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Koji Suzuki's ring trilogy (might contain spoliers)

Mycernius

The Hairy Wookie
4 Feb 2005
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I have just finished the last book of this trilogy and feel a little let down.
(the trilogy contains the books Ring, Spiral and Loop) Anyone else read them and felt this way?
The reason is that Ring is really a straight forward horror book. It deals with the supernatural with modern technology. As horror books go it was a good read and entertaining enough. The came Spiral where is started going a little strange. The smallpox virus combining death of Sadako, who has paranormal abilities, to try and survive by making copies of Sadako via the media. Keeping those who are useful alive and killing those who aren't off. Okay, starting to get strage here and reading more like a hoorror/sci-fi genre now.
Finally Loop, which should really be called loopy. In effect it renders the first two books as redundent. It is now sci-fi not horror. In effect the last two books have taken place in a virtual world and by making on of the virtual people real, Takayama, they have managed to introduce the Ring virus into the real world in the form of a cancer virus. At this point I thought it was reaing more like a Michael Critchton rip-off.
I feel that it should have kept with the horror genre and not gone skipping off into sci-fi and essentailly losing direction. The last book is like a bad way of winding things up. I had a similar experience after reading Dean Koontz False Memory. The author has got really involved with the story, but ends up not finding a good way out goes for a cheap, and IMO, lame ending.
 
I think I'd be a bit "out of the loop" in this discussion if I shared my knowledge based on my knowledge of the Japanese film adaptations. I wasn't too worried about spoilers upon opening this thread, but now I see the books differ vastly...☝
 
Of the films I have only seen the Ringu and its two sequels. I have read that Rasen follows Spiral more closely. As far as I know there hasn't been an adaptation of Loop.
Rioneru said:
but now I see the books differ vastly
Happens a lot when adapting books for the screen, examples are; I, Robot, Last of the Mohicans, Various Draculas, War of the Worlds.
 
POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT IN THIS POST... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

I have only read Ring and Spiral and I am slowly working through Loop, but Spiral just seemed a bit silly to me. All of a sudden, Sadako is playing Sadako in the film? It just seemed a little silly to me. Is loop any better? Isn't it supposed to be about a computer virus? I don't understand how it links to Sadako... but I am only 3 chapters into it after all...
 
Loop seems to remove itself from the first two books and a ready explanation for Sadako comes up. As I said I felt a little let down by the way it all truned out. I'll let you finish Loop and then you can tell me if you felt it was better or, like me, disappointed.
 
Ok. I know I was disappointed with Spiral, just how it all turned out (although it is a little creepy that the girl who played Sadako has only ever played Sadako and has done nohing else with her career...) and how it was explained. Like you said, I'll finish Loop and then let you know.
 
There is an addition to the trilogy called Birthday. A collection of three stories that expand the books. One concerns Mai after the death of Ryuji (Coffin in the Sky), one that deals with Sadako 30 years before the Ring events (Lemon Heart), and the last one that is almost a follow on from Loop (Happy Birthday).
I suggest that anyone should read the trilogy before reading these. I lent this copy to someone and they were a little lost with it because they hadn't read the books. They help flesh out the trilogy and Happy birthday lets us know what happened in the real world after the end of Loop, rather than just letting it end in the Loop program.
 
I haven't read Birthday yet, but I have seen Ring-O which claims to be about Birthday. I am not sure if the storyline is the same (Sadako split into two... strange) but it was weird. I must say, I do prefer the direction the books heads in to the direction of the films. Although, after now reading Loop, I do agree with what you said. It's just... strange.
 
Lemon Heart does take some of the elements in Ring 0, but you are supposed to know that the Ring universe is the Loop program (it is assumed you have read the trilogy). Lemon heart doesn't split Sadako into two personalities, but she is in a theatre group. I'll let you read the rest.
 
I bought mine from Amazon. If not I'm sure your local bookshop could reserve a copy for you.
 
Ooh. Thanks. I shall get right onto ordering that!

Has Koji Suzuki written anything else or is it just these books?
 
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