So if you're familiar with the series of games of the same name then let me start by telling you that the book and the games have very little to do with each other. They both talk a hell of a lot about Mitochondria but that's about as far as the similarities go. There is no Aya Brea, there are new huge beasts for you to gun down or anything like that. The game was VERY loosely based on the book and the author, Hideaki Sena, as far as I know, had very little to do with it.
The book itself is actually a pretty good horror novel. I'm finding the final few chapters of the story to be particularly and the descriptions of certain things that are happening to be rather grotesque. If there's one thing the games and the book do share it's that weird brand of body horror that's brought about by your own mitochondria trying to fuck you up.
However I do have one problem with the book and that's the pacing. There's the opening scene which is pretty messed up and then pages and pages of descriptions of medical procedure and romantic flashbacks which can be a bit of a chore to read. Once you get through all that though and the book gets going again with the actual plot, good lord is it good.
If you don't have any interest in games then I could recommend this novel as a good horror story in its own right. If you do have an interest in the games however, it's a fascinating look at how the series really got started. I'm reading it in Japanese but I'm sure it's been translated for western markets so go hit up amazon and get yourself a copy.
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