Product Description

The Crimson Labyrinth is a thriller about twelve strangers who find themselves as actors in a preverse snuff film from which only one is permitted to emerge alive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #269775 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-25
• Released on: 2006-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Yusuke Kishi was born in 1959 in Osaka. He graduated from Kyoto University with a degree in Economics. After working for a life insurance company for several years, Kishi started his writing career as a freelancer. He has twice won the Japan Horror Association Award, and boasts bestselling status in Japan with multiple works adapted to the screen. The Crimson Labyrinth marks his American debut.

Customer Reviews

Loved it!
I too have read Battle Royale, and several other Japanese books that were translated into English - Parasite Eve, Ring, and Dark Waters. Of all of these, I feel that The Crimson Labyrinth was the best. It kept my attention completely, I read it quickly over a few hours and could not put it down. I did enjoy Battle Royale a lot too. Another reviewer wrote that it seemed like a rip-off of BR, but I don't agree at all. Of course the themes are very similar, but I think the writing is actually much better in Labyrinth and the mystery throughout the book of what's behind the game is what really gives this the punch. The motivation for the game to me was far more realitic than that of the one in BR.

Anyway, this is a fun, creepy, quick read. I will definitely read anything else translated into English by this author.

Battle Royale: the Reality TV version.
Yusuke Kishi, The Crimson Labyrinth (Vertical, 1999)

What do you get when you cross "The Most Dangerous Game" and Battle Royale? You get The Crimson Labyrinth, Yusuke Kishi's first novel translated into English. While it's a bit over the top at times, it's well-written and readable.

The plot: a man with amnesia wakes up in a gully. Next to him is food, water, and a handheld game machine. Confused, he starts wandering until he meets up with another person, who is similarly suffering from amnesia and carrying the same provisions. Eventually, the two of them find others, and when all are gathered, they discover they're all trapped in some sort of reality TV-style game from which only some-- or one-- can emerge. They break into teams and, given hints by their game machines, begin playing cat-and-mouse with the other teams.

It's genre writing in the sense that if you like this sort of thing, you're going to like this novel, but I think-- like both "The Most Dangerous Game" and Battle Royale (the book, not the aggressively mediocre film produced from it)-- The Crimson Labyrinth transcends simple genre writing in that Kishi writes strong, believable characters who have three dimensions, and does so without ever letting up on the action. He gives us an excellent, if a tad unbelievable, setting (though for all I know it really does exist) and then tosses these believable characters into it and lets them run wild. Good stuff, this. ****

Derivative but still worth looking at.
From just looking at the back cover of this book, it is clear that "The Crimson Labyrinth" is highly derivative, a fact which is confirmed by reading the first chapter. While reading this book I noticed ideas borrowed from Battle Royale Directors Cut, Saw - Unrated (Two-Disc Special Edition), Cube and Ravenous, and I'm certain there were other such "references" that I just happened to miss. However, the fact that this book is unoriginal does not mean that it is a bad book. I actually enjoyed reading this book a lot. I found myself really wanting to know what was going to happen to the main characters (an unemployed Japanese economist and an pornographic comic book artist who one day wake up in the middle of a stone labyrinth in the Australian desert) and keeping on reading after I had intended to stop. Unfortunately, the ending of this book is a major let down. The ending is very abrupt and felt to me as though the author really didn't know what to do, so just stop writing. Still, there are plenty of good book out there with bad endings (just look at most of Stephen King's novels), so I guess it's not too big a deal. If you enjoyed any of the movies that I mentioned above then you will probably enjoy this book.