The Isolator, Vol. 4 (light novel): The Stinger Kindle Edition

Still reeling from the aftermath of his previous battle, Minoru is determined to improve so that the people around him won't be hurt. But the newest Ruby Eye proves a huge challenge---someone who attacks Jet and Ruby Eyes alike, and has a more dangerous ability than anyone they've met so far.I liked this, but it feels like a big step back from the previous books.The biggest issue is that it feels like more of the same. The new facet to Minoru's abilities is immediately overshadowed by the Stinger's attack, and the story never really gets back to it except to prevent him from trying this with someone else. Although we get a lot more insight into Liquidizer and Trancer, there still isn't much about the Syndicate's real goals. And it's never clear if the Stinger is even human, much less what his actual abilities are.I'm also really frustrated with turning the Professor into the latest girl in love with Minoru. For starters, she's ten. And even if she wasn't ten, she's still presented as someone who has no handle on emotions, just super-smarts for logic. So the whole bit where she's playing "little sister" comes off as creepy, like she's aping the trope in an attempt to figure it out and make Minoru more attached to her. I also completely fail to see what she sees in Minoru other than a mystery she can't solve, as his direct interactions with her are (as Suu accurately identified) basically ignoring the person in favor of the ability.The fight scenes are still a lot of fun. I'm always up for more of Divider's random sword skills, or Trancer's clever use of water phase changes. And the fact that THIS enemy is targeting both sides leads to some initial misunderstandings followed by unlikely teamwork. I really liked seeing that Minoru's big stand against Liquidizer in the last book actually shook her up enough to seriously consider his words.And I love the science, especially this little gem in the author's note afterwards:To sum it up, weak forces are carried by elementary particles called weak bosons, strong forces are controlled by gluons, electromagnetic forces are what make giant robots move and stuff, and gravity is what makes them fall when they’re defeated in battle.Overall, I really hope the next book has more progress on some of the bigger mysteries. I'm still enjoying the series but I miss the way the earlier volumes did so much more to expand the overall world. I rate this book Recommended.

Reki Kawahara is an author with an extremely love/hate reputation (i.e. you either love him, or you hate him). One of the most common criticisms of Kawahara underpinning most of the others is his tendency to make things up as he goes rather than planning a series thoroughly before writing. I did not feel anything like that in The Isolator series. So far, these books feel quite carefully planned out and they appear to flow together seamlessly. Maybe I'm mistaken about that, but at the very least there is no doubt in my mind that this series shows a marked improvement in Kawahara's writing style compared to where he started. I don't care whether you like or hate Kawahara as a whole; this series is excellent and I eagerly await the coming of book 5.

Cool book

Good read can’t wait for the next one

A great read! I enjoy everything from Reki Kawahara. Also it's worth mentioning that this is mislabeled. This is the light novel not the manga.

The Isolator é a obra que eu mais gosto do Kawahara, e mesmo com o volume sendo curto ele consegue te prender com a historia que faz você ler o volume de uma só vez. É realmente uma pena ter que esperar um ano para ler novos volumes dessa incrível obra.

La calidad de escritura de Reki verdaderamente ha mejorado en The Isolator y este último volumen no es la excepción.Lástima que está nueva serie no se actualiza tan seguido!