Sakyo Komatsu (1931–2011)

Disaster film in book form. I like how it unfolded but the portrayal of women and sex was very off-putting. On the plus side of the sexism, there were only about three women briefly in the book so the weirdness was rather limited. Yay? Would have gotten more out of the book if I knew more about the geography of Japan - my knowledge is mostly limited to the northern parts. Also, I feel knowledge of kimono patterns and symbolism would have helped. The very Japanese reaction to the disaster did show more make this an interesting read but the end (with the dragon metaphor, weird nudity request, etc) was a bit eye-rolling to me and dropped this half a star. Reminded me a lot of The Meg, particularly at the beginning, which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement. show less

Story: 6 / 10
Characters: 5
Setting: 10
Prose: 4

Consider skipping this "quintessential" Japanese science-fiction novel. I came across it on a Top 10 Japanese SF list, which also included 2 other books by Komatsu. However, neither the prose nor the story structure are very strong. Only the story concept is interesting. But what good is a concept without the execution?

Certainly don't read this book before going to Japan for the first time...

I am left rather speechless. No that's not quite right, I just can't find the right words to say. This was a challenging book to read. At one point I referred to it as very technical and germy. Logical. That's the word. This book was logical. Like how Vulcans are logical.( yes I know, stop laughing) So logical in fact that there is no doubt that this "story" could play out verbatim in real life. I liked the Japanese point of view. I also liked the....vignettes of other parts of the world. I show more am left a bit troubled by the ending, but its a book that's well worth the time to read. Although I don 't recommend reading it during an Ebola outbreak. Suddenly the hypothetical becomes very real and you will have a mild panic attack. show less

Japan Sinks is sort of the literary equivalent of the big disaster movie, like The Day After Tomorrow, or 2012. The cause of the catastrophe is a force of nature, and the story focuses primarily on how humanity responds to the destruction, in this case the literal sinking of Japan. In particular, the focus is somewhat on how Japan would respond to a catastrophe like this one, and also how the international community would respond, considering Japan's cultural xenophobia and how spectacularly show more Japan had managed to PO large portions of the international community in the past.

My complaint with the book is due to its length, it never really spends enough time on any of those points - the personal tragedies, the societal response, or the diplomatic response. show less