Eden: It's an Endless World!, Volume 2 Book

Stuff I Read - Eden Vol 2

Well the similarities between this series and Neon Genesis Evangelion pretty much disappear in this volume, where the action doesn't miss a beat and things start hitting the fan. Because while there are robots and such that are fighting and all that, these are not the otherworldly incarnations of divine will that seem to appear in Evangelion, but the direct tools of man turned against man. This is a world where because of the disease that spread through humanity, the use of robotics has been expanded far into science fiction, where robots and cyborgs exist integrated into society. Robotic parts are basically a luxury for those who can afford them. And here we start seeing that humanity has lost more than just parts of itself. Or, rather, that these external signs of the inhuman are symptoms of the inhumanity that has taken hold of humanity in general. People are desperate, in a constant struggle for survival. The weak are made to suffer. Just looking at the two new characters that show up in this book, in the form of one prostitute and one girl who was basically taken as a sex slave, and we start to see what kind of a world this is.

This, really, is the first we're seeing of life outside after the disease. The first book really didn't much get into how people live in the twenty years after the disease. Here we finally start to see what has happened. The world of the series, set in South America, seems to revolve around drugs. Drug cartels control most of the land that the organization Propater does not, and Enoia, the boy from the beginning of the first volume, is the head of the most powerful cartel. Elijah, his son, is estranged from his father, apparently, after Hannah (the girl from the beginning of the first volume) and Elijah's sister are taken by Propater. Elijah seems to be trying to distance himself from his father, or at least see the world without the oversight of his father, but at the moment he is still be taken by this group of mercenaries. Through it all Elijah remains rather naïve and fairly pure at heart, genuinely wanting to help people and trying to do the best he can. But a lot of that is a purity born from being kept protected by the outside world. He never had to worry about the harsher realities of life, and was always fed. This leads to some animosity towards him from others in the group, but all in all he does what he can.

The whole crux of this volume is really setting up some of the personalities of the mercenaries and women the group save. We start to see the instabilities in everyone. We see that the group is really made up of damaged people looking for ways to fill the holes left in their lives that have been left by the deaths of loved ones. This is a world where no one grows up completely unscathed, after all, and even Elijah must live with the absence of his mother and sister. But while we start to get a sense of these character, we are also interrupted by the constant threat of violence. The story does move right along, and here we see the group preparing to go up against a group of Propater soldiers. The battle is opened and it's all fairly standard from there, where the group successfully repels the first wave of attacks against them. But obviously from the traps being laid this is only the first wave and more can be expected. The battle is fairly fresh and interesting, though, and definitely visceral.

I'm expecting that with the next volume things are only going to escalate, but so it goes for now. This volume did do a good job of getting a bit more into these characters, and introducing more ideas and giving a little bit more information about what happened with Enoia, though the series seems quite hesitant to show any of what's happening with that. Neither have we learned what the real goals of Propater are, so there isn't all that much that is known for certain about what the larger story is going to be. But the character work is solid and really that's what's important. I can't say that I was blown away by this last volume, but it was well done and fun to read. While not quite as strong as the first volume, really that might just be the nature of the narrative. I'll just have to wait and see what happens next. As for this volume, though, I give it a 7.5/10.