Thousand Shrine Warrior

Rating:
Summary: This was an incredible book, of an incredible series.
Review: Jessica Amanda Salmonson is one of the two best Fantasy authors I have encountered in my entire, very prolific, reading career.

Thousand Shrine Warrior is the third book in the Tomoe Gozen trilogy (The first two being Tomoe Gozen, and The Golden Naginata, with the currently-in-print Disfavored Hero being the reprint/uncut version of Tomoe Gozen) and it does an unthinkably breathtaking job of continuing the already entrancing series at a height that is as complex, beautiful, and thought-provoking as the first two books.

I got a lot out of this book. Characters in this book affected me, and I have had insights because of this book. Far apart from her brilliance in writing a complex, engrossing, female-positive (at a time when having a female heroine was unthinkable!) fantasy novel set in an exaustively-researched mythological Japan, Salmonson is also an incredible writer in the literary sense as well. I cannot imagine anyone taking the effort to acquire this book and this series and not being esctatic about the decision after reading them. In all sincerity; this author may rekindle your faith in and love for the Fantasy Genre.