Innocence novel by Masaki Yamada

[miki-chan]

After the Long Goodbye by Masaki Yamada. Set just before the action in Innocence. Who's read it, and what did you think?

[Motoko2030]

I have read most of it and it is a good novel, the novel is written like the reader is Batou, you read about what is happening in his cyberbrain, the problems with having a cyberbrain compared to a human brain.

A space port is featured in the novel to take space shuttles to space stations, I was wondering, does space travel to the moon or space stations exist in Shirow's Ghost in the Shell universe?

[Black Mamba]

When was this realsed? I have alot of catching up to do!

[Motoko2030]

I think it was late September to early October that this novel was released.

[Black Mamba]

Any good? It follows Batuo right?

[Motoko2030]

I would say it is good, it follows Batou before Innocence, the only thing is that it is a hardback book and it cost 19.99

[Lightice]

A space port is featured in the novel to take space shuttles to space stations, I was wondering, does space travel to the moon or space stations exist in Shirow's Ghost in the Shell universe?

In the Man-Machine Interface there's a space station with implication that they're quite numerous and in the end Motoko announces that she's going to space, so at least rich civilians seem to have the chance of space travel.

I guess that I'll have to buy the novel, even though Oshii's continuum is my least favourite of the three...It's still good enough. By the way, who is the author?

[Black Mamba]

By the way, who is the author?

Masaki Yamada. I'm not a huge fan of Oshii's continum either. I mean, I love the first movie. But I'm not buying the second until the dubbed version comes out. However I will be buying this book sinces its a sequal to the first movie which takes place before Innocence.

[Motoko2030]

Here is a brief summary of what the novel is about

The hulking cyborg counterterrorist Batou doesn't have a family; his electronic brain never dreams. So why has he dreamt the other night, and dreamt that he has a son? It is 2032, and Batou, veteran of a hundred urban black ops in Public Security Section 9, lives deadly and miserable between the corner shops where he haggles with holograms over dog food, and the towering rubble of skyscrapers above, gutted in suicide bombings and never rebuilt. Once Batou had a human love for his partner, the legendary Major Kusanagi, before he witnessed her transfiguration into something far beyond humanity. Now he has only his job and his beloved Basset hound, Gabriel - but when Batou experiences a brief virtual death in an arranged car accident, he returns home to find Gabriel has gone missing - missing, perhaps, to go look for his owner's lost soul. The desperate and increasingly delusional cop fears his poor dog has made a horrible mistake out of innocence, for Batou has taken a cold crystalline look inside himself and decided that he never truly had one..

[Guest]

Wowzers...How is the read? Is it a hard one? How big is the book?

[Motoko2030]

It read a bit like a personal journal, since it reads like that you are Batou and you discover what it is like to be Batou, like the problems of having a cyberbrain.

The total number of pages is 196.

The artwork inside the novel is well done.

[miki-chan]

Wowzers...How is the read? Is it a hard one? How big is the book?

It's not the easiest read--I had to read it twice to figure out what was going on--but well worth it...

[Motoko2030]

I found that too that I had to begin to reread it in order to fully understand it, it is the same with Stand Alone Complex, the manga books that it is impossible to understand everything the first time.

[Black Mamba]

Since when could you understand something Ghost in the Shell related the first time through?

[Motoko2030]

I would say never, I think it is the way that Shirow and the producers wanted it, give the audience a complex storyline so they will keep on viewing it in order to fully understand it.