Child of Vengeance

by Professor David Kirk, Etc

[Beth C.]

What would you do if you had to choose between life and death? Life means following the path of Amaterasu as a priest, death means becoming a samurai to spite the father who abandoned you. Life means helping others - death means killing them. It's a hard choice to make, made harder by the parallel decision to listen to the uncle who has raised you, or the father who requires vengeance.

This is the decision facing Musashi Miyamoto in Child of Vengeance. Based on the sketchy past of the real Musashi Miyamoto, and on well-researched history of the time, Child of Vengeance takes the legendary samurai and creates a childhood for him. The book is fascinating with its period details, and the story itself is quite well done. I never felt lost, or bored - the momentum of the story carried well throughout. And the ending...I quite loved it. I don't do spoilers, so that is all I will say, other than this - some choices don't necessarily have to be choices at all.

I really enjoyed this book, and I definitely recommend it. Even without the myth of the main character, it's just a really good story. And in the end, that's all I can every really ask from a book.