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Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep #1-3
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Ten years before Sora fought to save the worlds, three young Keyblade wielders named Terra, Aqua, and Ventus trained in the hopes of becoming Masters one day. But everything changed on the day of Terra and Aqua's Mark of Mastery exam, and the three each set off on their own journeys that would test their friendship-and alter the course of their destinies forever.
474 pages, Paperback
First published March 19, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
March 2, 2022
I enjoyed this novel the most. mostly because of its extra scenes that weren't in the game.
May 10, 2021
2/5 stars
I LOVE Kingdom Hearts and I think Birth By Sleep is a GREAT game. This book, however, is a bad novelization of it and I feel that, as a devoted Kingdom Hearts-fan, I should try to explain why I think that and why this novel was given low rating. (Hopefully, this review won't make me seem Heartless).
Structure:
Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep follows the journeys of our three main-characters. In the game, you follow one character at a time to avoid confusion regarding the timeline of each character's journey to different worlds. This novel threw that structure out the window and decided to describe all three characters' journeys simultaneously in a world-by-world order. This doesn't work out well. At all. For example, Terra could be thinking about something that happened in a previous world- which we have yet to read about because his timeline doesn't match the world-by-world order the book goes by. We also get awkward phrases such as “After Ven had left the Dwarf’s Woodlands, but before he set down in the Enchanted Dominion, he was traveling trough the Lanes Between on top of his Keyblade Gilder”.
Writing:
The recurring awkward phrases along with other writing-issues make this novel feel like a fanslation. The descriptions are lackluster. For example, the writer does not explain what regular Unversed look like. If you haven't played the game, you will have to rely on your imagination A LOT. Even I who have played the game was thrown off a couple of times, unsure of what was happening. Another writing-issue is the unexplained meta-knowledge some characters seemingly possess.
Volume-by-volume:
(not much spoiler,but just to be safe)
WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK?
If you HAVEN'T played the game, then you should not read this book. It will not offer a good first experience of this great story. You should instead play the game or watch a playthrough on Youtube. If you HAVE played the game-- go ahead and read. The first two volumes are not exactly worthwhile, but I do recommend the third volume for KH-fans. Or you could bookclub the whole thing with someone and have a blast critizising it.
I tried to keep this review Simple and Clean. For a more in-depth review of the novel, please read the one written by my bestie Roxy. We bookclubbed Birth By Sleep together and did indeed have lots of fun talking about the book and how it failed as a novelization of Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep.
I LOVE Kingdom Hearts and I think Birth By Sleep is a GREAT game. This book, however, is a bad novelization of it and I feel that, as a devoted Kingdom Hearts-fan, I should try to explain why I think that and why this novel was given low rating. (Hopefully, this review won't make me seem Heartless).
Structure:
Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep follows the journeys of our three main-characters. In the game, you follow one character at a time to avoid confusion regarding the timeline of each character's journey to different worlds. This novel threw that structure out the window and decided to describe all three characters' journeys simultaneously in a world-by-world order. This doesn't work out well. At all. For example, Terra could be thinking about something that happened in a previous world- which we have yet to read about because his timeline doesn't match the world-by-world order the book goes by. We also get awkward phrases such as “After Ven had left the Dwarf’s Woodlands, but before he set down in the Enchanted Dominion, he was traveling trough the Lanes Between on top of his Keyblade Gilder”.
Writing:
The recurring awkward phrases along with other writing-issues make this novel feel like a fanslation. The descriptions are lackluster. For example, the writer does not explain what regular Unversed look like. If you haven't played the game, you will have to rely on your imagination A LOT. Even I who have played the game was thrown off a couple of times, unsure of what was happening. Another writing-issue is the unexplained meta-knowledge some characters seemingly possess.
Volume-by-volume:
(not much spoiler,but just to be safe)
WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK?
If you HAVEN'T played the game, then you should not read this book. It will not offer a good first experience of this great story. You should instead play the game or watch a playthrough on Youtube. If you HAVE played the game-- go ahead and read. The first two volumes are not exactly worthwhile, but I do recommend the third volume for KH-fans. Or you could bookclub the whole thing with someone and have a blast critizising it.
I tried to keep this review Simple and Clean. For a more in-depth review of the novel, please read the one written by my bestie Roxy. We bookclubbed Birth By Sleep together and did indeed have lots of fun talking about the book and how it failed as a novelization of Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep.
January 7, 2026
4 stars. I would read this again if I’m in the right mood.
May 9, 2021
First thing to note, is that this version is a collection for three books, So in my review I’ll review each instalment separately. I’m also a huge Kingdom Hearts lover. Birth By Sleep was for the longest of time my favorite KH game and I’ve wanted a manga of this story for so long. I read 1-2 chapters a week of this book with my best friend Luna (make sure to check out her review), who’s also a huge KH nerd. It was the only way I could finish this book because I would abounded it after book one if I read it alone.
BOOK ONE: 2 Stars.
The prologue was shit, and terribly explained for anyone who hasn’t played the game. If I had not know how a dive to the heart looks, I would just assume they were in a dark room, or the beach the talked about earlier. Chapter 1 was actually pretty good and I had hope. Then the rest of the book happened. One of the stupidest decisions was not following one character’s story from start to finish. Instead we get to follow everyone at the same time, and each world is one chapter. At first glance this doest not seem so terrible. But after spending more than two seconds considering that choice, I realized what a mess this would be.
First world in the book was Dwarf’s Woodlands. It’s Ventus first World, Terra’s second world and Aqua’s third.
The second chapter takes place in Castle of Dreams. Which is Ventus Second World, Terra’s third world and Aqua’s first word.
The Enchanted Dominion is Ventus third world, Terra’s first and Aqua’s second.
To keep track of where everyone, the Castle of Dreams chapter literally starts with: “After Ven had left the Dwarf’s Woodlands, but before he set down in the Enchanted Dominion, he was traveling trough the Lanes Between on top of his Keyblade Gilder”. Terra’s Enchanted Dominion’s chapter is technically just him in Dwarf’s Woodlands staring at a lake and thinking about what happened in the world before. This gets confusing real fast, you should not need a time line chart to keep track of where everyone is. (Note, you can’t use the nifty time line chart you get by completing the game either to keep track, because they do not visit the words in that order)
What bothers me the most is the OP meta knowledge everyone randomly have. Yes, we as they audience knows who Scrooge McDuck is, because Ventus met him a couple of pages earlier. That does not explain how Aqua knows who he is unless she developed unexplained and unmentioned psychic abilities. This happens multiple times. This problem is even worse in ‘Dwarf’s Woodlands’ where Ventus magically knows Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy and Dopey’s names without them introducing themselves. Ventus was the first character to interact with the dwarfs too, so the audience shouldn’t know who these people are without having meta knowledge about Disney.
The chapters felt incredibly rushed, to a point where characters just summon their keyblades, hits the enemies a couple of times and then it’s over. In Terra’s case while thinking about stuff he could have prevented if he chilled for like 5 minutes and talked to his ‘friends’. Epic proportion boss fights are dealt with in just half a page, and you barely know what they’re fighting. They’re just referred to ‘unversed’. Apparently one looked like a maestro, and one looked like a pumpkin. Other than that, we get no real description of what they’re fighting. They’re just ‘unversed’.
I’m aware that this book is a translation. Unless there’s tons of details the translator did not translate, then the descriptions are lacking. At points it felt like I was reading the Beta version and not a finished product I PAID for.
BOOK TWO: 1 Star
Same problems as the first book. Only this managed to be worse. So we get a tiny amount more descriptions of scenery, but nothing of real substance. They haven’t really fixed the issue with the chapter structures. I was a mixture between bored and annoyed while reading this. It all felt like meaningless filler. Especially since because of the structure the books starts with Terra learning in Disney Town that power aren’t everything and no matter what his friends will always be there. The issue with this? Despite being the first chapter in the book, it’s the third world he visit. This means we see how he learns from his mistakes, but then are thrown back to a couple of chapters where he’s in a state where he still looks for power, and question his friendship.
They also reference things that not yet happened in the story, which made me pause for a second to wonder if I blacked out while reading a paragraph. That was a common thought actually. Did I forget what I just read or did nothing happen?Turns out nothing happened, there were just odd ‘time skips’.
Yes, there were parts I did kind of enjoy in this book. But it was mostly Aqua’s part in ‘Olympus Coliseum’ and ‘Neverland’. However I did not think these few moments would be enough to give book two another star.
BOOK THREE: 2.8 (Yes, I did that 😏) Stars
There’s nothing this book of collections could do to save what was left of this story. Still with that said, I actually did like the chapters Contrast and Dark Memory very much. They’re actually well written, and we finally get a breather to get to know the characters. I adored seeing new aspects of Aqua’s interests outside battles. She’s honestly a queen for the amount of research, training, baking she does and still she managed to find time to make cute trinkets for her friends.
Personally I would loved it if Contrast, Dark Memory and Land Of Departure (chapter 1 in book 1) would have accompanied the special edition of the game. It would been wonderful as a short hardcover meant to pandering for the fans. I would very much adore it myself and that little fan service book would have been a 5/5 experience.
But we also got chapters like ‘X-Blade’, that barely added anything to the story and was just an uninspired retelling of a cut scene, and ‘Coda’, which could easily been cut out of this book since it was mostly about Sora and vague hints about events that happened in Kingdom Hearts II. Coda weren’t by any means worse than ‘Dwarf’s Woodlands’ or the whole book 2 but it was still a weak way to end the book. Especially after the Chapter ‘Final Episode’ wrapped it up so neatly.
We (kind of) got a description of how unversed looked like. Still two whole books too late, at the description was definitely lacking. I tried to imagine what the book actually said, and all I saw was a creepy doll with black hair and red eyes.
Overall this book had the most potential and there were moments I really liked. With a few edits and cutting out unnecessary filler, I could easily eaten this book up as fan service and eagerly rated it 5/5.
At the current moment I wouldn’t say book three was good enough to suffer through book one or two, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to buy this book just to read book three, that I just thought was overall decent.
General Thoughts:
So there were some ‘extra’ material sprinkled in to the book but not nearly enough for it to warrant a whole book. We got a few scenes with Vanitas, that was actually good, but they’re few and very far between.
The writing style was close to: and then this happened, and then this, this happened and then this. It was more about retelling what happened on screen without adding anything.
Sometimes it was hard to figure out which scenes were supposed to be flashbacks and which happened in current time.
Ventus part works wonderfully in a game. A perfect way to integrate old players to the game mechanics. It did not work in this book since you barely had a world to explore. He came across as a child galavanting around the worlds for no real reason at all. I had to make my own fan theory about what Ven was doing through out his travels, since he lost his goal of following Terra in less than 100 pages. Some things that a revealed in the third book, might worked better in the first book to make Ven’s motivation a bit more stable.
At times it felt like I was reading a badly written fanfiction. I’m not genuinely a person who throw around the word fanfiction as an insult. It’s fanfiction in the sense where the writer just assume things are common knowledge. I understand that there are limitations to what you can do with a canon work. But I ask myself, who is this book for? Picking it up I assumed it would be a way for people who not played or could not play BBS, a chance to experience the story. But I hope my review have pointed out just how lost they would be.
Since this book was so close to the game, with little to no change, I could just boot up my old PSP or replayed the game on my PS4. Or I could just watched all the cut scenes on YouTube. I did however have a blast reading this book with my friend. Mostly because it fell into the ‘so bad it’s good’ category, and it was nice to have someone to discuss my very negative feelings with.
TL:DR bad writing/translation that you need a timeline map to follow. Character have meta knowledge they should not have. Only buy if you love terrible books or want to complete a collection.
BOOK ONE: 2 Stars.
The prologue was shit, and terribly explained for anyone who hasn’t played the game. If I had not know how a dive to the heart looks, I would just assume they were in a dark room, or the beach the talked about earlier. Chapter 1 was actually pretty good and I had hope. Then the rest of the book happened. One of the stupidest decisions was not following one character’s story from start to finish. Instead we get to follow everyone at the same time, and each world is one chapter. At first glance this doest not seem so terrible. But after spending more than two seconds considering that choice, I realized what a mess this would be.
First world in the book was Dwarf’s Woodlands. It’s Ventus first World, Terra’s second world and Aqua’s third.
The second chapter takes place in Castle of Dreams. Which is Ventus Second World, Terra’s third world and Aqua’s first word.
The Enchanted Dominion is Ventus third world, Terra’s first and Aqua’s second.
To keep track of where everyone, the Castle of Dreams chapter literally starts with: “After Ven had left the Dwarf’s Woodlands, but before he set down in the Enchanted Dominion, he was traveling trough the Lanes Between on top of his Keyblade Gilder”. Terra’s Enchanted Dominion’s chapter is technically just him in Dwarf’s Woodlands staring at a lake and thinking about what happened in the world before. This gets confusing real fast, you should not need a time line chart to keep track of where everyone is. (Note, you can’t use the nifty time line chart you get by completing the game either to keep track, because they do not visit the words in that order)
What bothers me the most is the OP meta knowledge everyone randomly have. Yes, we as they audience knows who Scrooge McDuck is, because Ventus met him a couple of pages earlier. That does not explain how Aqua knows who he is unless she developed unexplained and unmentioned psychic abilities. This happens multiple times. This problem is even worse in ‘Dwarf’s Woodlands’ where Ventus magically knows Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy and Dopey’s names without them introducing themselves. Ventus was the first character to interact with the dwarfs too, so the audience shouldn’t know who these people are without having meta knowledge about Disney.
The chapters felt incredibly rushed, to a point where characters just summon their keyblades, hits the enemies a couple of times and then it’s over. In Terra’s case while thinking about stuff he could have prevented if he chilled for like 5 minutes and talked to his ‘friends’. Epic proportion boss fights are dealt with in just half a page, and you barely know what they’re fighting. They’re just referred to ‘unversed’. Apparently one looked like a maestro, and one looked like a pumpkin. Other than that, we get no real description of what they’re fighting. They’re just ‘unversed’.
I’m aware that this book is a translation. Unless there’s tons of details the translator did not translate, then the descriptions are lacking. At points it felt like I was reading the Beta version and not a finished product I PAID for.
BOOK TWO: 1 Star
Same problems as the first book. Only this managed to be worse. So we get a tiny amount more descriptions of scenery, but nothing of real substance. They haven’t really fixed the issue with the chapter structures. I was a mixture between bored and annoyed while reading this. It all felt like meaningless filler. Especially since because of the structure the books starts with Terra learning in Disney Town that power aren’t everything and no matter what his friends will always be there. The issue with this? Despite being the first chapter in the book, it’s the third world he visit. This means we see how he learns from his mistakes, but then are thrown back to a couple of chapters where he’s in a state where he still looks for power, and question his friendship.
They also reference things that not yet happened in the story, which made me pause for a second to wonder if I blacked out while reading a paragraph. That was a common thought actually. Did I forget what I just read or did nothing happen?Turns out nothing happened, there were just odd ‘time skips’.
Yes, there were parts I did kind of enjoy in this book. But it was mostly Aqua’s part in ‘Olympus Coliseum’ and ‘Neverland’. However I did not think these few moments would be enough to give book two another star.
BOOK THREE: 2.8 (Yes, I did that 😏) Stars
There’s nothing this book of collections could do to save what was left of this story. Still with that said, I actually did like the chapters Contrast and Dark Memory very much. They’re actually well written, and we finally get a breather to get to know the characters. I adored seeing new aspects of Aqua’s interests outside battles. She’s honestly a queen for the amount of research, training, baking she does and still she managed to find time to make cute trinkets for her friends.
Personally I would loved it if Contrast, Dark Memory and Land Of Departure (chapter 1 in book 1) would have accompanied the special edition of the game. It would been wonderful as a short hardcover meant to pandering for the fans. I would very much adore it myself and that little fan service book would have been a 5/5 experience.
But we also got chapters like ‘X-Blade’, that barely added anything to the story and was just an uninspired retelling of a cut scene, and ‘Coda’, which could easily been cut out of this book since it was mostly about Sora and vague hints about events that happened in Kingdom Hearts II. Coda weren’t by any means worse than ‘Dwarf’s Woodlands’ or the whole book 2 but it was still a weak way to end the book. Especially after the Chapter ‘Final Episode’ wrapped it up so neatly.
We (kind of) got a description of how unversed looked like. Still two whole books too late, at the description was definitely lacking. I tried to imagine what the book actually said, and all I saw was a creepy doll with black hair and red eyes.
Overall this book had the most potential and there were moments I really liked. With a few edits and cutting out unnecessary filler, I could easily eaten this book up as fan service and eagerly rated it 5/5.
At the current moment I wouldn’t say book three was good enough to suffer through book one or two, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to buy this book just to read book three, that I just thought was overall decent.
General Thoughts:
So there were some ‘extra’ material sprinkled in to the book but not nearly enough for it to warrant a whole book. We got a few scenes with Vanitas, that was actually good, but they’re few and very far between.
The writing style was close to: and then this happened, and then this, this happened and then this. It was more about retelling what happened on screen without adding anything.
Sometimes it was hard to figure out which scenes were supposed to be flashbacks and which happened in current time.
Ventus part works wonderfully in a game. A perfect way to integrate old players to the game mechanics. It did not work in this book since you barely had a world to explore. He came across as a child galavanting around the worlds for no real reason at all. I had to make my own fan theory about what Ven was doing through out his travels, since he lost his goal of following Terra in less than 100 pages. Some things that a revealed in the third book, might worked better in the first book to make Ven’s motivation a bit more stable.
At times it felt like I was reading a badly written fanfiction. I’m not genuinely a person who throw around the word fanfiction as an insult. It’s fanfiction in the sense where the writer just assume things are common knowledge. I understand that there are limitations to what you can do with a canon work. But I ask myself, who is this book for? Picking it up I assumed it would be a way for people who not played or could not play BBS, a chance to experience the story. But I hope my review have pointed out just how lost they would be.
Since this book was so close to the game, with little to no change, I could just boot up my old PSP or replayed the game on my PS4. Or I could just watched all the cut scenes on YouTube. I did however have a blast reading this book with my friend. Mostly because it fell into the ‘so bad it’s good’ category, and it was nice to have someone to discuss my very negative feelings with.
TL:DR bad writing/translation that you need a timeline map to follow. Character have meta knowledge they should not have. Only buy if you love terrible books or want to complete a collection.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2019
I'm torn about this book. The first two thirds - covering the trio's adventures in the Disney worlds - are rushed and quite poorly written. However, the final third makes the book worth buying. It goes into more detail than the game does on Ventus' background, and also covers material from Blank Points and KH2 FM. I would only recommend this book if you've already played the game.
November 22, 2019
3.5 stars. The vanitas bits were cool but the rest is just the same as the games, but with kind of mediocre prose at best.
Plus, like, it's cool that they include stuff like the lingering will fight but I have to wonder if this book has literally any value to anyone who hasn't already played the game.
Plus, like, it's cool that they include stuff like the lingering will fight but I have to wonder if this book has literally any value to anyone who hasn't already played the game.
March 10, 2020
I think this might be a 3.75/5 stars for me.
Reading this was like reliving playing the original PSP version Birth by Sleep. I was happy to be immersed in that world once more, however, there were some things that pulled me out of that. Ever so often I'd find little things like spelling errors or grammatical errors that didn't sound right. I wasn't sure if it was me or the way this was edited.
And though while the game stands on its own, the way the book went about sealing its own benefit was offering little tidbits about the characters and (as far as I recall) scenes not published in the game. It's great to do so, but within those little scenes it did feel at times like it was a bit far-fetched. In the end, I caved in and accepted it.
(Oh, and I almost forgot. The reading level for this book is very base, and I was almost ready to recommend it to every age group, but then at times I had to stop and research these big words like "facsimile" and "reproof" and more. Dangit, I know it's been a while since I graduated, but I've never come across those words in my life. So, hey, maybe it'll get the young ones to expand their vocabulary?)
So, once again, I recommend the novel versions of Kingdom Hearts to any KH veteran fan or those wanting to engage in the story of it without playing the game. And parents, I give this the thumbs-up of approval.
Reading this was like reliving playing the original PSP version Birth by Sleep. I was happy to be immersed in that world once more, however, there were some things that pulled me out of that. Ever so often I'd find little things like spelling errors or grammatical errors that didn't sound right. I wasn't sure if it was me or the way this was edited.
And though while the game stands on its own, the way the book went about sealing its own benefit was offering little tidbits about the characters and (as far as I recall) scenes not published in the game. It's great to do so, but within those little scenes it did feel at times like it was a bit far-fetched. In the end, I caved in and accepted it.
(Oh, and I almost forgot. The reading level for this book is very base, and I was almost ready to recommend it to every age group, but then at times I had to stop and research these big words like "facsimile" and "reproof" and more. Dangit, I know it's been a while since I graduated, but I've never come across those words in my life. So, hey, maybe it'll get the young ones to expand their vocabulary?)
So, once again, I recommend the novel versions of Kingdom Hearts to any KH veteran fan or those wanting to engage in the story of it without playing the game. And parents, I give this the thumbs-up of approval.
January 19, 2021
Didn't love it, didn't hate it. It was okay.
It's of course a book about a game. And sometimes it shows. And somehow that bothers me.
I didn't want to read the game. I know the game. I wanted to get the story in a clear awesome way.
Birth by sleep has a good story, one of the best is my opinion. But I hoped this book would really focus on that story and leave all the extra's. I understand some things are necessary for plot points later on, like Pete. But I don't want to read about Ventus making ice cream in Disney world or Terra racing there. I don't need to read about every single character going to Olympus and doing sort of the same thing. All worlds pretty much do the same thing: meet people, something goes wrong, they fix it (one of the three or all three) and they leave. Sometimes it made sense and added to the story, sometimes it didn't.
I get that Mickey needs to be in there, but he didn't add anything.
The beginning and the end were really good and read great! The quotes were spot on and I really loved that we saw more of Vanitas and his pain. It made the character feel more real. I feel sorry for him. So sorry. Loved that part :)
Just wished they made a more focused, better packed story.
It's of course a book about a game. And sometimes it shows. And somehow that bothers me.
I didn't want to read the game. I know the game. I wanted to get the story in a clear awesome way.
Birth by sleep has a good story, one of the best is my opinion. But I hoped this book would really focus on that story and leave all the extra's. I understand some things are necessary for plot points later on, like Pete. But I don't want to read about Ventus making ice cream in Disney world or Terra racing there. I don't need to read about every single character going to Olympus and doing sort of the same thing. All worlds pretty much do the same thing: meet people, something goes wrong, they fix it (one of the three or all three) and they leave. Sometimes it made sense and added to the story, sometimes it didn't.
I get that Mickey needs to be in there, but he didn't add anything.
The beginning and the end were really good and read great! The quotes were spot on and I really loved that we saw more of Vanitas and his pain. It made the character feel more real. I feel sorry for him. So sorry. Loved that part :)
Just wished they made a more focused, better packed story.
July 31, 2024
3.8 stars
I like that the POV is switched up throughout the novel, even if going world-by-world means the story is out of chronology for some characters and it's hard to accurately chart their development. I do think they should have used that method for the Dream, Drop, Distance novel (I have no idea what they do for Chain of Memories, I haven't read that one yet). I really liked the extra scenes toward the end of the novel, especially after Union Cross and Dark Road, it's worth reading the novel for all the little insights it gives to Xehanort, Eraqus, Ventus, and Vanitas - as well as the nature of light and darkness. I do understand better why so many fans love Vanitas, his characterization is very compelling here, even if I personally still don't like him very much.
Like most novelizations, it is not the best introduction to the source material for newcomers. It is still very interesting for fans, and I'm glad these novels exist to share the story with everyone, especially since so many Kingdom Hearts games are spread across different systems.
I like that the POV is switched up throughout the novel, even if going world-by-world means the story is out of chronology for some characters and it's hard to accurately chart their development. I do think they should have used that method for the Dream, Drop, Distance novel (I have no idea what they do for Chain of Memories, I haven't read that one yet). I really liked the extra scenes toward the end of the novel, especially after Union Cross and Dark Road, it's worth reading the novel for all the little insights it gives to Xehanort, Eraqus, Ventus, and Vanitas - as well as the nature of light and darkness. I do understand better why so many fans love Vanitas, his characterization is very compelling here, even if I personally still don't like him very much.
Like most novelizations, it is not the best introduction to the source material for newcomers. It is still very interesting for fans, and I'm glad these novels exist to share the story with everyone, especially since so many Kingdom Hearts games are spread across different systems.
May 1, 2019
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep: The Novel is a well executed novelization of the 2010 PSP title. The story takes place ten years prior to the events of the first entry in the Kingdom Hearts franchise.
Birth by Sleep follows the young keyblade wielders Terra, Aqua and Ventus. A series of events are set into motion by the cunning Master Xehanort and the three friends are separated as they try to uncover his plot.
This novel adds characterization that the game did not have time to implement, including a closer look into Ventus's first days with Aqua and Terra. We also get a more inside look at the thoughts and actions of Vanitas, who is sadly fairly glossed over in the game.
If you enjoyed BBS and have enjoyed Kanemaki's other novelizations for the KH franchise, I highly recommend this title. It should be noted that just like the game, you are expected to read/play it post Kingdom Hearts II or certain content will likely be a hair confusing.
Birth by Sleep follows the young keyblade wielders Terra, Aqua and Ventus. A series of events are set into motion by the cunning Master Xehanort and the three friends are separated as they try to uncover his plot.
This novel adds characterization that the game did not have time to implement, including a closer look into Ventus's first days with Aqua and Terra. We also get a more inside look at the thoughts and actions of Vanitas, who is sadly fairly glossed over in the game.
If you enjoyed BBS and have enjoyed Kanemaki's other novelizations for the KH franchise, I highly recommend this title. It should be noted that just like the game, you are expected to read/play it post Kingdom Hearts II or certain content will likely be a hair confusing.
October 31, 2020
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep: The Novel is a well executed novelization of the 2010 PSP title. The story takes place ten years prior to the events of the first game in the Kingdom Hearts franchise.
Birth by Sleep follows the young keyblade wielders Terra, Aqua and Ventus. A series of events are set into motion by the cunning Master Xehanort and the three friends are separated as they try to uncover his plot.
This novel adds characterization that the game did not have time to implement, including a closer look into Ventus's first days with Aqua and Terra. We also get a more inside look at the thoughts and actions of Vanitas, who is sadly fairly glossed over in the game.
If you enjoyed BBS and have enjoyed other Kingdom Hearts novelizations for the KH franchise, I highly recommend this title. It should be noted that just like the game, you are expected to read/play it post Kingdom Hearts II or certain content will likely be a hair confusing.
Birth by Sleep follows the young keyblade wielders Terra, Aqua and Ventus. A series of events are set into motion by the cunning Master Xehanort and the three friends are separated as they try to uncover his plot.
This novel adds characterization that the game did not have time to implement, including a closer look into Ventus's first days with Aqua and Terra. We also get a more inside look at the thoughts and actions of Vanitas, who is sadly fairly glossed over in the game.
If you enjoyed BBS and have enjoyed other Kingdom Hearts novelizations for the KH franchise, I highly recommend this title. It should be noted that just like the game, you are expected to read/play it post Kingdom Hearts II or certain content will likely be a hair confusing.
January 27, 2025
Kanemaki had a big task on her hands to squash a three-POV nonlinear storyline into a linear narrative. The choice seems to have been to just pick an order for the Disney Worlds to go in, write the POVs of the characters in the order they arrive, and have them mention the world they just came from, even if that hasn't been shown yet. It's a bit of a mess, to be honest. Birth By Sleep really played with POV and chronology, and the book medium doesn't fit it that well.
That being said, Kanemaki's empathetic and rich character writing make the story enjoyable (even written at a middle grade level). I also notice she gets away with more sensory descriptions of the Keyblade violence than before, which suits BBS's darker and more violent narrative points. Ven "tastes iron" at one point, and I was like "they won't let her say they bleed but I sure do know they're bleeding right now." Vanitas even *pukes* an Unversed at one point, which was metal as FUCK.
I enjoyed it a lot for my blorbo Terra, but let's be frank: you should not read this book if you didn't play the game, because you will struggle to follow without having played the game.
That being said, Kanemaki's empathetic and rich character writing make the story enjoyable (even written at a middle grade level). I also notice she gets away with more sensory descriptions of the Keyblade violence than before, which suits BBS's darker and more violent narrative points. Ven "tastes iron" at one point, and I was like "they won't let her say they bleed but I sure do know they're bleeding right now." Vanitas even *pukes* an Unversed at one point, which was metal as FUCK.
I enjoyed it a lot for my blorbo Terra, but let's be frank: you should not read this book if you didn't play the game, because you will struggle to follow without having played the game.
August 24, 2020
I would have liked the book to have delved into being more of a novel based on a three-person POV game, rather than just a novelization of the game. To have used this change in medium to tell BBS in its own way. It did have it's moments where it expanded on the game's story - especially when it comes to the character Vanitas, and it was hearing about those additional scenes that got me wanting to read the book in the first place. It worked out that the whole novelization was a lot of fun overall, even though it could at times be jarring as I read through the book because it is split based on the worlds visited, and not necessarily a coherent timeline. So it reads like each character being played simultaneously, which does end up being the main reason I gave it 4/5, only because in some parts it works and others it doesn't.
May 23, 2019
The story of Birth by Sleep has always been one of my favorites of the Kingdom Hearts series, and this book gave me everything I could ask for. It delves so much deeper into the characters, their thoughts and why they did the things they do. I especially loved seeing Vanitas’ side of the story, as his reasons are never fully explained in the game.
Now I just really want to go replay Birth by Sleep, and experience it all again.
Now I just really want to go replay Birth by Sleep, and experience it all again.
September 19, 2021
I just wanted to read about the Wayfinder Trio, and get the BBS experience since I can’t play the games due to getting motion sick :(
It’s a video game novelization,so didn’t go into this expecting top tier prose. And it’s not. But not every book has to be; sometimes it’s enough for a book to be a fun, entertaining time, and that’s what this book is. I had a good time reading it, and that’s all I wanted.
It’s a video game novelization,so didn’t go into this expecting top tier prose. And it’s not. But not every book has to be; sometimes it’s enough for a book to be a fun, entertaining time, and that’s what this book is. I had a good time reading it, and that’s all I wanted.
November 20, 2019
They should ABSOLUTELY novelize these Kingdom Hearts games more!
I absolutely loved reading about Aqua, Terra, Ventus, their Master Eraqus and Master Xehanort.
Next I hope they will come up with a novelization of Young Eraqus and Young Xehanort. I mean how did Xehanort become the way he is in this novel?
I. WANT. TO. KNOW.
And I bet I'm not the only one!
I absolutely loved reading about Aqua, Terra, Ventus, their Master Eraqus and Master Xehanort.
Next I hope they will come up with a novelization of Young Eraqus and Young Xehanort. I mean how did Xehanort become the way he is in this novel?
I. WANT. TO. KNOW.
And I bet I'm not the only one!
December 12, 2019
Honestly, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep is one of my favorite KH games, and this book was just the cherry on top! I felt like this book added so much to that game. There were so many insights into the actions of Terra, Aqua, and Ven, and even some insights into Master Xehanort and Vanitas's actions and motivations. I definitely recommend this book for fans of the game!
March 26, 2019
More of a soft summary of the events of the game, but with some additional internal dialogue and perspective on Vanitas. I would only recommend it to those who are already fans of the games, those who are looking for a bit more of their favorite series or characters.
May 27, 2019
Such a great video game and the novel gives even more insight into a wonderful cast of characters!
December 23, 2019
Awesome!
Listening to the game while reading along is pretty awesome! So glad to hear more of Vanitas. One of my favorite characters, feel more sorry for him. 5/5
Listening to the game while reading along is pretty awesome! So glad to hear more of Vanitas. One of my favorite characters, feel more sorry for him. 5/5
September 11, 2020
Felt like a weird fanslation I woulda found online. I was actually excited to read this and felt very let down.
October 19, 2020
Un libro da avere per i fan di Birth By Sleep, fortunato capitolo per PSP della seroe Kingdom Hearts. Ripercorre la trama del gioco, né più né meno.
January 31, 2022
You know. its like the games. Its GOOD except in the middle when you're visiting 4 disney worlds too much
March 8, 2022
I love kingdom hearts so I’m collecting all the light novels. This is my first one and the emotion in the novel gives me a lot more insight and emotion when I play the game.
June 9, 2022
Do it for Vanitas
June 12, 2022
Do it for VANITAS
November 14, 2023
This novel added some great characterisation to Vanitas, Aqua, and Ventus, especially considering I didn’t like Ventus in the original game. Although the timeline of Disney worlds was made unnecessarily confusing, the ending made it all worth it.
December 18, 2024
🎶Hooooold me🎶
🎶Whatever lies beyond this mooooorning🎶
🎶Is a little later ooon🎶
🎶Whatever lies beyond this mooooorning🎶
🎶Is a little later ooon🎶
February 14, 2025
prob 3.5
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