The ultimate Nature Trek

[sigma7]

I read the first six volumes of "Battle Royale" in one sitting. I absolutely plowed through them after the first, mainly because I thought there only were six. Imagine my surprise when the story didn't end. I was a little worse for wear afterward -- while I knew what it was about, I wasn't at all prepared for it to be executed (ahem) so well. A class of 42 Japanese students get recruited (okay, kidnapped) for "Battle Royale," the newest reality-show phenomenon where the students are fitted with exploding collars and set loose on an island teeming with caches of various weaponry. The object of the game is to be the last survivor -- by killing all the others. Simple enough. The best part of this is the reactions by the students -- many refuse to play the game this way, others decide they have no choice, a few are frighteningly well-suited to it. The books do a good job of putting the lives of the students into perspective -- liberal use of flashbacks gives a sense of importance and identity to the most tangential of characters. It's very violent, of course, not purely in terms of killing and gunplay but also emotionally. It's harrowing, but it's a very good read.

And now I understand there's a movie. (Okay, I'm a little late to this party. Forgive me.) Now it's just a matter of tracking down the English version and bending my mind out of shape again.