ES: Eternal Sabbath 2
Posted: April 30, 2011 Filed under: ES: Eternal Sabbath Leave a comment »Fuyumi Soryo – Del Rey – 2006 – 8 volumes
Wow. I was a little worried that all the good feelings I had for volume one of this series were based on the excellent short story introduction. I tend not to like stories about psychic powers and psychics running amok, so I suspected that when the plot got underway, I would be less interested in everybody hunting Isaac down.
I was wrong, and that’s because Fuyumi Soryo is really great at writing interesting characters. Isaac, Shuro, and Mine are all fascinating, and Soryo leaves enough to the reader’s imagination that seeing what makes them tick and how they react to certain situations never gets old. Shuro and Isaac in particular are wild cards, since they don’t share the same moral values as the rest of society. Isaac is “evil,” and a killer, but a little girl helps Mine see what he’s doing in a different light. And Shuro is supposed to be a good guy, but he doesn’t seem fully aware of what “good” and “bad” is, and why he should help Mine.
I also like that there’s a relationship that’s beginning to develop between Shuro and Mine. Between the two, Mine is the more obtuse one, and I’m curious to see how Shuro will handle the delicate situation.
There’s also plenty of action in this book, which is fitting for a story about psychics running amok. We get detailed death accounts for a couple of Isaac’s victims, including an elementary school student and a teacher. After Mine and one of the former researchers that worked with Isaac track him down and corner him, there’s a rather intense shootout where Isaac turns the police on Mine and the researcher, making them think that they are child murderers. Where I would normally coast through action scenes like this, Soryo is, again, quite skilled at pacing it and putting just enough of her characters at stake to make things interesting. Neither of the protagonists can really fight in a situation like that anyway, so it’s all about the reactions and quick escape.
I’m loving ES so far. I’m actually writing this review simply so that I can finally pick up volume 3 and read it. It’s great stuff.
