Fullmetal Alchemist, Volume 3: The Valley of The Dancing White Flowers (Novel) Book

Overall, if you like the Fullmetal Alchemist story, this is a fun read. It doesn't really contribute anything to the main storyline (it's an unrelated side story) or teach you anything you didn't already know about the characters, but it's a fun, fluffy read with a couple of nice illustrations and the usual fun "afterword" from Arakawa.

Whether it's because it's a different writer or a different translation team, the dialogue in these books never seems completely in character, but it's generally close enough. The actions of the characters tend to be well enough IC, at least, and their reactions to the events of the story likewise.

The story focus is heavily on Edward and Alphonse, with few to no appearances from other members of the cast; most of the characters are unique to this story, so they're unfamiliar to even fans of the series. You get to know a little about them within the story, but it never seems like quite enough to truly begin to care about them. The residents of the town of Wisteria are all introduced a little too rapid-fire for my personal liking, making it a challenge to distinguish them later in the climax of the story. The setting of Wisteria, however, is nicely realized and creates an interesting dynamic for the story. It plays out a bit predictably, but I wasn't really expecting any great twists and surprises, just a fun read, and on that level at least, the book did deliver.