Published By: Penguin
Pages: 176
Released On: 30/10/2025
It has been half a year since Akiyama Daijiro became a samurai; half a year since he left his father Kohei – once the most skilled swordsman in the land – to set up his own blade school by the cool of the river. Ever since, amid the swaying bamboo groves, he waits patiently for his first disciple.
But his serenity is soon disrupted by the visit of a mysterious samurai with an unhonourable offer: in exchange for a vast sum of gold, he must attack and injure the daughter of the Shogun’s most senior counsellor. Troubled by the proposal, Daijiro, alongside his father and Mifuyu, a female warrior without match, soon set out into the underworld of Edo-era Japan to uncover the conspiracy, before quickly finding themselves embroiled in a series of increasingly perilous adventures . . .
*****
Thanks to Penguin for the advanced proof of this title in return for an honest review.
Oh how I wanted to love this. I love translated fiction, especially Japanese, and I’d heard such brilliant things about this but it wasn’t quite there for me.
I really struggled with it. I’m aware that it’s not always easy to read a translated book, because the names are different to what you would normally read in a book written in your language, there are historical and contextual elements in the story you may not be familiar with, so it’s not always plain sailing, but I struggled with this more than I thought.
It is very heavy on the history of the Japense Samurais, which is interesting in itself, but it was so heavy on the detail that I found myself switching off.
There are a lot of characters in this. And so I was getting lost and needed to keep a note on who was whom and how they related. There’s also not a whole lot of description as to the setting or anything other than conversation and fight scenes, which is fine in small doses but I was itching for that sumptuous description that I’ve come to expect from Japanese fiction.
What I did enjoy is that it showed me a part of Japanese history that I knew nothing about. I enjoy learning things and I enjoy reading, so I love it when a novel can teach me new things. And clearly Shotaro was a very learned man and you could see his passion for storytelling.
I found it interesting and I was captivated enough to continue with it, but I struggle to pinpoint what it was actually about and what was going on. I liked how the stories interlinked with an overarching character and theme, that was good, albeit somewhat repetitive.
Overall I’d say it’s an interesting idea, a completely unique (to me) premise, and gives some interesting contextual information, but the characters lacked depth, I found it very confusing. I’d have liked more detail outside of the Samurai side of it. A solid story but not one I’m going to rush to recommend.
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