This series is great! But it definitely flows better as a visual medium like the manga or anime. Many, many words are spent in the novels describing the visual appearance of entities they encounter in the Otherside or choreographed action scenes. It's a very difficult balance to strike when including supernatural entities that require long descriptions to be imagined but not being too bogged down in the details to tell the story. An increasingly common thought during reading was "man, I wish there was an illustration of this spectacular sight that's being described," that rarely was fulfilled. The novels are probably best used as anintroduction to the series or reading ahead after watching the anime or reading the manga.