I got this hardcover at Barnes and Noble. I'd read it online some time back, and was pleased to see an English print version.

As with most of Ito's work, it features gruesome violence, body horror, madness, and general weirdness. Here, the story opens with a crowd attempting to sacrifice a young girl; we soon learn that she's Remina, daughter of the astronomer who discovered a fast-moving rogue planet and named it after her. She's since become a media sensation - but now that the rogue planet is nearing Earth, the panicking crowd thinks that she's drawing it in and hope that killing her will stop it.

Stepping back to how it all began, we find that the mysterious planet is not only moving faster than known science allows, but that it's destroying the outer planets as it passes by or through them! The crew of a spacecraft sent up to examine the planet has a disconcerting experience: even as they look at the planet, it looks back at them, with a single huge and baleful eye...

Despite that, they land on the planet and declare it survivable - but then communication ceases, and Earth is left to ponder its fate as the sky fills with the new planet. And this is when the maddened crowd lashes out against Remina and her father and anyone who tries to defend them. Much of the middle of the story involves poor Remina and whoever remains of her supporters fleeing the mob, or getting caught and having to rely on unexpected side effects from the rogue planet's approach to free them.

Another subplot involves a wealthy family who has their own spacecraft and hopes to escape the doomed Earth and land on the rogue planet - but they have a gruesome surprise in store when they raise their helmets. [Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch, either.]

Near the end of the story the situation on Earth gets... well, a bit ridiculous; the rogue planet has LICKED the Earth, causing it to spin at higher and higher speeds, resulting in turbulent winds that send all the main characters flying. This exceeded my suspension of disbelief threshold and I admit I found it more ludicrous than scary or dramatic.

Will Remina and her surviving friends make it? What will become of Remina the Planet? And what is Junji Ito smoking when he comes up with this stuff? {wry grin}

[There's a TV Tropes page on the manga, with some entertaining tidbits.]

I'm adding this book to the Otherworldly bookbox, which will be on its way to its next stop shortly. Hope it travels safely, and that people enjoy the selection!

Received in the Otherworldly {Shrinking} Bookbox: Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror: Round V

I will release back into the box.

Released in the Otherworldly {Shrinking} Bookbox: Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror: Round V

Please enjoy!

This book rode to the end of the bookbox, and I split the remaining books with waternixie. This one came to my shelves!

This was an entertaining sci-fi/horror manga, although like GoryDetails, I found some of the drama taken a little too far for plausibility. Some of the scenes stretched on too long, too, particularly during the chase around the rapidly spinning world. My eyes would glaze over and skip to the next page. Just too much page space for not enough plot, and without interesting enough subjects to squeak by on mere artistic credit.

Added to the Sci-Fi Bookbox. I debated adding this, since it is definitely a horror/sci-fi tale and not straight sci-fi, but I wanted to replace a graphic novel I took with another of a similar format.

I'm reclaiming this one from the Science Fiction bookbox, in part because I have so many books I want to add {wry grin}.

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book in the Little Free Library at the mall; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

** Oh the Places We Can Go challenge. **