Well class today we will be discussing "Battle Royale" by Houshun Takami
Some of you may have already heard of this book due to the popular Japanese Movie by the same name. My version is obviously a translation and though you can notice the language issues occasionally, overall it was a very well done translation and I doubt any of the story was lost in translation.
Battle Royal is the story of a class of 42 students all around 15-16 years old, equal number of boys to girls, which are taken to a deserted island by their Totalitarian Government and given various random weapons and told to kill each other until one is left. The first question you have to ask yourself is why? It’s because they can do anything they want, and they help reinforce that idea into their people by once a year randomly selecting a class of kids to fight it out. What does the winner get besides his life? He gets a signed picture from the Grand Dictator and that’s about it.
The first few pages start off slow while you get use to their strange culture, odd school system, and hard to pronounce names. Then all of the sudden the action starts and doesn’t stop until the end. The story is expertly setup so the tension and stress stay high throughout the story. The author does this by having the kids rigged with collars that not only track their movements but can be detonated when they enter a forbidden zone. The island they are on is rapidly shrinking in size due to new forbidden zones being announced every few hours and a warning that all collars will be detonated if no one dies within a 24 hour time period. So the students have no choice to kill or be killed. At the end of every chapter the reader is informed of how many students remain alive.
The students come from almost every social class and background allowed in their society. So the reader gets to see how the characters from the various backgrounds react to the stress and paranoia. They aren’t sure if they should trust their friends enough to side with them against their enemies or if their friends are their enemies waiting for them to drop their guard. The characters are forced to face the person they really are and let others know how they feel about them because they could die at any moment.
Overall I give this book 4 out of 5. It is well written, has nonstop action, lots of twists and surprises, and it’s hard to put down. The amount of raw violence and bloodshed will ensure that there is never an American made movie of this book. So if you’re looking for something action packed book that is different from you normally read than this is the book for you.
Some of you may have already heard of this book due to the popular Japanese Movie by the same name. My version is obviously a translation and though you can notice the language issues occasionally, overall it was a very well done translation and I doubt any of the story was lost in translation.
Battle Royal is the story of a class of 42 students all around 15-16 years old, equal number of boys to girls, which are taken to a deserted island by their Totalitarian Government and given various random weapons and told to kill each other until one is left. The first question you have to ask yourself is why? It’s because they can do anything they want, and they help reinforce that idea into their people by once a year randomly selecting a class of kids to fight it out. What does the winner get besides his life? He gets a signed picture from the Grand Dictator and that’s about it.
The first few pages start off slow while you get use to their strange culture, odd school system, and hard to pronounce names. Then all of the sudden the action starts and doesn’t stop until the end. The story is expertly setup so the tension and stress stay high throughout the story. The author does this by having the kids rigged with collars that not only track their movements but can be detonated when they enter a forbidden zone. The island they are on is rapidly shrinking in size due to new forbidden zones being announced every few hours and a warning that all collars will be detonated if no one dies within a 24 hour time period. So the students have no choice to kill or be killed. At the end of every chapter the reader is informed of how many students remain alive.
The students come from almost every social class and background allowed in their society. So the reader gets to see how the characters from the various backgrounds react to the stress and paranoia. They aren’t sure if they should trust their friends enough to side with them against their enemies or if their friends are their enemies waiting for them to drop their guard. The characters are forced to face the person they really are and let others know how they feel about them because they could die at any moment.
Overall I give this book 4 out of 5. It is well written, has nonstop action, lots of twists and surprises, and it’s hard to put down. The amount of raw violence and bloodshed will ensure that there is never an American made movie of this book. So if you’re looking for something action packed book that is different from you normally read than this is the book for you.