Friday, March 4, 2011

Multi-Media Week Part III: Parasite Eve (Book)

Some thought it was a legend. A folk tale gone out of control. A mere wive’s tale. Something parents told their children to scare them straight at night. But recent archaeological discoveries have laid those claims to rest. It was real.

No.

It IS real.



Which is fine by me. I rather enjoyed it.

Back in 1995 a lowly pharmacological researcher by the name of Hideaki Sena decided to write a Horror novel. I doubt anyone expected it to be what it ultimately became. In Japan, it came out around the same time as The Ring, and competed with it to the degree that Japanese horror fans were all set to declare a new golden age. Indeed, the Ring is a multi-media powerhouse in its own right, having been a series of books, then a movie, then an American movie. But I’m actually not familiar with it. I suppose I should be, but oh wells. Coincidentally, Both the Ring and Parasite Eve were translated and released in the U.S. years after the fact by scattershot all-things-Japanese publisher Vertical Press.

Parasite Eve was translated in 2005, but I first heard of it back in 1998 when the ending credits of a game by the same name were rolling on my TV screen and words to the effect of “Based on the novel by Hideaki Sena” came into view. The game carries a lot of nostalgic power for me, so naturally when I saw (circa 2008) that the book had been translated, I immediately bought it. The games are still being made, with the third scheduled for release in March, so I decided to re-read the book and review the franchise.

The premise: Toshiaki Nagashima is a researcher and assistant professor at a university in Japan who specializes in the study of Mitochondria, an independent organism living in symbiosis with all multicellular creatures, providing energy in exchange for materials. When his wife dies suddenly in a car crash, Toshiaki is possessed by the desire to keep her alive by harvesting her liver cells for use in his research. What he doesn’t know is that “She”, the collective mind of his beloved’s Mitochondria is using him in an attempt to create the ultimate being and reverse the ancient symbiosis by subjugating host DNA.

Review: I don’t want to do a full plot run down. There’s a lot of characters (and although Toshiaki is ostensibly the main, most of the book is limited 3rd and follows at some point or another pretty much every named character including but not limited to Yoshizumi, a transplant surgeon, Kiyomi, Toshiaki’s late wife, Asakura, one of Toshiaki’s students, and Mariko Anzai, a teenage girl who receives Kiyomi’s kidney), and being a horror novel a lot of the fun is the tension and mood and whatever. So I’ll say this much: if you like Horror, you really oughta read this because it’s something different. Also, if you like biology or medicine you should read this. Most of the complaints I’ve ever heard are that the book starts slow. There’s a lot in there about transplant surgery and hospital administration and things of that nature. Trust me, they’re all relevant and as a former bio nerd, I ate that shit up. If anything, I wish the first half (which is not science fiction as much as it is SCIENCE) was even slower. Sometimes I felt like the book was tipping its hand too early and too often. Also, the production of the book is… questionable.

I don’t think Vertical Press had been around for very long when they did this (according to their site, they seem to have formed in 2004 and this translation hit shelves in 2005), and surely had a pitiful budget. It shows. The text is appropriately sized, but it’s in a serif, not sans-serif. The margins are very small. The cover is absolutely atrocious. They don’t end a page with the chapter so they run right into each other. They’ve got back of book ads, which I have no problem with, but what they advertise is a scattershot because vertical hadn’t done enough horror yet. So one page advertises the Ring trilogy, which makes sense, but the next advertises some random manga series. And the translation has some issues. It’s not awful. It’s a fun read and plenty clear. They could have safely cut about half the commas though. They also use lots of ellipses and in at least one place they use double exclamation points. Two sentences in a row. You know!! Like this!! This is stuff big boys and girls don’t do. On the whole though, the writing is detail oriented and spartan. Very matter of fact. It works well with the setting, and the ideas are original. So it’s a good read, a good book. Despite the hideous cover. The funny part is that the designer actually stuck his name on the back cover as if we care who he is.*

Arbitrary Confection Rating: It’s a day old cupcake made with Splenda. It would’ve been better yesterday and substituting Splenda for the sugar messes with the recipe, but in all fairness, it was a blue ribbon recipe. Blue. Not like, yellow. Or pink. Blue. That’s a heck of a ribbon to have associated with your recipe, so it’s pretty hard to make it bad. It’s just not as good as it should’ve been.

*Interestingly enough, on Wednesday I was talking with an industry veteran and the books we were each reading came up. I actually had PE with me and I showed it to him. You know what his first response was? "Ah, and a cover by Chipp Kidd. You know of course that he's very famous and sucessful as a cover designer, yes?" Why, so he is. I guess that explains sticking his name on there, but not why the cover's so damned ugly. What happened, Chipper?

5 comments:

  1. you're not familiar with The Ring?!?!? How exactly is that possible? I've lived under a rock in the middle of the Sahara for most of my adult life (not true, but it sounds impressive) and even I've seen the movies...and perused the books. this makes me wonder if I should be seriously reconsidering our blogger/follower relationship.

    quick! say something sarcastic/semi-rude. i'm sure that will help sway me back to the crewd side.

    anywho...Parasite Eve. sounds interesting. I might have to check it out.

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  2. Sarcastic and semi-rude? Well, excuse me madam, but I do believe you have me confused with some other hyper critical misantrhopic windbag. Before you go off on me, perhaps you should consider who you're speaking to.

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  3. Oh. did I say sarcastic and semi-rude? Well, my apologies. I meant to say, sweet, even-tempered, and happy-go-lucky. *snort*

    FYI: I do not, nor have I ever owned a brothel or a "high-class escort service" so the title Madam certainly doesn't fit here. Try something more appropriate, like 'Queen of the snark-filled comment' or 'Favorite Cyber Stalker'. Just some suggestions. As always, its dealer's choice.

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  4. Well Karla may not have ever owned a brothel but I sure have...oh no wait, that was just my college sorority house.

    Parasite Eve....intersting. I might have to see if that one is available at the local library.

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  5. Glad people are interested. It's an unusual book.

    Sorority house? Egads! You know, I feel like my only exposure to them is from, like, Revenge of the Nerds. I don't recall there being any frats or sororities in Fairfield. Then again, there wasn't really a need since everyone there was a white, upper middle class Irish catholic. So the whole school was basically a frat. Posibly named Slugga Lotta Vodka.

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