Slum Online

L to R (Western Style). Reality bites for college freshman Etsuro Sakagami, but on the MMO Versus Town he's a karate master who can handle anything. Who will be his greatest opponent-the seemingly invisible Slasher Jack, or his would-be girlfriend Fumiko? Etsuro Sakagami is a college freshmen who feels uncomfortable in reality, but when he logs onto the combat MMO Versus Town, he assumes the personality of "Tetsuo," a karate champ on his way towards becoming the most powerful martial artist around. While his relationship with new classmate Fumiko goes nowhere, he spends his days and nights online in search of the invincible fighter Slasher Jack. Floating in between real and virutal, at last, Etsuro finds himself face to face with his most powerful opponent...

Hiroshi Sakurazaka was born in Tokyo in 1970. After a career in information technology, he published his first novel, Modern Magic Made Simple (Yoku wakaru gendai mahou), in 2003 with Super Dash Bunko, a popular young adult light novel imprint. There are now seven volumes in the series, and it was adapted as a manga in 2008 and as a television anime series in 2009. Sakurazaka published All You Need Is Kill with Super Dash Bunko in 2004 and with it earned his first Seiun Award nomination for best of the year honors in Japanese science fiction. His 2004 short story "Saitama Chainsaw Massacre" won the 16th SF Magazine Reader's Award.

In 2009, All You Need Is Kill was the launch title for Haikasoru, a unique imprint dedicated to publishing the most compelling contemporary Japanese science fiction and fantasy for English-speaking audiences. New York Times best-selling author John Scalzi declared All You Need Is Kill to be a novel that "reads fast, kicks ass, and keeps on coming," and it has proven to be one of Haikasoru's most popular titles. Sakurazaka's other novels include Characters (cowritten with Hiroki Azuma) and Slum Online, which was published in English by Haikasoru in 2010.

In 2010, Sakurazaka started an experimental digital magazine, AiR, with Junji Hotta. He remains one of Japan's most energetic writers of both light novels and adult science fiction.