The Ring Series by Koji Suzuki

 

About eight or nine months ago, I came upon a web page giving a list of the 65 Best Japanese Books of All Time. Of course, this list was right in my wheelhouse. I made a copy of the list and downloaded not only the 65 books listed, but anything I could find in English by all the authors named.

I had read a few of the books prior to coming upon the list and a few more since then. One of the books making the list is a Japanese, mystery/horror novel, Ring by Koji Suzuki which I read in March.

Suzuki's Ring series was originally written as a trilogy - Ring (1991), Spiral (1995), Loop (1998). In 1999, a short story collection, Birthday was added to the series. Finally, two additional novels were added - S (2012) and Tide (2013). Unfortunately, Tide has not been translated into English.

As of this writing, I've read the first two books in the series.

I'm not inclined to give spoilers, but I will give the first paragraph of a wikipedia description of Ring:
"This story is set in present-day Tokyo. When four teenagers mysteriously die one night at the same time, Kazuyuki Asakawa, a journalist and uncle to one of the teens, takes a particular interest in the case and investigates. This leads him to a holiday resort called Hakone Pacific Island, where the four teens stayed one week before their death. There he watches a videotape left behind in their room which contains a series of abstract and realistic images. At the end of the sequence of cryptic and disturbing images, a warning appears: 'The one who saw these images is destined to die in one week at this time. If you do not wish to die, do as will be said from now on. That is—' but the rest is erased by an advertisement. This has a strange mental effect on Kazuyuki, who immediately believes that the tape has now placed its mark on him".

I enjoyed the first novel so much that, of course, I'd go on to book two. After I had finished reading the first book, I thought I had a good idea how book two might progress. I was surprised from the very first page. The events were not going as I had thought. To me, book two (Spiral) is even better than the first. The remaining books in the series will be most definitely put into the queue.

On a side note - several films have been produced based on the novels, in Japanese, Korean and English. I'll look to see if the Japanese and Korean films are available online with English subtitles. I watched the first American film from 2002 and while interesting, it doesn't live up to the first book. The film strays too far for my tastes.

There will be more to follow once I've read the remaining books.