It's important to note that King in Limbo was originally published in 2017, before the COVID-19 pandemic, making this feel just a teensy bit prescient. Predicting conspiracy theories surrounding a global pandemic is probably no great feat. It reads differently today than it would have when first published, and in a few plot points, it feels primed to stir up some of the original theories that have done the rounds of the internet. This is not to say that the book shouldn't have been published in English, because it's an excellent story and very much a work of science fiction. But it may cut a bit close to the bone for some readers, and that's worth thinking about before you pick it up.

This is a fascinating story if you're up for reading about a pandemic. It's not surprising that it comes from the same creator as Apple Children of Aeon, Ai Tanaka, because it blends science fiction with other genres in creatively twisting ways. Taking place in California in 2086 (and yes, that date's important), the story follows Adam Garfield, a naval petty officer who loses a leg in a bomb mishap. Adam's career should be over, but his ability to lucidly dream means that the armed forces can use him in...other ways. During a recent pandemic of a disease known as both sleeping disease and memory cancer, a strange pathogen put people into comas when it infected their traumatic memories. The only cure turned out to rely on dive technology – the ability to use biomechanical sensors to link the minds of a diver with an infected person, as well as a third to keep the diver grounded. The diver then goes into the afflicted person's brain to carefully remove the infected memories, allowing for something more precise than what is essentially described as a lobotomy. The procedure is dangerous and works best when performed by someone who is naturally a lucid dreamer – a person who has control over their dreams while asleep. Because Adam is such a person, he's a perfect fit for the job as a companion diver, and even better, he's a 97% match with the most successful diver of all, a man known as the king.

What Adam doesn't understand is why the military is so excited about this. As far as he knows, the sleeping disease was eradicated some time ago, and while not being honorably discharged would make his life financially easier, he also doesn't see the point. This marks the beginning of his descent into the dangerous underbelly of the government and military complexes because it turns out that the disease is back with a much more vicious variant, something everyone is trying very hard to keep under wraps. The offer on the table before Adam is very much a double-edged sword because although it will allow him to keep putting food on the table for his grandmother and younger siblings, it will also plunge him into a veritable sea of information he may wish he never learned. We can see him struggling between his naval training and his moral compass as the scope of the situation becomes clearer, and that makes him an interesting character to follow, especially since Tanaka can develop himself and the situation without histrionics or a turn toward melodrama. Each reveal is handled carefully, and if some of the science feels a little suspect, it's handled deftly enough that it doesn't take you out of the story.

The so-called king Adam is assigned to work with is a man named Rune Winter, and to call him unapproachable might be an understatement. We don't know much about him even at the end of this two-volume omnibus, but we're beginning to be able to fill in some of the blanks. Why he's such a talented diver isn't one of them, but we can guess that his frosty demeanor is likely a result of what he's been through working to save people. The only person he's not afraid to show care for is his daughter, whom he put up for adoption for reasons that are starting to look like her protection, which makes Travis, the military officer we see the most of in this book, a particularly despicable character. Rune may know a lot more about the origins of the first pandemic than he's sharing, which again would feed into his general attitude. He's working with and against the government in some senses, a dichotomy that helps drive the plot, especially as Adam learns more of what Rune already knows.

One of the strengths of this book is the use of dreams. Many little details sell this aspect, such as the way Adam always appears as a teenager in his dreams or the way trauma and PTSD can inform a person's subconscious world and "infect" those around them. "Limbo" refers to the space between the waking and sleeping worlds and the liminal zone when a diver leaves their mind and joins another's, and that helps to show that Rune's title as Limbo's "king" is very much an empty one – he's the ruler of nothing. This transitional world only exists for a select few. There's also the question of a little girl Adam sees across multiple dreams, including his own. Is she the manifestation of the infection? A supernatural being attempting to help, like a digital Queen Mab? And is Adam the only person who can see her? The answers to these questions stand to shed a lot of light on the story overall, and watching for her in the various dreams that Adam and Rune enter is a worthwhile treasure hunt while reading.

King in Limbo's first omnibus volume is a lot. It tackles pandemics, technology and human use thereof, and vast conspiracies, in theory and otherwise. Adam himself, as a disabled serviceman, makes for an interesting protagonist as he copes with his trauma and the options it has handed him, and the nature of trauma itself is something that gets some interesting exploration. This isn't the book to pick up if you're still coping with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, but if you're looking for solid science fiction with a reality-horror edge, definitely give this a try.