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3.0étoiles sur 5
Spiral, Mars 4 2007
Koji Suzuku's "The Ring" chilled countless readers, with its story of a cursed videotape which kills whoever sees it. But he wasn't quite able to capture lightning in a bottle with "Spiral," which takes away a large part of the visceral horror before giving readers a new kind.
It begins where "Ring" left off, shortly after Ryuji dies. The coroner is his pal Ando, who is deeply disturbed when he finds a bit of paper stuck in Ryuji's torso -- with the coded word "Ring." He's understandably intrigued, and begins exploring the details of the virus-like spread of the curse, and the ghostly Sadako.
He also meets Mai, Ryuji's girlfriend. But soon Mai vanishes -- and then turns up dead. Even stranger, Ando finds that Mai saw the videotape and recently gave birth, but she was not pregnant the previous week. And soon he finds out that the Ring virus has entered its most lethal mutation: the rebirth of the undead Sadako.
One of the trickiest things in horror literature is explain what makes it horrifying. Like an autopsy, Suzuki opens up the Ring virus and tells us what caused it and how it works on the body. It's fascinating. But it also saps away almost all the horror, to have the curse explained in such clinical terms.
About halfway through "Spiral," Suzuki seems to realize that he's losing the "horror" plot. So he then includes strange scurrying creatures, mind control, and the rebirth of Sadako. And as with "Ring," Suzuki gives you the feeling that the apocalypse is about to hit -- it seems that it's just a matter of time until Sadako wins.
Suzuki has both a good grasp of scientific horror and visceral creepiness. First he unravels the bizarre disease that causes the "curse," then reveals the horrific effects of certain people watching the videotape. It's a credit to Suzuki's writing that it can be this good, considering how stilted the translation can be.
Ando is a likable, if deeply flawed character. He's mourning the loss of his son and his marriage, and that gives him a pathos that many of Suzuki's other characters lack. Suzuki also uses him to revisit the question: Would you sacrifice the world's safety, if it saved the people you love? Since Suzuki is a father and child-care expert, he knows how many people would react.
"Spiral" continues the story of the Ring virus and Sadako, but the first half is horror-and-suspense-free. But the last half brings back the dark, clammy punch of Suzuki's best.
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3.0étoiles sur 5
Into the spiral, Fév 24 2007
Koji Suzuku's "The Ring" chilled countless readers, with its story of a cursed videotape which kills whoever sees it. But he wasn't quite able to capture lightning in a bottle with "Spiral," which takes away a large part of the visceral horror before giving readers a new kind.
It begins where "Ring" left off, shortly after Ryuji dies. The coroner is his pal Ando, who is deeply disturbed when he finds a bit of paper stuck in Ryuji's torso -- with the coded word "Ring." He's understandably intrigued, and begins exploring the details of the virus-like spread of the curse, and the ghostly Sadako.
He also meets Mai, Ryuji's girlfriend. But soon Mai vanishes -- and then turns up dead. Even stranger, Ando finds that Mai saw the videotape and recently gave birth, but she was not pregnant the previous week. And soon he finds out that the Ring virus has entered its most lethal mutation: the rebirth of the undead Sadako.
One of the trickiest things in horror literature is explain what makes it horrifying. Like an autopsy, Suzuki opens up the Ring virus and tells us what caused it and how it works on the body. It's fascinating. But it also saps away almost all the horror, to have the curse explained in such clinical terms.
About halfway through "Spiral," Suzuki seems to realize that he's losing the "horror" plot. So he then includes strange scurrying creatures, mind control, and the rebirth of Sadako. And as with "Ring," Suzuki gives you the feeling that the apocalypse is about to hit -- it seems that it's just a matter of time until Sadako wins.
Suzuki has both a good grasp of scientific horror and visceral creepiness. First he unravels the bizarre disease that causes the "curse," then reveals the horrific effects of certain people watching the videotape. It's a credit to Suzuki's writing that it can be this good, considering how stilted the translation can be.
Ando is a likable, if deeply flawed character. He's mourning the loss of his son and his marriage, and that gives him a pathos that many of Suzuki's other characters lack. Suzuki also uses him to revisit the question: Would you sacrifice the world's safety, if it saved the people you love? Since Suzuki is a father and child-care expert, he knows how many people would react.
"Spiral" continues the story of the Ring virus and Sadako, but the first half is horror-and-suspense-free. But the last half brings back the dark, clammy punch of Suzuki's best.
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4.0étoiles sur 5
You Don't Know What Ring Is Yet, Déc 23 2006
Right from the get-go, the story splits away from the memorable characters in Ring and introduces to you some very troubled ones. Dr. Ando, a doctor whose son died at sea, is having hostile conversations with his wife over the phone about their divorce. Once Ando goes to work, he discovers a new corpse ready for an autopsy...
who is none other than Ryuji Takayama! And he has something to share with the reader, something that starts a spiral of events, and something that shows that he is not who we thought he was. But Ryuji is not the only to make a re-appearance in this story. For Sadako is back, and she is not a forgiving person.
I will not reveal much more about the story, but let me say that Ando's sinister choice at the end of the novel is more sinister that Asakawa's. You do not know what the Ring really is yet. All rules about the cursed videotape are re-defined and some new side-affects are not pleasing ones. It is interesting how Koji Suzuki has been able to twist his own story from Ring into something so dramatic. I would still recommend this book to people who haven't read the first book, for it has been written in a way that you could understand everything - there is a 14 paged flashback on the events of the first book. For Ring fans, those 14 pages are really not that tedious to read.
You will not be able to forget the events in this book for a very long time. The ending is about ten times better than Ring, because it is just so shocking you probably won't believe it. It is filled with very good storytelling - I never found it to be boring - and it will lure you in to a very haunted world.
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