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It was Parasite Eve,
along with Koji Suzuki’s Ring
series, that began the J-Horror boom. A pageturner about the rebellion
of mitochondria, it became the Japan Horror Novel Award’s
first winner and the inspiration for a videogame that has sold
close to a million copies throughout the world. In Japan, the
film version of Parasite Eve was so popular that in one
study, when asked what color they thought mitochondria were, most
people responded, “green” (which is how they were
represented in the film, but obviously not how they actually look).
Eve is a parasitic mitochondria
reproducing itself at alarming speed. Her goal? To take over human
evolution. Two manifestations of Eve will work independently to
a wild, scientific and absurdly sexual end. The one Eve in a lab
is mutating into the form of a perfect woman, the other is growing
inside the transplanted kidney of an unhappy teenage girl, waiting
to be impregnated by her lab-sample counterpart. In her path are
doctors whose fascination with Eve may ultimately lead to her
victory.
Hideaki Sena holds a Ph.D. in
pharmacology and has given numerous lectures on the subject of
cell biology as well as the future of the sci-fi genre. He lives
in Japan.
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If
you're interested in Parasite Eve,
check out The Crimson
Labyrinth
“Parasite
Eve combines Michael Crichton’s scientific cutting-edge
plausibility with David Cronenberg’s abject flesh/sex horror.
Throw in Frankenstein and The Blob, synthesize,
and enjoy.”
—Fangoria
“Sena’s
work in pharmacology and microbiology lends this Japanese import
a sense of discovery and fear that resonates when new science
is not fully understood. SF and horror fans who liked Suzuki Koji’s
Ring…will find Parasite Eve a chilling tale on
a cellular level; recommended.”
—Library Journal
“(Parasite
Eve) scares you not with splatter scenes but by shaking your
common beliefs and compelling you to think about human existence.”
—Travel Tsushin Magazine
“A
speedy story rolling out, thrilling from cover to cover, each
sentence elaborated, flawless in every respect!”
—Books Magazine
“Even
Dean R. Koontz would be put to shame by the power of (Hideaki
Sena’s) style. It grabs you tightly and wraps you up into
the story from the first line.”
—Shukan Bunshun
“(Parasite
Eve) will appeal to general readers, and not just devotees
of science-fiction and horror.”
—SF Magazine (Japan)
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