The following review does not contain any spoilers!

Story:
Fullmetal Alchemist is a well-known name for everyone in the anime/manga community, be it with its anime adaptation "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood", which is one of the best-rated anime series of all time on numerous websites, or as a recommendation to get into the anime world. Unfortunately, the source material, the manga, is often overlooked. At first glance, it seems to be a typical battle shonen, as there are already plenty of them, but it still manages to stand out from the crowd thanks to a wide variety of elements and to take a special place in the hearts of many people.
There are so-called alchemists in this story, who have a wide variety of abilities and thus great battles are almost guaranteed. However, alchemy also raises many moral questions, which is why our two main characters follow the principle of the equivalent exchange. There is also a lot of politics involved, as the whole story takes place just a few years after a major war and you can still feel the after-effects of it, with themes of racism, hatred and revenge coming to the fore.
I think the world the mangaka has created is amazing, it feels so real and alive with the many places we travel to in the manga from deserts to icy landscapes. I also find the cultural differences between the different nations, both in clothing style and religion, very realistic.
The main genres of this work are action and adventure, but there are also a lot of comedy and drama elements and even a bit of romance now and then.

Characters:
Our main characters are the Elric brothers Edward & Alphonse, who lost their mother and therefore tried to bring her back to life using alchemy, but since this is a taboo, Edward lost his leg and Alphonse even lost his whole body, to save his brother's life Edward sacrificed his arm to bind his brother's soul to a metal armor. But there are other exciting characters, like her childhood friend Winry Rockbell, who pops up every now and then, various state alchemists who are all very unique and the antagonists are also very interesting as they are based on the Seven Deadly Sins.
In general, I would say the characters are the heart of this work, you're always wondering who is currently where, how they interact with each other and how they will develop. The mangaka doesn't shy away from inflicting irreparable injuries on some characters or even killing them.

Art:
I would describe the drawings as very clean. The panels are rarely overcrowded and you can always tell what's happening. It's a little more text-heavy than other battle shonen, but you still read through the 27 volumes of this manga very quickly. The art style seems a little generic at first glance, but you can definitely recognize the style of the manga also in his other works. There are very nicely detailed highlight panels, which are really well drawn, but there are also many chibi scenes, which are funny but sometimes occur a little too often for me personally, which sometimes made me wonder if it wasn't a comedy manga after all.

Summary:
It's one of the best shonen manga I've ever read and lives up to its hype. The drawings are good and definitely convey the story very well. The story is multi-layered and complex, but still easy to understand. The characters carry this work and each one adds something to the story. The only criticisms I have are that there was too much comedy in some of the serious situations, which were sometimes also solved with comedy, and at the end I would have liked to see a bit more of the characters and what happened to them, as it jumped back and forth a bit too quickly.