A post-modern parable

The resilient Ring trilogy by Koji Suzuki - Ring, Spiral, and Loop - has seen its own remarkable growth. The story of dissemination and interminable self-regeneration has spawned Japanese film adaptations, including Ringu 2, the inevitable American remake - The Ring 2 - as well as, in parallel, a film sequel directly derived from the novel Rasen.

Furthermore, Mr Suzuki's collected constellation of short stories clustering around the trilogy has given rise to a prequel on film, Ring 0: Birthday. Loop will no doubt find its place in this saga, though we are likely to see other conclusions to the trilogy arising in parallel.

Loop contains the events of Ring and Spiral in a Russian Doll-manner, and is in turn contained by them, in an endless circular chain. Knowledge of its forerunners is therefore not strictly necessary to tune in to Loop - one could, hypothetically, enter the chain at any point. Events that hark back to Ring are revisited and reproduced from another angle in Loop, reframed in a mise-en-abyme, as it were.

In terms of genre, Loop is not a return to Ring. Mr Suzuki recoils from the horror he unleashed in the previous two instalments, and this time around offers what could be a tale of hope and deliverance, or just a mediocre compromise. Likewise post-modern in theme, if not in treatment, Loop verges on the post-human to a greater degree than Ring. The horror label is less applicable here than the science-fiction one, though it holds some appeal for fans of both genres. We have recently seen other attempts at post-modern sci-fi horror on the cinema screens, like the other, overly ambitious, trilogy Cube. The Ring trilogy in most of its manifestations so far has been more consistently successful, in spawning spin-offs of itself as well as generally delivering the goods.

Don't let the sci-fi horror tag put you off. Loop is fast-paced, easy reading, and rarely gets bogged down in daunting, heavy science, while what little persists of the horror element is hardly of the "Asia Extreme" variety. Loop's topic, one of the most terrifying of contemporary "real" horrors - a seemingly incurable metastatic cancer - makes the first half of the book potentially more uncomfortable and disturbing than any film by Takashi Miike, and infinitely less entertaining. But Loop's terror is not relentlessly laid on, and the hope for survival is never truly abandoned. Such real horror of the kind that no one could face without baulking is here diffused through the virtual.

Loop is rather odd in being a post-modern parable with theological undertones, a human reassertion of the post-human. It is a contemporary epic, with a slightly moralistic slant. Ultimately, if you have enjoyed Ring or Spiral this is no assurance that you will take to Loop, and if you expect another experience of Ring's ilk, be prepared for disappointment. If, however, you are bent on discovering answers to questions that were raised in the two preceding novels, your expectations will be met. Still, particularly if you've enjoyed the surface-hugging inscrutability of the self-regenerating horror in Ring, some questions are best left unanswered.

As a novel in its own right, Loop is an entertaining read; the terror is muted, the science not too hermetic. It is potential best-seller material, to a fail-safe formula. However, intelligent fare though it is, it takes too few risks to raise it far above the mediocre. Of course, you could still do a lot worse than pick up anything from the Ring's self-propagating mythological cycle.

• Ms Bonello Rutter Giappone is a notary and freelance writer. Having specialised in Shakespeare Studies, she is commencing a PhD in live comedy at the University of Kent.

• A review copy of this title was supplied by Agenda Bookshop.