Customer Reviews

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence - After the Long Goodbye

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I first saw this book I have to admit, I laughed. Being a translation of a book based on an Anime film that was based on a Manga, this is going to be good I thought with a heavy dose of irony. I bought this book more to support the idea of bringing more books over from Japan than any expectations of finding a good book.

So, was I surprised when I found that his book was more than just readable, but also enjoyable. Yes. When I found out about the author's reputation in his homeland, my surprise was lessened, but let me say that the translators brought this book over beautifully (not something that is easy to do if you regularly read translations). There were a few typos, which were the fault of the editors, not the translation. The only translation issues I had were cultural, not grammatical (there are some phrases that make sense in Japan that simply will baffle Americans).

So, should you buy this book. I have nothing but good things to say about this book, but I know I am not everyone. If you are a Sci-Fi fan (even in passing), YES. If you like a good mystery, you will find a story to enjoy, but the investigation elements are not the focus of the story, so you will probably be as frustrated with the book as you will enjoy it. For everyone else, you have to look into yourself. If you are looking for something new, this is it, but if you want to read without thinking about what you are reading, this is not it.

I'm a Ghost In The Shell fan. I enjoyed the films and LOVE the SAC series.

I'm a science fiction fan. William Gibson is easily one of my top 3 authors, I really enjoyed Stephenson's "Snowcrash", and read and enjoyed "cyberpunk" voraciously until it became a rather tired genre.

So how I missed this wonderful novel until now, I'll never know! "After the Long Goodbye" is a very worthy addition to the GitS universe, and by the nature of its setting, has a cyberpunk feel to it, but it's so much more mature and thoughtful than much of that genre.

It wrestles some big questions, and even poses some interesting answers. It's written in the 1st person from Batou's POV, which surprised the heck out of me in the first two pages, but Yamada has done a wonderful job of putting the reader in the big guy's head without betraying what we've seen on the big and small screens. It's also surprisingly free of the techno-pron I'd expected. I expected almost excruciating detail about weapons, cyborgs and so on but, as Batou himself says, he's "no otaku". There's easily as much philosophy and technology in this novel, as befitting the GitS universe.

Strangely, after the first few pages, I sort of gave up on it being a "GitS novel". Little reference to Section 9, a few token appearances of Togusa, no Aramaki, and of course no Motoko... it does not seem like an unaired episode of GitS. However, by the end of the novel, all of the threads come together and you realize that, yes, it's very much a GitS story, one bigger than the television screen, but perhaps too quiet for the big screen. If you read it, perhaps you'll know what I'm trying to say.

By the way, it's a quick read, only 180+ pages. Also, the afterward "interview" with Yamada and "Innocence" director Mamoru Oshii is a treat, and offers some fascinating insights into their approaches to this universe, and the "Innocence" film itself.

Highly recommended, and required for GitS fans.

This book is all about Batou - and the many questions he has. Does he have a soul? Why did Gabriel go? Fighting tanks, the yakuza, fast food, racing hounds, homeless guys and the question of where love comes from.
This is set before the second Ghost In The Shell movie, Innocence, and also has a bonus discussion between the director, Mamoru Oshii, and the author, Masaki Yamada.
There's gun fights, advanced science, philosophy and surreal scenes of the 21st Century.

I picked up After the Long Goodbye during a quick stop at Borders Bookstore for something to read on a long road trip later that day. While browsing around, I just happened to notice the book cover with Batou and his Basset Hound. I was very intrigued, since I had heard nothing about a novel coming out for Ghost in the Shell.

At first, I was afraid that it would read very poorly, either due to a bad translation or because of some defect in original source material (since it is a tie-in to the movie). However, I was completely wrong on both counts. This novel is very sophisticated in its language and reads extremely well. Like some other reviewers, I hope that people won't disregard this title just because it's based off of an anime/manga series. I normally take a very long time to get through any novel, but this was a hard book to put down. I definitely recommend it to anyone that is either a fan of the series or sci-fi/cyberpunk in general. The ways in which most things are written here, from the characters to the action and intrigue, were definitely handled with care. Kudos to the translators and the original author.

Yeah, it's a tie-in. Get over it.

What we have here is a well-written and thoughtful take on Philip K. Dick territory in a William Gibson world. What does it mean to be human, to love, to feel empathy? As more and more of your body and even your brain are replaced by machinery, how much of your humanness remains?

It may help to have some familiarity with the two Ghost in the Shell films, but it probably isn't necessary. The novel does a fine job of setting the scene, describing the characters, and explaining the future tech and philosophical questions that drive the movies. There's action, of course, suspense, intrigue, science fictional ideas explored, but at its heart the book is character-driven, following a cyborg who doesn't dream of electric sheep because he almost never dreams at all.

I expected this to be a quick, fun cyberpunk read in an interesting SF world. It's a lot more than that, and it shouldn't slip past the SF-reading world unnoticed.

Hmmmm... well, no one can call this book unoriginal. While I've been a Ghost in the Shell fan for a little while now, I have to say the prospect of reading a book about a cyborg looking for his dog made me laugh. I think we'd be hard pressed to find a story like this marketed on the mainstream in the States. I suppose the closest we've come to such a book is that now best-seller about the Autistic boy who tries to find out who murders his dog.

Ah, but I digress.

Anyway, it's really an interesting book. Reads almost like someone's personal diary as you go inside Batou's head and "see" firsthand how he wrestles with his own convoluted thoughts as he tries to make sense of his own feelings for his dog. In fact, I'd say that's probably the downside of the book is that single thoughts and descriptions spiral on for a little too long. I found myself skipping a few paragraphs to keep what was otherwise an entertaining story moving forward.

It also gets corny at times. This book hits you over the head with this whole "Innocence" Idea. It's a great suggestive title that works best when left to our imagination. I mean, there's a pretty forced sequence when a Animal Psychic reassures Batou of his character by calling out to him, "You're innocent enough." It came off a as kind of shoe-horned romanticism and corny. Who the heck talks like that? Cyborg's I guess.

At the end, there's a joint interview with the author and Oshii, in which both admit that they don't believe in the existence of a soul. It kind of shows too in the story, as the soul-less author tries to reach a soulful conclusion for Batou. Though I appreciated the optimistic philosophy about love and the soul, it's sort of dampened by the fact the author doesn't believe any of it.

But what the hell, it's intended to supplement Ghost in the Shell 2 and does a great job of adding that much more dimension to Batou's character when you go back and watch the movie. It's fun to pick up "Innocence" the film and start off with the understanding that Batou, when showing up for the gyroid investigation, just got finished looking for his dog. Also, the book makes Batou a much more vulnerable character than in the movie and I think that was a good thing. A sensitive cyborg has a way of growing on a person.

This novel is an interesting addition to the GITS franchise. It is fast paced and not overly complicated. One also does not need to be a huge "Ghost in the Shell" fan to understand "Innocence:After a long Goodbye."
I highly recommend this book. I always do wonder what gets lost when I'm reading translated novels. But the American writer appears to have done a fine job.
"Innocence:After a long Goodbye" allows us to become intimate with the inner workings of the cyborized Batou as he searches for his beloved basset hound. We follow him through encounters with a Yakuza kingpin, an empathic autistic child and greyhounds chasing rabbits which only exist in their head, among others.
"Innocence:After a long Goodbye" explores some of the same themes as the rest of the GITS series: Namely, what it means to be human. Are we human if none of our body parts are?
But it also explores love. Can loving a person or animal with all one's plastic and metal heart create a soul where none existed previously? Can animals sense our souls? Do they love us back as much as we want to think?

Mr. Yamada, thank you for writing this book. No other book has brought tears to my eyes from just reading the prologue. While you considered this book to be a hard-boiled detective story, I found it to be the quest of a cyborg for his dog, and also the search to find out if a cyborg has a soul.

This is really an excellent little book. I wish that Masamune Shirow had writing chops like Yamada. The author is an excellent writer, and now I'm going to have to see if there are other books of his in translation.

The author explores some of the aspects of Shirow's postulated future, with e-brains, cybernetic enhancements, way too much connectivity and too little information. The only downside to the book is that it is short.

In another shocker I have read the book that should set the bar for all SF novels and it's the tie-in to the second Ghost in the Shell movie, GiTS 2: Innocence and is titled "After the Long Goodbye" and takes place right before the movie.

It's stunning.

It's William Gibson with a pinch of Jeff Noon and some solid medical and scientific fact. It does the absolute greatest take on cyborgs and robots and humans I have read in ages and it's a prose novel by Masaki Yamada, a writer who has won four Nihon SF Taisho awards, Japan's version of the Hugo.

It's a novel that I fear science fiction fandom will pass over because it's an anime tie-in which means the mainstream will stay away and the "serious" genre readers will sniff at it as a tie-in (and we all know how bad tie-ins are thanks to our received wisdom).

However, instead of writing a simple tie-in to the movie Masaki Yamada writes a powerfully human story of loss, love, and what it is to be a thinking machine.

A powerful piece of science fiction that deserves the recognition of the more mainstream SF audience, it is intelligent enough to earn a space next to William Gibson, Jeff Noon, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, and other pioneers of cyberpunk and the most humanistic elements of SF such as Harlan Ellison, Alfred Bester, Cordwainer Smith, and others.

Masaki Yamada shows us what can be done if one were to open themselves up to the possibilities that are contained everywhere. While technically "science fiction" he is writing about the state of humanity, about the state of the human soul, and about the future of that soul.

The Ghost in the Shell universe never ceases to surprise me. Though sometimes hampered with poor translation, the creators explore the concept of humanity with ever increasing depth in the various works associated with this universe. Yamada does not fail in his interpertation of this rich universe. He not only explores the questions about the soul of man-made humans, but those of Animals and other matter as well.
The book is a mix of Cyberpunk and Noir, reminicent of Hammet in its first person narrative. It is highly readable, and personal in its approach. Yamada's reputation is apparently well established in Japan, though he only has two works listed on the Amazon site. I hope more translations of his work appear soon as he is a masterful writer of the genre.