October 26, 2007

Coffin in the Sky (1999 story)

Written by Koji Suzuki.

Well, this is terribly unnecessary.

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice, atmospheric story with creepy imagery and some decent exploration of Mai Takano, but why did Suzuki think it was a good idea to take a sequence from the novel Spiral, which effectively played on readers' imaginations, and pretty much spoil it by filling in the details?

There's a reason he cut it in the first place.

October 25, 2007

Paradise (1990 novel)

Written by Koji Suzuki.

It's a shame Suzuki's popularity is mainly based around his horror work. It's not even his work, but rather the loose adaptations of fantastic filmmakers. I'm not complaining about the films - I love The Ring and Dark Water - but, frankly, those are not Suzuki at his best. Forest Under the Sea is. Loop is. This, his debut novel, is. His finest writing isn't about viruses or ghosts, it's about people. People struggling to find their identity and looking to the past for some form of answer. While these are elements that do, on occasion, pop up in his horror tales, here they finally get to stand in the forefront instead of getting buried within creepy dripping and moldy flesh.