Revenge of the Shogun's Ninja

Rating:
Summary: Forgettable and uninteresting
Review: This is the second book in the series, the first being 'Shadow of the Ninja'. As somebody with a great interest in Oriental history and mythology, I had looked forward to this book - at least until I read it, that is. What we have here is the chronicle of a young boy's flight from an evil ninja master who destroyed his clan. Stereotypical plots are fine except that the tale is told so poorly that it kills any interest the reader may have in the first few paragraphs alone.

Granted that some suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy stories of this type (which I do), the story should at least have tried to keep some semblance of realism. I can accept - and even expect - unreal levels of weapons skills and semi-mystical ninja powers, but this particular story reads like a long fairy tale. The prose is clumbersome and the terrible illustrations did nothing to salvage it. The sole redeeming feature is that there are several interesting items of ninja equipment used (briefly). But if ninja equipment is what you are after, I'd pass over this book in favour of Stephen K. Hayes' excellent series of books on Ninja history and tradition.