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Remote Command
by
Isaka Kotaro
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| Title: | Remote Command |
| Author: | Isaka Kotaro |
| Genre: | Novel |
| Written: | 2007 (Eng. 2011) |
| Length: | 343 pages |
| Original in: | Japanese |
| Availability: | Remote Control - US |
| Remote Control - UK | |
| Remote Control - Canada | |
| Remote Command - India |
- Japanese title: ゴールデンスランバー
- Translated by Stephen Snyder
- Remote Control was made into a motion picture, Golden Slumber, in 2010, directed by Nakamura Yoshihiro
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Our Assessment:
B : far also many convenient coincidences and narrow escapes undermine the suspense (and destroy whatever plausibility)
See our review for fuller assessment.
| Source | Rating | Date | Reviewer |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Japan Times | A | xx/2/2011 | Steve Finbow |
| Publishers Weekly | A | 24/1/2011 | . |
From the Reviews:
- "If you want an all-action, well-written and intelligent novel to read in 2011, and then await no farther than this splendid conspiracy-theory thriller. Remote Command has the delirious historical thrust of Don DeLillo'southward Libra, the compulsive storytelling of Stephen King's Running Man, and the obsessive paranoia of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly. (...) This novel has doubles and double-crossings, shady underground-service men, dodgy cloak-and-dagger law-breaking figures, a determined and resourceful ex-girlfriend, backroom plastic surgeons and political manipulators." - Steve Finbow, The Japan Times
- "Isaka cuts perilously close to the bone of today's politics in this elegant, intricate, enormously satisfying parable of good and evil." - Publishers Weekly
Please notation that these ratings solely correspond the complete review 's biased estimation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and exercise non merits to accurately reverberate or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes called here are only those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review every bit a whole. Nosotros acknowledge (and remind and warn you lot) that they may, in fact, exist entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews past whatsoever other measure.
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The complete review 's Review:
Remote Control is a conspiracy novel, with Masaharu Aoyagi called (past some unknown greater forces) as the fall guy in the bump-off of Japanese Prime Minister Sadayoshi Kaneda. The Prime Government minister is blown upwards by a bomb delivered by a remote-controlled toy helicopter while driving in a parade in the metropolis of Sendai, and all the (constantly mounting) evidence points to Aoyagi, a sometime deliveryman who had already been in the spotlight in one case before when he had saved a famous actress from an intruder while on his delivery-rounds a few years earlier.
The novel begins with the assassination and the first few days of the investigation, before then jumping ahead to a brief section describing 'Twenty Years Later', which doesn't reveal exactly how things turned out just does prove that even two decades later there's still a lot fishy about the story. The bulk of the novel then describes 'The Incident', returning to the time later the bump-off equally Aoyagi tries to effigy out what he'southward been pulled into -- and how to get himself out of this situation.
Sendai is a place where everything is closely monitored, with 'Security Pods' (basically CCTV) installed all over town -- supposedly to "promote public safety", but as well with far more sinister government-control implications. These pods come to exist a large function of Aoyagi's problem, providing evidently clear bear witness of his involvement in the assassination -- "The photographic camera doesn't lie", subsequently all --, as well making it difficult to move effectually boondocks undetected.
Aoyagi's 24-hour interval already begins strangely, as he's accused by a adult female of groping her on a train -- something he would never practice. And there's that old friend who saves him from that state of affairs ..... Soon enough Aoyagi realizes that he'due south being set to be a fall guy, but can't understand why -- or how. And, as things progress, he finds himself facing a most overwhelming force. As someone says:
"Yep, only this enemy of yours -- I can't get a grip on him. You might likewise be fighting 'the government' or 'dominance' itself."Indeed -- and that'south what it certainly feels like, as he'south hunted downwardly by trigger-happy cops (unusual in Japan) who seem to accept eyes everywhere.
Aoyagi does his all-time to escape this situation:
What did they do in movies ? In that location were lots of cases of people being framed for crimes they didn't commit, sympathetic heroes running from the police force while trying to prove their innocence. He tried to recall how these other poor dupes had managed to make it to the Happy Ending. Catch the real culprit -- that was it. Continue 1 step alee of the police, discover the truth, betrayal the plot, prove his innocence. Then everybody could go home more than or less satisfied.Of course, forth the way there have to be lots of hardships -- but Aoyagi also has some people in his corner, from an onetime girlfriend convinced of his innocence to a variety of people willing to endeavour to help (when they're not being coerced past the police force or other sinister forces ...). There's even an unlikely (and way too good to be truthful) knight in shining armor, the person who was originally targeted by the 'security pods' when they were first installed, and who has quite a few tricks upward his sleeve, as well as some good contacts.
Remote Control speedily becomes entirely unbelievable in its web of connections. Sure, there'south a off-white amount of suspense, as Isaka makes certain to go on the reader guessing every bit to how, exactly, this situation will be resolved, only far too much of information technology gets to be downright dizzy (the plot somewhen requiring resentful plastic surgeons, imitation manhole covers, and much else that defies belief).
Shifting dorsum and along between several of the involved parties, and with Aoyagi in near-abiding danger, the narrative certainly doesn't flag, and is quite well presented. At that place's a pervasive nostalgia, too, that Isaka constantly weaves into the story, Aoyagi and the others looking back to old times, and with the constant echo of the Beatles refrain from 'Golden Slumbers' (which is too the Japanese championship of the novel), as Aoyagi learns the really, actually hard way that while: "Once there was a way to get back home", well ..... (And, male child, does he e'er have to carry that weight now .....) Merely ultimately the story is simply likewise incredible, an implausible moving-picture show-script plot with twists that are then unlikely that, in the finish, it all seems just too silly.
- K.A.Orthofer, 18 March 2011
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Links:
Remote Control :- Shinchosha publicity page
- Profile in The Japan Times
- ForeWord Reviews
- The Japan Times
- Publishers Weekly
- Three Percent
- IMDb page
- Bullet Train
- See Index of Mysteries and Thrillers
- See Index of Japanese literature
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About the Author:
Japanese author Isaka Kotaro (伊坂幸太郎) was born in 1971.
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Source: https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/japannew/isakak.htm
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