Eden: It's An Endless World!, Vol. 2 (v. 2) [Paperback]

Hiroki Endo (Author, Artist)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2006

Graphic, cyberpunk and philosophical, Eden is a place where endearing heroes face a constant struggle for survival and violent surprises wait around every corner! After a large portion of humanity is wiped out by a brutal, new virus, an organization known as the Propator seeks to wrest control of the world from the United Nations. Elijah, a young survivor with immunity to the virus, crosses paths with a group of supposed freedom fighters. His companion, an artificially intelligent combat robot named Cherubim, is appropriated and reprogrammed, and Elijah is pulled into a world of relentless peril and intrigue! Cybernetic enhancements! Extreme violence! This breathtaking ride is just getting started!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

There is so much violent, grisly action in part 2 of Endo's postapocalyptic manga that if it didn't look pretty spectacular, you'd grow very impatient with its lack of plot development. Elijah, 15-year-old son of Enoah and Hannah, teen protagonists of volume 1's first part, is still in the hands of apparent mercenaries who have adapted his AI protector, Cherubim, to fight for them (a flashback shows why Elijah and Cherubim were wandering about on their own). The little band moves west toward the Peruvian Andes, scheming to entrap vastly larger forces of Propator, the paramilitary organization contesting the UN for world control in the wake of the devastating viral epidemic of more than a quarter-century ago. Like Elijah, who knows that his parents escaped Propator's clutches before he was born but that his grandfather was working with Propator before that, readers don't quite know whom to root for. Endo's artistic chops and the cliff-hanger ending here, however, should keep them as captivated with the saga as Elijah is within it. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (February 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593074549
• ISBN-13: 978-1593074548
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,197,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you have an open mind, take a trip to EDEN..., August 23, 2007

By 

Sean Beschoner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eden: It's An Endless World!, Vol. 2 (v. 2) (Paperback)

Eden is a really good series so far. Do yourself a favor and check it out. By vol. 2 here I was hooked. Smart storytelling and great action. Recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars TAKE NO PRISONERS, June 14, 2006

By 

Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Eden: It's An Endless World!, Vol. 2 (v. 2) (Paperback)

The first volume of Eden was a little ambiguous in terms of setting and the reasons why Elijah was in the middle of nowhere with the human-like security robot Cherubim. He was taken captive by a group of fighters led by Colonel Kahn who wanted to use his vehicle to get out of Propater controlled territory. As it turns out in this second volume, most of South America is a battleground between Propater and the United Nations and various assorted warlords, drug kingpins, and bandits. It's pretty much like the Wild West where the person with the most firepower usually wins an argument. When Colonel Kahn's group wipes out a bandit emplacement, they unwittingly pick up two new members, Kachua and Helena, two women who were going to be sex slaves for the competing armies on the frontlines. The problem is that Kahn and the others don't like loose ends or baggage, so they might end up dead anyway, unless Elijah can save them! And Propater soldiers are hot on their tail!

I think Eden is great. The art is perfectly rendered and beautiful, beyond anything Western comic book artists are doing. Hiroki Endo captures the complexity of human beings, especially in their out-loud thinking sililoquies on the state of the world one minute showing gentleness and caring and then the next slicing through an enemies neck with blood bursting all over the place. That's really what Eden is all about, terrible moments of battle and violence and then in the quiet afterwards, the battle between staying human or becoming a mindless killing machine. Cherubim doesn't have a choice at this point, he can simply be programmed to murder, but the humans have a choice! I look forward to great things from this series.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliance Once Again, May 28, 2006

By 

Antonio D. Paolucci "Collector of Entertainment" (Beaver Falls, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eden: It's An Endless World!, Vol. 2 (v. 2) (Paperback)

The first volume of Eden had me hooked almost instantly. I blasted through those pages wanting nothing more than to see more of what our world has become within the pages of Eden, and to meet the people who are forced to live in this world and survive. Though the story unfolded very slowly, it seemed almost literary with the way in which the plot elements were introduced, and no manga I've read has ever achieved this level of excellence (maybe Monster is close).

Volume two continues that, only this time it presents most of the major players, as well as the major conflict that the seeming hero, Elijah, must go through. Guerrilla warfare fills a lot of the pages, and Elijah, along with a prostitute named Helena and Kachua, a village girl, are forced to witness the brutal and bloody battles while finding a way to stay alive themselves. This volume also takes a glimpse into Elijah's past, thus linking him to the prologue in volume one, and answering a lot of the earlier questions that arose (like who Elijah is and where he came from, and why he has Cherubim, the fighting robot that was restored early in the prologue in volume one). Though it still doesn't get too deep into it, by the end of this volume it's very clear who the protagonists and antagonists are.

The similarities this series has to Akira are astonishing, and one of those similarities happens to be a commitment to story-telling excellence. Eden is for anyone who enjoys post-apocalyptic anime or manga, and I'd even go as far as to recommend this to older people who want to explore what manga has to offer.