A
book with an excellent and intriguing start, "Shi No Hassou" has a
rather disappointing ending which borrows too heavily from the same device central
to "Ten To Sen." These two should not be read back-to-back. Matsumoto
always shows his greatest strengths through the first two-thirds of his books,
and leaves you wishing he'd hurry up and wrap the damned thing up all through
the last third.