Wind of War Book

What a frustrating book. on the one hand, it has perhaps the most compelling story of any of the L5R novels, and in fact up until about halfway through I might give it five stars, or 4.5 rounded up accounting for some moments where the writing falters. Kaneka is great, and this really feels like quality ~samurai drama~ or whatever it is people describe L5R as. it has perhaps the most satisfying simple, human moment in any of the ten books I’ve (re)read this past week:

“Mayumi carried a bamboo tray up the stairs. On it were two small cups, a bottle of chilled sake, some rice crackers, and an assortment of dried fish. She moved slowly, watching the stairs in front of her rather than the tray. She had always found that if she trusted the sake not to leap from the tray, it generally stayed put. If she watched the tray as she ascended, she couldn’t pay attention to where she was headed, and the sake resented that. They had a little agreement, she told herself as she reached the top of the stairs.

No matter how many times she carried trays up the stairs, she always dreaded it. It had been a long time since she had spilled even a drop. Perhaps that was because she was so careful each time. She laughed. What harm would come if she spilled a little sake? None, she told herself. Still, the possibility of her spilling her tray made her nervous.

‘Funny,’ she said softly. ‘What strange things we collect for ourselves in a lifetime.’”

but then. first we got to the (voyeuristically presented, literally since Kaneka is magically watching) gratuitous sexual violence. one star off for that extremely tasteless and unnecessary addition. and then after that the book suddenly becomes a tedious slog through gory battle after gory battle. I know Kaneka’s the Wind of War but after having made such a concerted effort to show that he is perhaps the most human(e) of the Winds it feels like going several steps backward to devote so much of what should have been the (cautiously, imperfectly) triumphant emotional climax of the novel to loving descriptions of people being dismembered and disemboweled.

also my eyes rolled out of my head (not literally, unlike that one guy Mayumi kills in the final battle) at Bayushi Akira referencing his grandfather Bayushi Kurosawa. we get it! you’ve seen Rashomon! at least the upside of these books (so far, anyway) is that they lean way less on people’s terrible Japanese.

finally, endgame should have been Kaneka/Ijiasu, and I am absolutely penalizing the book for not doing that. not that I didn’t like Mayumi, and I know it was 2002, but still. lazy.