Battle Royale cover art

Battle Royale

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Battle Royale

By: Koushun Takami, Yuji Oniki - translator
Narrated by: Mark Dacascos
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About this listen

Battle Royale, a high-octane thriller about senseless youth violence in a dystopian world, it is one of Japan's best-selling - and most controversial - novels. As part of a ruthless program by the totalitarian government, ninth-grade students are taken to a small isolated island with a map, food, and various weapons. Forced to wear special collars that explode when they break a rule, they must fight each other for three days until only one "winner" remains. The elimination contest becomes the ultimate in must-see reality television.

A Japanese pulp classic available in English-language audio for the first time, Battle Royale is a potent allegory of what it means to be young and survive in today's dog-eat-dog world. The first novel by small-town journalist Koushun Takami, it went on to become an even more notorious film by 70-year-old director Kinji Fukusaku.

©1999 Koushun Takami; Translation copyright 2009, Yuji Oniki (P)2012 Simon & Schuster Suspense Thriller & Suspense

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Have to agree with other reviews here, the narrator lets the whole thing down. Stiff and robotic. Story is decent otherwise

Narrator is dull

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Easily my favourite book of all time. A brutal story with lots of heart and characters you can really care about. It also happens to be incredibly well written and a breathtaking experience that has no equal. There isn’t a book that I would recommend more. The narration is excellent too.

Outstanding

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I like Mark Dacascos, I really do. He's not the world's greatest actor, but enjoyable to watch, nonetheless. That being said, he was the absolute wrong choice to narrate this. Battle Royale is an absolute masterpiece - literally Takami's only work, and Dacascos delivers it like he's got to read it out loud in detention and half-heartedly reads it begrudgingly every time the teacher leaves the room. It... it is not great. He doesn't seem to put any effort into it at all, which is a shame because Battle Royale is spectacular. Oh, well, top novel, though.

A literary masterpiece, let down by poor narration.

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Such a great book with awesome characters. It has a strange mix of teenage innocence and violence that work brilliantly.

Outstanding book well narrated

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firstly listen to this for the story it's incredible please don't let the reviews of the narrator put you off, that being said the narration is terrible it's one of the dullest I've heard and considering it's an actor you'd expect it to be more dramatic it's not it's dreadful BUT you need to hear the story my advice read the book.

the story is incredible

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