfortunately, this injury is enough to force early retirement.

He’s offered a lucrative deal as a companion to dream divers. It’s not the sort of job he wanted…but with pensions the way they are…there really wasn’t much of a choice. Naturally, this is only the beginning.

Review:

Oh, I really like the premise of King in Limbo Omnibus 1. Sleeping sickness, dream divers, desperate characters, it’s got a bit of everything. This series is absolutely worth reading if you ask me.

I know the whole “sleeping disease” bit isn’t the most original foundation in the world, but King in Limbo did a great job of making it unique here. Having people dive into the minds of sleepers, military involvement, etc. It made for a very different feel.

Stories like this hit so much harder after the pandemic. I know that it was written before the pandemic, but the tone can still change. So readers should probably keep that in mind before diving in (see what I did there?).

My biggest drawback for King in Limbo Omnibus 1 is that I just didn’t love the art style. That sounds fussy, but it kept me from getting too invested in the story. Something about it just felt so low-res/low-quality.

Highlights:
Healing & Friendship
Josei
Sleeping Sickness
Dream Diving

Will I continue the series? Maybe

King in Limbo follows the story of Adam and the King after Adam wakes up from a coma. The concept of this story is very compelling and is a mystery book with sci-fi. I had a difficult time getting into the story and had to reread a couple of pages several times to follow the flow of the story.

The world was plagued with a disease called "The Sleep", and to cure it, a two-person team (diver and companion) goes into their consciousness to save them. It's been years since it ended, but now a new strain has appeared, and this time the individual can get it again. Officer Adam Garfield wakes up to find that he is severely injured and believes he would have an early retirement, but the government has something else in mind and wants Adam to be a companion with a high compatibility pair, King, who is also the one who helped end the disease the first time. Adam has other opinions of the King but needs to get him out of retirement before the number of cases increases. Adam has no idea what he is getting himself into, and we follow their journey as they try to stop this plague from spreading.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and would recommend it to manga lovers! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 ⭐

I really wanted to like this but I found the art style to be very inconsistent and by the end of the first volume I was no more clear on what was going on than I was at the start. This one just wasn;t for me unfortunately but I can see why others would enjoy it!

I had trouble reading this at first—quite literally, the manga was not loading in the app and I had to wait minutes between each page loading. It was a trial, for some reason. But, wow, was I blown away by the story. Engaging, interesting, and fresh. Really enjoyed this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC copy of this book, in exchange for this honest review.

3/5

In this manga I have to recognize the originality of the story.
While the drawings in here weren't my favorites and I did struggle sometimes to really understand some of them, the plot felt pretty interesting and captivating.

I don't know if I will find V2 to go on to be honest, it wasn't my cup of tea visually speaking.
I can't lie tho, when I say the story did for sure get my attention. It was ineed the strengh of the series so far.

Speaking of characters, they were okay, not too many faces appear, but the ones used were enough for the story, and the set of characters felt complete anyway.

I had a hard time getting into this. I thought it would be enjoyable but it just ended up not being for me. I do think my library is likely to purchase this manga title, and there are definitely people out there would will love it, I am just not one of those people. I gave it three stars to try and be a neutral rating.

3/3.5 stars

I will admit at first I had a really hard time starting this series and I'm not 100% sure the reason. But I finally sat down and told myself to restart it and give it another chance- glad I did. The series is mystery/sci-fi and the concept is interesting (trying not to include some details so I don't spoil anything).

It does give me Inception vibes and by the end I was surprised what was the cause of the sleeping disease. There does seem like a lot of information about this world given to us, so you get a pretty good understanding of it but I still have some questions about the characters' past. The pair's personalities are polar opposites, but the dynamic works. I can imagine their trust in each other grows further in the series.

The one thing that I was not a fan of was at points the art was pretty bad compared to the rest and I am wondering if it was just how it saved to my tablet.

Summary:
This world was plagued with a disease called The Sleep. In order to cure it, there is a two person team (diver and companion) who goes into their consciousness to save them. It's been years since it ended, but now a new strained appeared and this time the individual can get it again.

After waking up to discover he was injured, Officer Adam Garfield believed he would have an early retirement but the government had something else in mind. Adam discovers they want him to be a companion and, with a high compatibility, pair with King-the one who helped end the disease the first time. Adam needs to get King out of retirement before cases increase. Although, Adam has no idea what he is getting himself into when he became a companion.

This one was very interesting. It is set in a dystopian world, were a sleeping virus is once again spreading. There is a lot of mystery in how to stop this virus this time around and the two protagonists have to enter the minds of the people afflicted with it, to try and bring them out of it.
Very much can recommend it to anyone who enjoys mangas set in a dystopian world!

I liked the set up here be cause while the protagonist has suffered a devastating injury he seems to take it in stride. It's just the device that forces him into this situation that he'd prefer to avoid. The plot is complex and the characters are interesting but its sometimes hard to follow.

King in Limbo Omnibus has a quite interesting aesthetic that shocked me at first. That's why it was a little difficult for me to stick to the story and continue it. I'm not saying that the manga art is bad (NOT), but that I'm not used to that style and, personally, that made it a little harder for me to connect.

I really liked the plot, the characters are complex (although I couldn't empathize with any of them, nor did I feel very close to any of them), it has very dizzying moments and there were moments when I felt like I didn't understand anything.

But I liked it! I will look to read the continuation.

Thank you Kodansha Comics for the issue I read on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was fantastic! In this we follow our main character Petty Officer Adam Garfield, right after he wakes up in a hospital. He has lost his leg and two weeks of his life while in a coma. He plans on retiring from the Navy and cashing in his pension to hang around with his siblings but he is soon brought into the intriguing world of divers. These people will go into the mind of someone infected with sleeping disease to try and save them. It's been eight years since anyone has caught sleeping sickness but now it's back and it's mutated into a stronger strain. Adam is recruited by CNAS to try and find the man that cured sleeping sickness eight years ago, King. Can he find him and convince him to help again?

I loved this omnibus and I will 100% be reading the next volumes.

A manga with a very intriguing concept and great execution. I like the dynamic of Adam and King and their interactions as a mystery solving duo. At times the art looked a little off as if it was not scanned fully but that could be a technical issue and I could look past it. I wasn't expecting the dream diving to be as scary or creepy as it was but I liked that as it raised the stakes. I am very interested in where the sleep disease originated from and who is behind the emergence of the new strain and for what reasons. It ended on a cliffhanger that makes me want to see what happens next! I haven't read much sci-fi manga but this made me more interested in the genre.

King in Limbo is a book about traveling into the memory of someone with PTSD. The idea of trying to travel into the memory of the soldier that is suffering in order to help them heal is extraordinary and original. Further into the omnibus they change focus on people affected by the pandemic. (It is also brought on by radiation in devices. The last of the omnibus leaves it hanging and I am looking forward to the next installment. I hope the author continues these stories. Recommended. 3 stars.

I received this title from NetGalley. Opinions are my own.

A sci-fi comic about a deadly coma disease. The story pulled me right in. I’m so glad its an omnibus edition, because I immediately needed volume two!

This was a well illustrated and put together story but unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. This is no bearing on the story itself, it's all just personal preference

Published by Kodansha Comics on January 16, 2024

This omnibus edition collects the first two issues of a six issue “thriller manga” series. To me, manga means comic book drawings of teens with really big eyes. I must be wrong, since every comic book that comes out of Japan is labeled manga even if the characters have beady eyes and are in their twenties. If marketing materials can be believed, The King of Limbo is hugely popular among Japanese manga fans, despite the absence of teens with big eyes. Since it was originally published in Japanese, readers will need to read the panels on each page from right to left. At least the book doesn’t require readers to read from back to front.

In 2086, Adam Garfield was on a mission for the US Navy when a bomb exploded, causing him to lose a leg. He’s been reassigned to work as a companion to a diver. The job involves diving into people’s minds as they sleep and removing chunks of their memories. Adam’s partner will be Rune, more famously known as the King, the diver who ended the sleeping disease pandemic. The King can speak to the infected as they sleep and isolate the infected memory so he can destroy it.

A new strain of the infection is spreading and only the King can defeat it. Except the King doesn’t want the job until some puzzling drama unfolds involving his wife and an eight-year-old girl.

During the dive, the King and Adam go to a place the King calls Limbo. Limbo holds the memories of the infected person. The people in Limbo are surreal. Some are violent. It seems strange that memories can attack Adam, but they do. Somehow the memories take Adam back into the war he was fighting when he lost his leg. I can’t make much sense of anything that happens in Limbo.

Back in the real world, Adam and the King speculate about the cause of the new pandemic. By the second issue, the King and Adam are playing detective. They stumble into theories about how the new virus might be spreading but they’re still working on why. Someone or something with nefarious intent seems to be controlling it. People who view COVID-19 as a conspiracy theory will probably love King in Limbo.

Even as a rational reader, I enjoyed the story so far. Adam and the King are working through personal issues that give their characters some weight and the tension between them adds to the drama.

Panels are drawn as if they come in and out of focus. I guess that’s sort of interesting. The art is detailed in some panels and in others it seems more like an incomplete sketch. Maybe there’s a purpose to that. Rune has the shaggy hair that is characteristic of manga characters. Adam is more a caricature of an American soldier. The art doesn’t strike me as anything special but manga fans can feel free to correct me.

RECOMMENDED

I never heard about this manga but after reading it I was suprised by it and I can't wait to read the next volumes, so I'm going to patienly waiting the second volume to see how the story continues.
For sure the start was a little bit slow but It's understandable becuase it needs to explain the world is setting in. So it takes time to explain the world around. It has some few scientific terms that it can be confusing if you don't know them but they are easy to understand with the contest together. The plot it's really get interesting almost at the end of the volume because is wel buld up before. The characters are good and we get to know and liking them slowly within the story.
So this manga is perfect for people who like sci fi and distopian stories because has few aspect on it tha remind past sci fi stories.
I cn't wait to continue this serie and to know more of the plot and the aswers to the questions I had reading it.

It was ok. A lil bit slow at the start and I really had to get into it for a bit and I don’t actually think I was the target audience so I kinda regret requesting it but it wasn’t that bad. It’s a bit confusing but fun

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a free copy of this manga in exchange for my honest review! From the very beginning of this manga, it grips you and doesn't let go even after the last page. I looooved the protagonist of this novel, his somewhat happy-go-lucky personality and obvious love for his family endeared me to him instantly. The juxtaposition between him and his (very unwilling) gave me quite a few laughs, and I adored that his love/need to protect his daughter was manifested so clearly. I saw someone else mention that the manga was vaguely reminiscent of "Minority Report" and "Inception" and I definitely agree! Reading this manga has convinced me that I need to read more books by this author.