by Nick Lake
August 2010
Simon & Schuster
Real adventure involves pain, loss, and blood. Sometimes all at once.
I absolutely love discovering a new series just as the last book is about to be published! Sadly, my library doesn't own them all yet, leaving me with only one book to share. But that's okay! Because there is plenty to say about this marvelous book with a premise that sounds like a train wreck but is in fact a masterpiece!
Premise: Ninjas are stealthy, creatures of the night. It therefore follows that all ninjas are actually vampires! Cheesy and preposterous are just two of the words that come to mind, right? Well Nick Lake is a genius because not only did this work, but vampires in general make so much more sense now as a plausible fictional creature. Lake explains so many of the things that we wonder about vampires. "Why do they drink blood?" and "Why can they only come out at night?" are two questions that Lake addresses beautifully as he combines vampires and Japanese mythology.
Fans of Japanese culture and history will absolutely love all the historical references and the Japanese terminology throughout. This is definitely a book for young Japan enthusiasts and manga readers. I can't imagine anyone with a love of Japan not enjoying young Taro's adventures as a vampire ninja during one of the country's most defining moments; that of the rivalry between Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
If that isn't enough to convince you, here in the author's own words is his reasoning for the outcome of a fight between Twilight's Edward and Blood Ninja's Taro.
Absolutely no one at all has asked me who would win in a fight between Taro, the vampire ninja hero of BLOOD NINJA, and Edward, from those obscure, hard-to-find books by Stephenie Meyer.
I see no flaws in his logic.Which is a shame, because I could answer them very simply: Taro would win. Why? Dude is a NINJA. As we all know, thanks to the mine of valuable information that is the internet, a ninja can whale on anyone's *ss. Even a pirate's. And yes, even Edward's. ESPECIALLY Edward's. Even if Taro wasn't a vampire, he'd win. Has Edward got throwing stars? No.
For more books about Vampires, check out this reading list!
Blood Ninja Trilogy
Blood Ninja
Blood Ninja II: The Revenge of Lord Oda
Blood Ninja III: The Betrayal of the Living (TBR August 2012)
No comments:
Post a Comment