47 Ronin by John Allyn

"47 Ronin" by John Allyn. This book is published by Tuttle publishing in 2012 and has 256 pages.

Feudal Japan, Year 1701. Lord Asano of Ako refuses to give bribe to Kira, Master of ceremonies in Shogun's court in Edo (Tokyo). Kira insults him and Asano draws sword and slashes at him. He has committed cardinal sin of drawing sword in Shogun's court. He is compelled to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). His Samurai fighters decide to take revenge.

What will they do? Can they fight the might of Shogun? Is Kira dead? Is the vengeance honourable?

Oishi, chief retainer of Lord Asano, decides to take revenge on Kira for the loss of prestige and property of House of Asano. He and his follower Samurai wait for one year and make everyone believe that they have accepted fate and are not going to cause trouble and then mount an attack to realize their revenge. This is a fictionalized account of an actual historical event. It is not known what insult by Kira insinuated Lord Asano to draw sword. The book, however, provides the fictionalized answer.

The story is narrated in an interesting manner. Old time Japan is effectively created. Geisha culture, Samurai, Ronin, Honour, family name etc is depicted very well. Characterization is good. Oishi is the balanced personality, Hara and Oribe are the hot headed ones, Karaoka has faith in Oishi, Geisha is in love with Oishi, Kira is malevolent with power and afraid after retirement. It's a relatively short story to make a novel. Author has done well to do it.

Ronin is a man (a fighter, a samurai) without a master, generally past his prime. In short leaderless samurai, without station or prestige. Swordsman without a cause to serve.

There are differing opinions about this attack. Foreword says the attack was a cowardly act of revenge that was portrayed and later accepted as act of honour. Samurai were facing identity crisis in the peace time and this attack provided the much needed rallying point. This attack thus became emblematic of loyalty, sacrifice, persistence and honour.

In short it's a fictionalized account of a historical event and is a very famous story of Japanese vendetta.

A good book. Recommend reading.

Time of attack by Marc Cameron

"Time of attack", by Marc Cameron. This book is published by Pinnacle in Jan 2014 and has 448 pages. This is the 4th book of Jericho Quinn series.

Jericho Quinn is attending a wedding of his colleagues. His ex wife (Kimi), daughter, girl friend (Veronica Garcia) and best buddy (Jacque Tbido) are all present. A young Japanese girl tries to kill his daughter. His daughter moves at the last moment and his ex wife is shot in the leg, resulting in leg amputation. Emico Miyagi, Jericho's martial arts teacher, tells him story of her past and tells him that the girl who shot him is her daughter and arranges fake passport. He leaves for Japan.

A Pakistani terrorist procures a deadly plague virus from North Korea and unleashes it on America. A Japanese pharma company has developed vaccine for the plague. Governer of Oregon state and Speaker of Senate are working for terrorists.

Why did they shoot at Jericho's daughter and not him? What does he find in Japan? What kind of plague is it? Who is behind the Japanese pharma company? Are these two things related? Can Jericho Quinn find answers and save the world?

The story is fast paced. It takes place in USA and Japan. Emico Miyagi's character aquires a different dimension in this book. She blossoms into a main character from assisting character (in previous books) and provides vital skills and information to the hero. The book also tells us a lot about Japan and Japanese culture. It also shows the importance and significance of tatoo in Japan. This book too, like previous three books, has characteristic motorcycle chases.

Last 10% of the book is too fast to keep track. It is so fast that it appears to be wrapped in a hurry. However the book ends at a very interesting and tantalizing turn of events. The readers would feel the urge to wait for the next book in the series and know what happens next.

You can read this book even if you have not read the previous three books as there is very little reference to the past books.

An OK book. Read if you have time.