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I understand I can change my preference through my account settings or unsubscribe directly from any marketing communications at any time. View all 14 comments. I read the first hundred pages of Battle Royale and fell asleep.
That night I dreamt that I was in The Program. I remember fleeing a pretty intense gunfight and thinking nonsensically: dammit, at least I'm getting good exercise.
I hardly thought about it until the next evening, when I began to read again and only finished as the sun rose. You cannot know gunfights or car chases until you've read Battle Royale. It's fantastical, it's pulpy, and it's brilliant. I wish it had been written with more I read the first hundred pages of Battle Royale and fell asleep.
I wish it had been written with more realism, but you can't have everything. Perhaps Koushun Takami will write another, some day. View all 11 comments. Oct 19, Em Lost In Books rated it really liked it Shelves: 4-star , translations , , stand-alone-read , This was "bloody" fantastic! View 2 comments. Jun 17, Becky rated it did not like it Shelves: , bad-shit-and-atrocities , disappointing , dystopias , made-my-eyes-bleed , politicalish , reviewed.
For the last, oh, pages of this book or so, I kept thinking about what I'd say in my review. I never know how I'll start a review, but this time I kept thinking of possible opening lines. But, like Lays potato chips, I couldn't stop at just one, so here are my top 3, in no particular order: 1. I'll never read the phrase "That's right" the same way again. I see dead p For the last, oh, pages of this book or so, I kept thinking about what I'd say in my review.
I see dead people. And so, at a library sale last year, I acquired a copy. Grim and gritty and violent? Only, UGH. In case you couldn't guess from the eleventy-million ranty-sarcastic status updates, I didn't enjoy this book. It was not awesome. It was awful. It actually started out intriguing enough, but when I hit the first instance of the Dramatic Ellipses Pause, it caught me off guard, like stepping off a curb that's about 3 inches higher than you expected, and it made me furrow my brow and think, "That was awkward.
I should have seen it coming, and now there's annoying shit in my face. I should have known that things were only going to go downhill from there, writing wise. Not only because the Dramatic Ellipses Pause was such a flow killer, but because it heralded all sorts of Now I know that this is a translation, and not a very good one, by all accounts.
And I know that Japanese culture is different from my own one of the big themes in the book, actually , and that their way of speaking and thinking and behaving is different from the way I would do it.
I have no problem with that. I would like to state for the record that I never expected this book to read as though it was written by an American. But I'm not going to just give all of the bad writing in this book a pass because it's poorly translated from Japanese. Repetition is repetition in any language. There are only so many times I can take being told the same things, over and over and over again, sometimes several times a page, before I start losing my shit.
We're told repeatedly how smart certain characters are, how well-regarded they are by their peers, or how poorly thought of they are, or how this one is a star shortstop, or that one is a star basketball freethrower guy, or the other one is a star violinist, or another one is a star evil bitch with an angelic smile. Oh, and in between this narration, and whatever action happens to be going on, we also have the character's inner-dialogue going on. I say dialogue, not monologue, because almost every time, it's seriously like reading a two-sided conversation they're having with themselves, where they repeat many of the same things AGAIN, because, you know, they've got to convince themselves of stuff or something.
Stupid, annoying characters are stupid, annoying characters in any language. I get it. They are kids, and they are thrown into this horrifying situation, of course it's natural to be shocked. How the characters react is one of the reasons that people read books like this. But at some point, the characters have to get over that shit. There's a line from The Shawshank Redemption that says it best: "It comes down to a simple choice, get busy living or get busy dying. Again and again and again, we're told how this character or that character or somesuch other character just couldn't believe that their class was chosen, that their class was here, that they were really playing, that they were up for it and killing each other.
Again and again. Every perspective change we have to go through the same 7-stage process. Every conversation covers the same ground. Does it make me a terrible person that I just wanted them to start killing each other already?? Just to stop the horrible repetition. And they're supposed to be smart, but they have NO common sense or sense of self-preservation. These kids grew up in this society where even misinterpreted comments about the government could get you thrown into a re-education camp, or worse, killed, and they think that a government sponsored, run, and meticulously tracked program is just going to stop listening to the some people who now have the most reason to turn against them?
And not only should these kids just straight up assume their every movement and sound is being recorded, but you'd THINK they'd be wary of their own classmates overhearing them. Apparently not. Then there's the ridiculous romance aspects of the story. Because 15 year olds are such noble romantic creatures that form lasting, twu-wuv bonds. And, yet again, how many times do we need to see the "Do you have a crush on someone?
It was awkward the first time, and the second time, and the every-fucking-time. It felt like a grown man was trying to write teenagers talking about their crushes. That's right It was that. Seriously, I think that the author really has no idea what a crush is, and thinks that it's either True Love, Soulmate style, or the most dedicated and creepy stalker behavior ever. I'm not sure which, but both were depicted in this book, so maybe that's my answer.
It's sure as hell not depicted in any way that's realistic. I'll write your initials and my initials together in a heart shape inside a notebook that I'll never show to another soul ever, and I'll fantasize about what it would be like to go out with you.
But I'm not going to die for you, or with you, and if it looks like there's a chance you'll be attracting danger, I'm abandoning you because I don't really fucking know you, and this ain't Romeo and Juliet. You're just kinda cute. There are lots of kinda cute people out there. But sorry I didn't tell you. Or "I don't know what to say, but, right now the words coming out of my mouth are going to be something appropriate to say in this situation, which is the very thing I said I didn't know how to say when I started this sentence.
I just remembered the thing that I had forgotten until right now, which is that this kind of sentence occurred way too fucking often in this book. I've come to a conclusion. I just remembered to say the thing I just thought of to say.
That's right, I just thought of a question. Can I ask you a question? That's right, the question would be right here. That's right, now I'm going to say more things that I just remembered or decided to say. I think it's probably a good thing that I don't have this book in e-book format, because I'd be so tempted to search key words and phrases just to see how many times they're actually used. I'm that annoyed with this book. I want stats and numbers to quantify my suffering.
I have no idea why this book is so highly regarded, except that it's reached cult classic status, and therefore it MUST be amazing. Oh, dang it. I just broke my sarcasm key. At the end, it's put out there that having this kind of Program is useful for controlling the populace. They the people don't know the rules and the details, they just know of the Program and see it through the lens that the government wants them to. They see it as a competition, that people are ruthless and willing to kill, or at least use others to protect themselves, and that it's everyone for themselves.
This, combined with the fear tactics that the government uses hauling people away to re-education camps or just outright killing them makes the probability of someone gathering people together to fight against the government unlikely - because nobody can really trust that the others aren't going to betray them.
It's actually effective, and had this been less painful to read, I'd probably have loved it. But the writing got in the way of the message, I think. View all 55 comments. Apr 12, Michelle rated it really liked it. After reading the supposed original, I could say that the plot for both books are pretty similar but Koushun Takami's novel is of an entirely different league -- it's quite incomparable.
It's a book of mass-slaughter: more than forty deaths and practical There's this rumor that Suzanne Collins ripped off the idea for "The Hunger Games" from "Battle Royale". It's a book of mass-slaughter: more than forty deaths and practically each one is described, and a litany of brutality and betrayal that even in its many variations, can be a bit of overkill.
Still, for such a long book littered with so many bodies, Takami manages to keep things moving, and hold my interest. There's constant tension, and a few good surprises. There are too many characters to really get much of a sense of many of them, but the strongest point of the novel describes how some characters descend into madness, while others keep their wits.
This psychological element is like a twisted reflection of high school life which can often seem this brutal sans the bloody consequences.
In extreme situations, true colours are shown, and they're often surprising ones. The narrative is quite riveting, and there are a lot of moments when I want to throw up and cry, and jump up and down at the same time. I have a few qualms though, including the fact that the program is so enormous with fifty classes a year. That's roughly students killed, quite a huge casualty for even a large nation to take.
The purpose of the program is never really made clear either. It's also important to note that the translation isn't as great as it should have been. In the end, I could still say that "Battle Royale" is a perfectly fine thriller, with a fun premise and a well drawn-out story.
If you plan to read it, I suggest that you pick up the graphic novels too, they are visually stunning and just as riveting. View all 7 comments. Apr 25, F rated it it was amazing Shelves: japan , seen-movie , This is more like a 4.
I loved this book so much. Such an original twisted story. I got a little confused over all the japanese names but luckily once they started to die off I got to grips with who a lot of them were. I love books that have some short chapters and some long chapters. The student count at the end of each chapter. Loved shogo. Even though I seen the movie years ago i had forgot what happened.
View all 6 comments. Jun 18, Will M. Around 15 year old children forced to become violent and merciless killers. Only one can survive this brutal bloodbath. It's all about strategy and being emotionless. Who will prevail? The premise was not new to me, but the execution was spectacular. Not only did the author managed to impress me with the plot, but he also managed to make me feel sympathy toward some of the characters. I'll be honest and say that it would be impossible to feel sympathy toward 42 children forced to kill each other.
I'll be honest and say that it would be impossible to feel sympathy toward all 42 of them, but I still managed to feel a sense of connection toward a few of them. The most impressive attribute of this novel would be the writing. It was vivid. Some would say too vivid, but for me, the more violent, the better. This novel promised a battle royale among teenagers, but what happened was not completely unbelievable.
If thrown in together with a bunch of your classmates and forced to kill each other, some people tend to lose their minds. The whole idea of it is not completely unlikely to happen, but odds are it wouldn't.
The children here were brutal to the point that they had no hearts. I'm not Japanese, but I still think that Japanese people don't exude the violent characteristics that the author portrayed. The defense though would be that this is a work of fiction. It can be as absurd as it can be.
There are some work of fiction that tend to go overboard regarding the absurdity, but for me this novel had the perfect amount.
It was believable, and honestly I'm a bit terrified because of it. The amount of violence clearly exceeded the normal level. I liked that. I wanted the blood bath and I got it. The Hunger Games in comparison was a lot more mellow and teenager friendly, but this one was gut wrenching awesome. If you cannot stomach even a little amount of violence, then stay away from this novel. The fucking plot twist in the end.
I didn't see it. Wait, let me correct myself, the plot twists. Multiple plot twists simultaneously showed up and it was a mind fuck experience.
The author decided to wait for the last few chapters to make me feel like shit for not expecting the ending. I really didn't expect that to happen at all. He slowly gave the ending away near the end though, so I actually did see some things happening, but only when he started to hint them coming. All throughout the novel I was fixating that view spoiler [ Shuya was going to win. He was the Katniss Everdeen of the novel. The author managed to shock me that Kawada betrayed them. Then he shocked me again after the plot twist that it was all Kawada's plan and Shuya and Noriko were still alive.
They lived and Kawada died. Kawada who was the one who hacked the neck collars before the whole thing even started. His death was unjust, but I'm glad Shuya and Noriko lived. Now they're outlaws. I don't know why I didn't see this coming. Either I'm losing my sense of intuition or the author is just really good. Despite all the great things mentioned, I still had some problems with the novel. The main thing would be that there were too many characters to begin with.
At first I thought it wouldn't be a problem, but along the way some characters weren't even that interesting. I'm aware of them being minor characters, but I still wanted at least an in depth explanation of who they were. Some characters were forced to be explained and they ended up pretentious and annoying. The good side though was that the good characters had more attention and were developed perfectly. Another problem would be the safe zones. They weren't evident enough to be interesting.
They were only mentioned at least 5 times if I remember correctly, so the students didn't seem like they were really being forced to be near each other. And the last would be the lack of survival strategies present. There were some, but not interesting enough. I wanted to see more ways of them looking for food, building shelters, and more.
Despite not being centralized as a survival book, it should still be heavily implied that the students would be looking for ways to survive, while trying to kill each other or not at the same time. The Hunger games was more similar to this, but still different in its own way. The Long Walk had a different take on it, despite some similarities.
Everyone should be aware though that there's really no such thing as a new idea when it comes to writing. Somewhere in the world someone has probably written about your idea already. The only thing one can hope for would be the terrific execution. Battle Royale and The Long Walk both were executed perfectly.
I'm not going to chose which one I liked better because I believe I liked them both perfectly the same. I honestly can't say the same for THG, but that was still good nonetheless. Terrific writing, interesting characters, and a perfect ending. I will most probably read this again in the future. Highly recommended. View all 20 comments. Mar 15, Brandy rated it really liked it Shelves: library , dystopian-post-apocalyptic , , boy-books , adult.
It's the story of 40 teens who are instructed to kill each other until only one remains, and are each given a bag containing food, water, and a weapon--some as great as machine guns, others as worthless as forks.
Early on some alliances are made, then broken; people are betrayed and kil I picked this up based on the fervor over "OMG The Hunger Games so totally ripped this off. Early on some alliances are made, then broken; people are betrayed and killed. By the end, I don't think it's the same story at all. It's a similar story, definitely, but BR's strength is that most of the 40 characters manage to be sympathetic characters. We get backstory on just about all of them, find out who they were before they were thrown int this crazy game, what motivates them to do certain things, and we even see their individual battles against each other.
There are a couple of factions we return to multiple times, the ones who are clearly our heroes, but with only one or two exceptions we don't have villains. Hunger Games , everyone who wasn't from District 12 was a villain, someone to be avoided and distrusted, and that was easy because we didn't know who those other characters were. In Battle Royale , we know all these people--they're classmates, some dating back to elementary school. There are histories here, friendships and crushes and romantic entanglements, and that makes the killing that much more horrible.
Oh, and for those who thought Hunger Games was a violent book? Whooooooooo boy. This was absolutely horrifying at times. The gunfights were bad enough, but the graphic descriptions of hand-to-hand combat were particularly brutal. It's not the violence that's gratuitous, exactly, but the lengthy descriptions of it, and even that goes a long way toward world-building and accurately conveying the horror of the situation. A bit on the writing: This is not Shakespeare. There's a lot of "basically" and "of course" and "in other words," and there's a LOT of use of the passive voice.
The collar also emits a tracking signal, allowing the organisers and the student given the tracking device Hiroki Sugimura to monitor student positions. Each Battle Royale student is issued with a map divided into a coded grid.
Danger Zones are randomly chosen grid-sectors which are declared off-limits to students. If a student enters a Danger Zone, or fails to leave in time, their collar will explode, killing the student. Once an area becomes a Danger Zone, it remains for the rest of the game.
Consequently, the number of Danger Zones increases as the game progresses, forcing students to move around in an ever shrinking battlefield. Takami describes the characters in the novel version as possibly being "kind of all alike," being "all the same" despite differing appearances and hobbies, and being static characters.
Takami used the descriptions in contrast to the manga version, co-written by himself and Masayuki Taguchi , which he believes has a more diverse and developing cast. This site distributed a game and it has been translated into both Simplified and Traditional Chinese by the community. The English-language official Battle Royale site stated that it had a Flash mini-game in development. There have been a number of adaptations into other media which themselves have spun off sequels.
These include:. Battle Royale Explore. Battle Royale. Recent blog posts Forum. Related Articles. Resources and Downloads. Get a FREE ebook by joining our mailing list today! By clicking 'Sign me up' I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the privacy policy and terms of use.
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