King of Thorn, Volume 1

Described on the cover as an "action" Manga, King of Thorn is more accurately a sci-fi/horror tale. A mysterious, and incurable virus known as the Medusa virus is plaguing the world. Like the mythological monster, the Medusa virus causes it's victim's bodies to become rigid and eventually completely petrified. A wealthy philanthropist has turned a 13th century castle into a state of the art Cryogenics laboratory in the hopes of freezing victims of the virus until a cure can be found. A lottery is held with only 160 infected people selected to take part in the experiment and a hope for life. One of those is Kasumi a young girl who is apprehensive about going to the castle and leaving behind her twin sister Shizuku, who is also infected. Kasumi, along with the other lottery winners are put into cryogenic capsules, which will keep them in suspended animation. Kasumi's eyes blink open inside her capsule. She awakes to a horrific site as long, thorny vines have grown throughout the capsule room. The other people are equally upset. What has happened to the facility's staff? How long were they in suspended animation? The time for questions is not now, however. These bleary-eyed survivors quickly find out they are not alone. The castle is inhabited by strange, dinosaur like creatures in all sizes...and they are hungry! A small group including Kasumi manages to escape the capsule room but escaping the castle is another matter. The group is quickly fighting amongst themselves as they argue over the best course of action with a loud-mouthed politician on one side and a tough but quiet, tattooed criminal on the other. King of Thorns works on many levels and borrows plot elements from popular films such as "Aliens" and "The Island." What happened to the castle is left a mystery. We don't know if something happened only at the castle or to the world itself. The criminal, Marco Owen, seems to have his own agenda and reason for being included among the 160 lottery winners but that reason, too, is yet to be discovered. Kasumi's tie to her sister is another interesting element. In a near death experience, Shizuku tells Kasumi that she must live and cannot die. There's a lot of little twists going on in King of Thorn and it should be quite interesting to see how this story unfolds. The story and art are by Yuji Iwahara. His art is less of a traditional Manga style and more of a grittier, Americanized style. His style is a very thickly inked black & white with only moderate gray tones, yet it is still finely detailed. Iwahara has thrown together an interesting mix of personalities that will almost certainly lead to more conflict down the road. Note that this book is geared to teens 16 years and up due mainly to some profanity. Pick this one up! REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON

This is book is a great read. It has adventure and emotion. Yuji Iwahara did a great job writing this book. The book is about a gril that is separted from his sister. There is a disease that kills you by slowly turning you into stone, this is called Medusa Virus. After Kasumi goes to cryogenically frozen state with 159 others, The people wake up after a long time sleeping to find that there is still no cure and the world they knew is no longer. Hope you will read this book it's a great read!