Rating: 
Summary: It will not let you down!! Winner all the Way!
Review: As the title perhaps suggests, Murakami's new novel tells in alternating chapters two stories that soon begin to speak to one another as the reader notices details of the one appearing transmogrified in the other - except that "transmogrified" isn't the right word because both stories are so bizarre. The first concerns an agent or "calcutec" for "the System" (ostensibly the good guys, part private corporation, part government agency) whose brain has been altered to allow him to "shuffle" and "launder" data to keep it out of the hands of the nefarious "Semiotecs" - a sort of mafia intent on stealing sensitive high-tech information. The problem for Murakami's nameless calcutec is that his engineered subconscious - the black box in which his shuffling takes place - is short-circuiting (Murakami's sci-fi or cyberpunk account of this is quite elaborate), and when "meltdown" is complete, his world, his conscious self, will disappear, leaving him trapped deep within his own subconscious. It is here, at "the end of the world," that the second story occurs, a world of the narrator's own unconscious creation that takes the form of a walled town from which there is apparently no escape and in which unicorns siphon off the minds of inhabitants shorn of their shadows, both of which alterations leave them immortal but without emotion. In this apparent utopia, the narrator spends his time dreamreading -a lightning-rod or grounding activity performed by tracing the bits of mind stored in unicorn skulls as they are released by his touch in the ring of light rays - and contemplating, among many other things, the possibility and desirability of escape.As the narrator remarks upon being told his fate, "The Wizard of Oz had to be more plausible," yet plausibility is not this author's concern. Murakami, whose sensibility seems distinctly Western and whose works are awash in allusions to Western culture high and low, is an effortless postmodernist who in a recent Publishers Weekly interview cites Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan as important influences ("The End of the World" chapters recall nothing so much as Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar, with traces of A.E. Van Yogt's "The Enchanted Village," just as the parallel story recalls variously everything from Gravity's Rainbow to Get Smart). Likewise, Murakami revels simultaneously in sheer plot fabrication and technical experiment, on the one hand, and ideas, on the other. Like Vonnegut and Brautigan, Murakami's technical experiments succeed so unobtrusively that they are in danger of being missed, and his prose is similarly so readable, so seemingly simple and playfully colloquial (thanks here to Alfred Birnbaum), that it can easily be misread as flat and emotionless (witness Paul West's review in the New York Times Book Review). Yet as Murakami has explained in the above-mentioned interview, "Most Japanese novelists are addicted to the beauty of the language. I'd like to change that ... Language is a kind of tool, an instrument to communicate." And what does Murakami communicate? Among other things, a moving, emotionally understated meditation on mind and identity, on science and humanity, on dreams of utopia and the comforting familiarity and various satisfactions of our messy, flat, uncommon lives. Don't let Murakami's popularity or the current type put you off: do yourself a favor and read Hard-Boiled Wonderland; you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling; Murakami is a storehouse of innovative concepts
Review: I have only ever read one other book in my life that made me simply recline in my seat upon its completion and just ponder for a long amount of time (that book being Philip K Dick's "Ubik") like this one did. Murakami masterfully takes what could easily be two entirely separate novellas and combines them into one brilliant novel; intertwining two seemingly unrelated worlds into one by the end. As ever, Murakami's strange brew of mysticism and cynicism draws the reader in with undeniable magnetism, and when they look up again, their day is over.
Rating: 
Summary: non-engaging
Review: i have read and loved almost all of murakami's work, but this book just turned me off about two pages in, around the time his books start to snare the reader's interest. a lot of talk about fictional math and computers. not at all what i expected.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic and Surreal
Review: I first read this book quite a while ago, and recently rediscovered it. If you are a fan of the bizarre and surreal, you have probably already read it. If not, you should run out and buy it. Do not be put off by the "cyberpunk" label - the book is very accessible regardless of your technological know-how or interest level. If you are new to the particular pleasures of bizarre fiction, here is an excellent place to start. Here we have an engaging plot and compelling characters, all wrapped in a story that slowly disintegrates into a dream. The book is satisfying to read and quite fascinating - even touching at times. The translation is quite good, and as a reader you are rarely made aware of it. However, if you are looking for straightforward science fiction, I recommend giving this one a miss. It is firmly in the alternative writing camp.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Brilliant entertianing and insightful. Over-the-top and wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Without genre
Review: It is said that if you are role-playing with a group of people who know what they are doing and enjoy it, the result is work of collective story-telling, where true expression and communication is embodied like an idealized family reunion. This book could have come from that evening, right after the big dinner.
Rating: 
Summary: Please Mr. Murakami, More Chandler and Kafka, Less Sci-Fi
Review: Murakami's blend of tough-guy crime writing, Kafkesque parable and science fiction here results in a novel that is considerably more uneven than A Wild Sheep Case (the only other book of his I've read so far), where he limited himself to being a postmodern Japanese Raymond Chandler, but is nonetheless a darn good read -- strange, introspective, thought-provoking and riveting (except for some of the sci-fi drivel, which is both long-winded and confusing). This book falls one star short of perfection only because Murakami has already proven he can do better.
Rating:
Summary: strange and surreal, but not quite a classic..
Review: Haruki Murakami is certainly a man with unique capabilities. His "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" is perhaps the best new age, surrealistic novel of all time (certainly the best I've read). In his earlier "Hard-Boiled Wonderland..." we get a preview of such talents. In "Hard-Boiled Wonderland..." we have basically two concurrent stories, one being a fantasy (complete with unicorns) and the other, well, a rather surreal story situated in Tokyo involving mind manipulation. Each story has its own strength but they seem to wander aimlessly until Murakami ties both of them together in a "way cool!!!" sort of way. Yes, it is a bit contrived and over-cooked. Yet it is the sort of book Murakami fans will love. Bottom line: a somewhat minor episode in Murakami's literary career. Yet its creativity and originality earn well-deserved kudos.
Rating: 
Summary: Great start but ultimately a little disappointing
Review: Murakami's "Hard-boiled Wonderland" is a strange cross of cyberpunk and fantasy. Alternating chapters set in present-day Tokyo and a mythical utopian realm entwine one another, descending towards the metaphorical "end of the world". Though written by a Japanese, the work hardly reflects its author's nationality. If the setting were changed to New York, very little would change. While I really enjoyed the first third of the book, I felt it had several problems. First was that Murakami gave away the "secret" far too early, and by the middle of the book, much of the enchantment was gone. Second, the techno mumbo-jumbo that underlies Murakami's story is too silly to satisfy technophiles, but too complicated and detailed to satisfy the light reader. It's best described as bad hard-scifi, rather than simply soft sci-fi. On the other hand, the book still has it's strengths. It is fast, funny, and dark. And just how many authors even attempt to combine unicorns and encryption? Overall, the novel's quirkiness makes it worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BOOK!
Review: This is the first Murakami book that I read, and what a delightful discovery! I was meeting friends in Pasadena one afternoon about 3 years ago, and I was about an hour and a half early. I stopped into a bookstore, looking for a novel to kill some time with, and picked up "Hard Boiled..." because the cover blurb sounded interesting. 2 days later I put the book down in a cold sweat, hungry for more. Nobody writes like this! I have since read everything I can find in English, and I continue to be astonished. Murakami writes wildly and joyously for people like to think. Pynchon ok with you? Read this book.
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