Rating: 
Summary: one word EXCELLENT
Review: This is NOT a must have for Ring fans. It is a must have for any fan of reading. You will fly throught this book. I MADE time to read this book. I personally think that this is much better than the movie. The plot is completely different other than the movie itself. IT hooks you from the beginning and the plot doesn't slow down. one word EXCELLENT. Read it!
Rating: 
Summary: Books are not always better than movies
Review: Usually books are way better than movies, but Ring seems to be one of the exceptions to the rule. I just want to say this in the beginning: I wanted this book to be very good since I enjoyed to movie immensely, and even had it on my Christmas list. After I read the first section, however, I removed it. On to the review. As many readers have noted, the story is almost the exact opposite from the movie (reffering to Ringu, not the sub-par American remake.) For example, in the book Asakawa is a man (a woman in the movie), he is married (divorced in the movie), and has a daughter (a son in the movie). Although it is a 180 from the movie, I didn't mind much becuase a characters personality is what is important. Unfortunately, this is not the case either. Asakawa is a weak, innefectual, and boring character. And Ryuji, a charismatic and likable character in the movie, is an unlikable self-proclaimed rapist who you can have no sympathy for whatsoever. Also I am not a believer in ghosts or mysticism which Asakawa is, and I usually judge a book's ability to suck in the reader by how well it makes me suspend my belief in the rational real world and accept the writer's world. Unlike Stephen King who can usually suck me into his world without any problem, no matter how unbelievable it is, Koji just tells the reader, through Asakawa, that this is what is happening because this is what is written. This took me out of the story and I could just not care what happned next. The book is also around 290 pages, which looks double-spaced to take up space, so it actually feels like a 150 page book. But despite this short length, I could not read past the half-way mark. Also I have to mention the video, one of the most crucial points in the movie: it is totally different. My reasoning behind the change is that if the cursed video were put into the movie the way it was described in the book, people watching the movie would have laughed. I'm serious, it was that bad. I also have to mention that despite what most other reviewers have said, the translation is bad. I have to agree with Laura when she says the translation is clumsy, but I think it is a lot worse than clumsy. Although since I haven't read the original Japanese version, I cannot tell if maybe Suzuki just is not very talented at writing. In all, the book is not creepy, it does not make you think (does the opposite in fact since Asakawa has everything explained to him, thus to the reader), and even seems to want to distract you from trying to enjoy the story at every turn. If you want entertainment, watch the orignal movie again. Or if you have never seen the movie, do not let the book deter you from seeing it; the movie is a lot better than this waste of paper.
Rating:
Summary: The book that started it all-well-written suspense thriller
Review: When it comes to Ringu the movie, The Ring the Hollywood remake, The Ring the manga, and the original source for this series of runaway hits, Koji Suzuki's novel Ring, straight off I'd classify it more as an investigative suspense thriller rather than horror. The whole story takes place between 5 September and 21 October 1990, with quite a bit of action taking place during a particular week. Journalist Kazuyuki Asakawa is drawn into the deaths of two teenagers, one of them being his niece Tomoko, the other a boy who suddenly keeled over on his motorcycle and died. The coroner's verdict for both: sudden heart failure. Not only are the causes of death similar but so are the times of death, around 11:00 PM, and the fact that it was as if they were trying to pull their hair out. Soon, he learns of a young teen couple who died the same way in a car, and that all four were friends. A couple of clues leads him to the Villa Log Cabin resort where he watches a bizarre video full of abstract and real images, which gives him the following message at the end: "Those who have viewed these images are fated to die at this exact hour one week from now. If you do not wish to die, you must follows these instructions exactly..." The problem is, the rest of the tape has been erased so there is no way to prevent death. And as Asakawa has established that the four teenagers spent the night at the cabin a week before their deaths, he is in panic mode, as he has a wife and child. He turns to his classmate and Ryuji Takayama for help. Ryuji, now a cynical philosophy professor, may be a bit on the twisted side, as he boasted once that he assaulted young women in high school, and he has a bit of a libertine attitude, but he's intelligent, methodical, and quick to suss out clues from the video. He is quick to take charge, being the more assertive of the two, and there are some actual intelligent conversations about science between them. The situation becomes more urgent for Asakawa when... guess who else accidentally ends up watching the video? Asakawa seems to have more of a conscience, whereas Ryuji is more jaded. As he tells Asakawa after being asked if he felt guilty about the crime he committed against one of his victims, "Try slamming your fist into a brick wall every day. Eventually, you won't even feel the pain anymore." With the countdown to Asakawa's life ticking away, the reporter's sense of urgency is felt in the book, while Ryuji seems to be taking it all in casual, confident of a resolution. Having read the original source, I see how so many liberties were taken in even the 1998 Japanese theatrical version--there was even a TV movie version before the 1998 version--notice that it's a woman whose life is at stake in both movie versions. However, Suzuki's writing is accessible, or should I say the people who translated his book, with a contemporary touch. This is the first in a trilogy, the story being continued in Spiral and Loop, which will doubtless reach the US sometime in the future. As for the title, it has nothing to do with "before you die you see the ring" re the Hollywood remake--it's more conceptual rather than concrete. I read this all in one sitting, a few hours, minus time for lunch, so go figure.
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