Ryu Mitsuse (1928–1999)

This is a difficult one to rate. I feel like some of it was a little over my head. I'm not sure if that was a problem with translation or my thick skull. Probably the latter, since I found the prose to be quite good. The translator actually deserves a great amount of praise for doing such a nice job.

The book is very metaphysical. It covers a lot of big questions like "what are the boundaries of time and space?", "what lies beyond the boundaries of our universe?", "why does everything decay?" But the book doesn't give you an omnipotent view of what's happening. I felt as confused about the events as the characters in it. Even the end left me feeling a little confused about what I just read. Ultimately, I believe the book is about the struggle between life and entropy.

However, don't let my confusion or description of its themes make you think this is some slow-moving and boring philosophy book disguised as a sci-fi novel. There is plenty of action in this book, and it's of a very wild nature. There is a rather long chase in which Jesus of Nazareth is using a maser (that's right a maser, not a laser) to hunt Siddhartha (aka Buddha) who retaliates with mini-nuclear missiles (he has been "reincarnated" as a cyborg). There's something you don't read every day!

Overall, the book is a good, quick read, that will leave you thinking about big questions.… (més)