Rating - 3: worth reading once (borrow it from a library)
This is the 2009 translation, not the original. I am told (though I have never verified) that the first translation was poor and the manga translation was worse. I know enough Japanese to suspect what some phrases were originally, and knowing a bit of Japanese culture provides context, useful in getting the classroom scene or the lovers' suicide.
In a recurring government program, a class of 42 15-year-olds is taken to an island, armed at random, and told to kill each other until there is a sole survivor. Could you kill your best friend?
It starts very strongly, setting up and subverting expectations from the beginning. You should suspect this is an Anyone Can Die story because, by the premise, almost everyone should die. The first death remains surprising. The second is surprising in a different way. The third in another. The fourth less so. It is perhaps more surprising that deaths can be surprising in a book whose premise is "one survivor." Some of the tricks and set-ups are obvious, but the book subverts expectations enough to let it play something perfectly straight and still have it usually work.
The book is at its best when it approaches its concept unflinchingly. Senseless violence, bloody murder, panic and mental breakdown, pointless death that trades youthful potential for oblivion: it is the horror of war on a very small, very personal level. Death comes instantly, lingeringly, surprisingly, and messily. Battle Royale does well with single-shot kills from out of the blue and with sustained fights that tear people up.
It succeeds because it does not treat its subject matter respectfully. It is not something respectable. It should be painful and pointless. Nobility and cravenness both lead to sudden eternal oblivion. While scenes and characters can be heart-warming, there is nothing romantic going on.
The book is at its worst when it feels like an action movie. This is not where the author (translator?) excels, and it breaks with the feel of the surrounding chapters. A tense stand-off between people who cannot trust each other is good; an out-of-control, chaotic fight between panicked parties is good; a big firefight with people surviving explosions and automatic gunfire defuses the horror of the situation, even if it is intended to show off the hero or the villain. The few pages I saw from the manga turned a scene from Stephen King to shounen action, with characters entering the frame by leaping out of the sky. No.
Characters are generally amazingly competent or have a life expectancy of two chapters. Being introduced is a good way to get killed. Having a romantic interest is an even faster way to get killed. If you can survive two chapters, you are probably ridiculously great for a 15-year-old, with training in firearms, martial arts, general athletics and acrobatics, medicine, stunt driving, computers, music, psychology, philosophy, and/or political science (pick 5 per character). You may also be attractive to everyone of the opposite sex (possibly both) and/or have miraculous amounts of ammunition. This gets a bit extreme with a couple of characters.
As a problematic example, I thought of two characters as teleporting scavengers because of their uncanny ability to appear within a minute of any fight to finish off the wounded. The sound of gunshots carries, but the villains are always right there, ready to pounce. Meanwhile, when it is plot-convenient, it takes over an hour to find someone actively signaling his location.
I enjoy books that show mental breakdowns well. As you can imagine, this is a stressful situation, especially once you toss in a couple nights of sleep deprivation. People panic, make bad decisions, and in a couple of cases go delusionally insane. Irrationality, like nobility and cravenness, will get you killed, although it can take others with you in interesting ways.
It is an insane situation. It is horror with nothing supernatural or sci fi, just being thrust into a situation where paranoia, betrayal, and death are the norm. Everyone you know has just been tasked with killing you (and each other) for their own survival. Go!
Amazon link
I am told that the movie
tones down most of the Marty Stu-ness and boils off the political speeches, while embracing the graphic trauma. I look forward to seeing it sometime.
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