Fairy Tail, Volume 2 by Hiro Mashima

Natsu is a fire wizard, and Lucy is a Celestial Wizard, able to call upon spirit creatures based on the signs of the Western Zodiac. Happy is Natsu's cat, who can both talk, and fly, albeit the last with the right spell cast on him. Both are members of the Fairy Tail Magical Guild, whose symbol is a stylized Fairy. Natsu is an old hand in the Guild, and Lucy has just joined.

When they are hired to burn a book for a fortune in Jewels, they are only too happy to accept the job, but getting the book is going to be much, much harder than it looks. For the first part, Natsu and Lucy are not the first people to try and steal the book, so the owner, Duke Everlue, has hired additional guards for his estate.

When their plan to get Lucy hired on the estate fails, they have to sneak in, whereupon they are set on by the maids and two guards that Duke Everlue hired from the Southern Wolf Guild, the Vanish Brothers. As Natsu defeats the brothers, Lucy absconds with the book, figuring out that there is a secret hidden within the work.

In the end, we learn that Duke Everlue wanted a story written about himself, and that he threatened the writer, Kemu Zaleon, with the death of his family if he didn't write the book. However, Zaleon hid a spell in the book that told of his true feelings and the truth of what Duke Everlue did to him. But can they return the book to the author's son and reveal his true work?

Next, on their return to the Fairy Tail Guildhouse, Natsu and Lucy are tapped by the guild member Ezra for a mission, along with Natsu's frenemy Gray Fullbuster, an ice wizard who also happens to be an exhibitionist. It seems Ezra overheard members of the Shadow Guild, the Eisenwald Wizard Guild, talking about obtaining something called Lullaby.

Although she didn't know what it was, she knew it could be nothing good if the Death God of Eisenwald, Erigor, wanted it. While he's not actually a God, it means that he. as a wizard, accepts jobs to assassinate people. That's what got the Eisenwald Wizard Guild kicked out of the League of Guilds, and when they refused to disperse and continued as a guild, they began operating as a Shadow Guild. Now it's up for the team of Ezra, Natsu, Gray and Lucy to ensure that the Eisenwald Guild doesn't carry out its fiendish plan- whatever that is- and to retrieve the Lullaby- whatever that is, before it can be used. But can they really take on a guild of Wizards whose powers are more than equal to their own?

This manga was... only okay. I've read Hiro Mashima's Rave Master series, and the main characters in this one are almost exactly the same, in character design, to the main characters in Rave Master. Oh, the costumes may be different, but their faces and bodies are exactly the same, which leads to a "Haven't I Read This Before?" feeling as you turn the pages.

Added to a story that's only okay, and I had a hard time mustering up the enthusiasm to read the book. The characters are identical, the story is nothing to write home about and nothing we haven't seen hundreds of times before, and the book just comes off as same-y and lacklustre.

If you enjoy the art of Hiro Mashima, you've probably already read the 18+ issues of Rave Master. There is nothing new here, either thematically or artistically. I may read the first one, but after that, I'll have to decline, as neither the story nor the characters hold my attention. It's just same-old, same-old, and as such, isn't worth my reading time.