Parasite Eve

August 1, 2005
Japanese pharmacologist Sena's biochemical horror novel, which won the first Japan Horror Novel Award, has lost something in translation. Notwithstanding the many academic footnotes, the author fails to suspend disbelief in the book's outlandish premise—that mitochondria, subcellular organelles, have secretly evolved and developed an intelligence superior to Homo sapiens
. Alternating between past and present, the story opens with a car crash that imperils the life of Kiyomi, the wife of scientist Toshiaki Nagashima; that "accident" sets in motion the mitochondria's elaborate scheme involving a parasitic kidney transplant to inherit the planet. The plot reaches almost farcical levels when the cell component manipulates organic matter to form podlike human simulacra, complete with fake genitalia. Readers expecting the thrills or suspense of Curt Siodmak's classic Donovan's Brain
or even Michael Crichton's Prey
will come away disappointed.

September 1, 2005
When Dr. Toshiaki loses his wife in a car accident, her kidney is transplanted into a young girl while her liver cells are given to the grieving doctor for study. Obsessed with keeping his wife alive, Toshiaki experiments on the cells only to find they possess a mitochondria strain that regenerates at an alarming rate. As the strain searches for a way to evolve, Mariko, the kidney transplant patient, suffers from nightmares and fits of depression. Fearful of the kidney being rejected, Mariko's doctors look into her strange behavior. As they close in on the cause, the strain, dubbed "Parasite Eve," gains enough power to take on a powerful shape and begins searching for a new host to give birth to an evolving supercreature. 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 "The Ring" and films like this year's "White Noise" will find "Parasite Eve" a chilling tale on a cellular level; recommended. -Ron Samul, New London, CT

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.