Spiral (Suzuki novel)
Cover of the first American print edition by Vertical
|
|
| Author | Koji Suzuki |
|---|---|
| Original title | ''Spiral (らせん Rasen?) |
| Cover artist | Chip Kidd |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Genre | Horror |
|
Publication date
|
1995 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Preceded by | Ring (Ringu) |
| Followed by | Loop (Rupu) |
Spiral (らせん Rasen?) is a 1995 Japanese novel, a part of author Koji Suzuki's Ring Cycle series. It is the second in the Ring Trilogy, and a film based on the book, Rasen was released in 1998. The English translation of the book was published by Vertical Press in the United States and by Harper Collins in Britain.
The events in the story occur a day after the events of the first book. It introduces Ando Mitsuo, a coroner still struggling with his son's death, being assigned to do the autopsy of his old classmate, Ryūji Takayama. He and his colleague, Miyashita, find a tumor in Ryūji's heart, which is believed to be his cause of death. Puzzled as the tumor appears similar to smallpox (which was eradicated 30 years ago), Ando completes the autopsy and, upon finding newspaper poking through a suture, is reminded of Ryūji's cryptography hobby. Finding the newspaper numbers interesting, he decodes them and finds they spell "RING", perplexing Ando.
In search for the message's meaning, Ando soon meets Ryūji's assistant and lover, Mai Takano. Mentioning a videotape Ryūji watched before dying, Mai believes it is connected to his death through a curse. Learning of Kazuyuki Asakawa, Ryūji's friend and the protagonist of Ring, Ando considers speaking to him, only to learn Asakawa and his family were involved in a car accident. Finding Asakawa is the sole survivor and catatonic, Ando investigates relevant evidence and learns Asakawa's wife and child were dead well before the car crashed, and that a tape recorder and word processor were in the vehicle.
Trying to reach Mai, Ando finds her missing and investigates her seemingly abandoned condo; he finds what he believes to be a copy of the supposedly cursed videotape, albeit almost entirely recorded over, and believes an unknown entity is hiding somewhere in the condo. Learning Asakawa's tape deck and word processor went to his next of kin, Ando retrieves the word processor from his brother and copies the files. Finding a document about the videotape, Ando reads that the curse spreads through a tape and can only be stopped by copying and sharing it with someone else; despite disputing the files as pseudoscientific, Ando and Miyashita continue reading into the file, and discover that the Ring Virus started with the murder of psychic Sadako Yamamura. Additionally, Miyashita soon discovers a virus connects all the victims and comes in two forms: a ring shaped virus which kills the host, and a broken version of the same virus (similar to a sperm cell) which is dormant.
...
Wikipedia