Parasite Eve

By Hideaki Sena

Book Overview

It was this novel, along with Koji Suzuki's Ring series that began the J-Horror boom. A page-turner about the rebellion of mitochondria, it became the Japan Horror Novel Award's first winner and the inspiration for a videogame that became a hit. At the centre of the novel is Eve, initially just a microscopic entity who later questions the meaning of life, harking the philosophical musings of Ghosts in the Shell. Once Eve tastes the fruit of free will and love, science proves powerless to her infection. Now in paperback.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932234209
• ISBN13: 9781932234206
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Vertical
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.3"
• Age Range: 16 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 11 and higher

Customer Reviews

wow

I was a bit surprised when I read this book as I watched the movie and played the games years before I got the chance to jump into this novel. The story is slightly slow in the beginning but once the pace is quicken there is no going back.

Worth sticking with

Most of the action in this book takes place over the last few chapters. Sena spends a very long time explaining quite a bit of biology so at times it reads almost like a textbook or maybe lecture notes. Stick with it though because it gets very interesting once the plot starts moving.

Slow at first but quite Interesting

That's the main reason I did not give this a 5/5 rating is due to it's slow start. However, once it gets going, it is a good book. If you aren't much of a romantic though, it's not really for you because it is somewhat of a romance/sci-fi novel. Quite a well thought out story if our Mitochondria could actually do that...

Top-notch SF/Horror

Having played the two "Parasite Eve" videogames, I was very happy to finally read the original novel upon which the games were based (the games are actually sequels to the book, taking place in the US and involving new characters). Hideaki Sena's debut novel is a strong science-fiction horror story, but it might not be for everyone. This is one horror novel that really gets under your skin, and the final third of the novel is filled with many graphic, scary moments. To put it one way, imagine if Dean Koontz and Michael Crichton decided to team up and write a book together. Sena's background in Pharmacology is evident here--the scientific jargon is at times overwhelming (even to me, and I have a biology degree!). This fact will turn off some readers. As to the complaint that the book is too gruesome--come on! Are we forgetting about Clive Barker's early stories/novels and the splatterpunk craze? If anything, PARASITE EVE's release in English is a welcome step into bringing over more Japanese literature to America, whether it is horror, science-fiction, or contemporary. It just seems appropriate since many American writers are translated into Japanese, but not vice-versa. I enjoyed PARASITE EVE. It's a different kind of horror story, and kudos to Vertical for bringing it to these shores.

Bien.

I preordered this book a number of weeks ago and finally received it and I wasn't disappointed. I know nothing about the video game and to be honest am not particularly interested in the video game, but the novel's wonderfully inventive and incredibly entertaining. What the hell is up the the first reviewer, "K. Jasmin "Catjazz",??! What an irritating, useless review. It's riddled with gramatical errors and I have no idea what the hell it's talking about.