Was there some kind of required reading before starting this? It just drops you in and then introduces all this out there sci-fi stuff without explaining half of it. I finished the first volume and I don't think I fully understood everything that happened
>>288079129There really isn't a lot of required reading or anything like that. Its just told in a very dense way and a lot of the lectures that Shirow drops on you are pretty idiosyncratic. You're a fly on the wall in the world and you might have to read everything twice to suss out the important stuff from the filler. The conversation with the Puppeteer is definitely very dense and intimidating, I agree. But the esotericism doesn't go that deep. Its more about the appearances of things being similar than their content.
>>288079129If you have a functional brain you can figure out what’s going on through context.
Personally I recommend Green Eggs and Ham by Doctor Seuss. That's a good one to get you started on your reading journey. Real fun read too
>>288082028I do not like green eggs and ham.
