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Knight Run’s rough art and text-heavy nature make it a hard series to get into, but I’m extremely glad I gave this one a chance and followed through. It’s a powerful story with some excellent central characters, and the author’s use of visual symbolism in key panels is second to none. The setting is incredibly dark, and the series unflinchingly examines many difficult topics while also asking the question of how human beings can survive and persevere in a world that seems hell-bent on breaking them down. Everyone suffers, and hardly anyone ever gets a happy ending, but the grim atmosphere makes key moments of ... kindness and courage resonate all the more.

Currently, only the first two arcs have received an official translation. Fan translations cover arcs three through five, and will hopefully catch up to the original story someday.

This is Game of Thrones as written by a hyperactive fourteen-year-old on crack cocaine. The cast grows to 50+ characters over the course of the first three volumes (despite several being killed off for good), and half of them are cunning politicians all backstabbing each other in more and more convoluted schemes while the other half consist of figures like "Alus the autistic three-armed wyvern gunslinger who fights dragons with his lightsaber" and other such over-the-top nonsense. Reading it requires a degree of patience and comprehension (being able to follow back-and-forth dialogue helps), and a certain taste for both the intrigue and the crazy action. ... Follow along, however, and it rewards you: each of the five light novel volumes so far has improved upon the last, and I'm greatly looking forward to the next.