Eden: It's An Endless World!, Vol. 4
Because they're crammed with mow-'em-down, blow-'em-up action, it's phenomenally easy to whip through volumes 3 and 4 of Endo's postapocalyptic military sfmanga. The confrontation between the guerrilla heroes, who are guarding an ageless, physically and mentally augmented girl (in appearance), and the forces of the paramilitary, perhaps -business-controled Propator organization, which is openly contesting the UN for world domination, comes to the clinch in volume 3 and isn't fully resolved until the end of volume 4, if then. Both volumes contain substantial flashbacks, though the preponderance, concerned with the exceptionally lethal young Japanese guerrilla, Kenji, is in the latter. Some heroic players are lost, and 15-year-old Elijah, the saga's focal figure, draws his first blood. Endo manages drawn-out violence with balletic grace, so that it unfolds intelligibly no matter how brutal and gory it gets-which is extremely. Except for the stylishly sleek and handsome principal characters, this is an ugly story. Beautifully executed, though.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved