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A review by farosh
The Ring of Sky by Chris Bradford
4.0
What a journey this book was.. The book started out with Jack's wish to return to Akiko in Toba and ended with Jack, Yori and Akiko leaving Japan to sail to England..
What I loved most about this book definitely was all the reunions and tokens of friendship and loyalty. Over and over again Jack and his friends and supporters are faced with seemingly unsolvable problems and each and every time they overcome them thanks to their teamwork. Like Yamada once said and his students many times after him: One arrow alone breaks, but many together will survive; and that's exactly what Jack did in the most beautiful way to read. Deciding which one of the young samurai and Jack's close supporters I like most is like trying to decide between air and water, it's simply impossible. Some I liked more and some I liked less but without an exception, every encounter was heart touching and will be remembered.
The mix of sassy comments and tear inducing farewells are impossibly described. What Jack went through, thinking his friends Yori, Saburo and Miyuki drowned, repeatedly having to think the worst and fearing that one of his friends should possibly have to lay down their lives for Jack, the constant angst he felt; I felt that too. Because it happened so often and most of them survived, I believed it to be simply impossible that someone like Miyuki would be the one to falter and part from the material world. I enjoyed reading about the Way of the Ninja and Jack and Miyuki's friendship more than I could express and I am beyond expressing how much I enjoyed her character. Thanks to her courageousness, skill and loyalty all of the main characters survived at multiple points of time.
That really was awesome to read, all the creative ways of finding escape routes in the most unforgivable of surrounding, with the help of everyone. Hiding as monks, the kazuki troupe, using the natural terrain or just tricking ronin and samurai all along, however impossible and improbable it felt that one group of people could be this lucky, reading it sure way a hell of a journey and lots of fun to read. There still was lots of excitement and different aspects and ideas occuring in the book that it never felt boring.
"An enso is the expressive movement of the spirit at a particular moment in time. The opening left in your circle suggests your spirit is not separate but part of something greater. That it requires something, or someone, to complete it."
The one thing I like a little less was Kazuki and his Skorpion Gang. While Jack and his friends constantly developed and found out new tricks and wits to fight their enemies, Kazuki and his followers remained the same hate-filled and revenge driven, sad beings they were since day one. That Kazuki lost his mother thanks to a foreigner is sad, but Myuki is the best example that forgiveness is possible. When Kazuki almost drowned and Jack rescued him I would have believed that he could have changed and forgive Jack (for nothing I guess) but he had to stay the same pitiful boy he always was and Masamoto did the only satisfying thing left over - stripping him of all his samurai privileges he didn't deserve.
Feelings the book left me with: torrential rain, the Nine hells of Beppu, demonic volcanoes, Benkei the Great, a resilience in the face of constant punishment, the sky stretched out like a boundless kingdown above our heads, a long running feud between Kazuki and Jack, finding fellow outcasts and survivors, a new straw hat to wear, Shiryu, the Kabuki troupe and Jack the spirited fighter, grief beyond tears and refugees of war.
"After four years of training, fighting and surviving together, the idea that their paths were to separate forever was as unimaginable as it was heart-rending. Glancing at Akiko beside him on the deck, her hair billowing in the sea breeze, Jack realized that he was already home."
What I loved most about this book definitely was all the reunions and tokens of friendship and loyalty. Over and over again Jack and his friends and supporters are faced with seemingly unsolvable problems and each and every time they overcome them thanks to their teamwork. Like Yamada once said and his students many times after him: One arrow alone breaks, but many together will survive; and that's exactly what Jack did in the most beautiful way to read. Deciding which one of the young samurai and Jack's close supporters I like most is like trying to decide between air and water, it's simply impossible. Some I liked more and some I liked less but without an exception, every encounter was heart touching and will be remembered.
The mix of sassy comments and tear inducing farewells are impossibly described. What Jack went through, thinking his friends Yori, Saburo and Miyuki drowned, repeatedly having to think the worst and fearing that one of his friends should possibly have to lay down their lives for Jack, the constant angst he felt; I felt that too. Because it happened so often and most of them survived, I believed it to be simply impossible that someone like Miyuki would be the one to falter and part from the material world. I enjoyed reading about the Way of the Ninja and Jack and Miyuki's friendship more than I could express and I am beyond expressing how much I enjoyed her character. Thanks to her courageousness, skill and loyalty all of the main characters survived at multiple points of time.
That really was awesome to read, all the creative ways of finding escape routes in the most unforgivable of surrounding, with the help of everyone. Hiding as monks, the kazuki troupe, using the natural terrain or just tricking ronin and samurai all along, however impossible and improbable it felt that one group of people could be this lucky, reading it sure way a hell of a journey and lots of fun to read. There still was lots of excitement and different aspects and ideas occuring in the book that it never felt boring.
"An enso is the expressive movement of the spirit at a particular moment in time. The opening left in your circle suggests your spirit is not separate but part of something greater. That it requires something, or someone, to complete it."
The one thing I like a little less was Kazuki and his Skorpion Gang. While Jack and his friends constantly developed and found out new tricks and wits to fight their enemies, Kazuki and his followers remained the same hate-filled and revenge driven, sad beings they were since day one. That Kazuki lost his mother thanks to a foreigner is sad, but Myuki is the best example that forgiveness is possible. When Kazuki almost drowned and Jack rescued him I would have believed that he could have changed and forgive Jack (for nothing I guess) but he had to stay the same pitiful boy he always was and Masamoto did the only satisfying thing left over - stripping him of all his samurai privileges he didn't deserve.
Feelings the book left me with: torrential rain, the Nine hells of Beppu, demonic volcanoes, Benkei the Great, a resilience in the face of constant punishment, the sky stretched out like a boundless kingdown above our heads, a long running feud between Kazuki and Jack, finding fellow outcasts and survivors, a new straw hat to wear, Shiryu, the Kabuki troupe and Jack the spirited fighter, grief beyond tears and refugees of war.
"After four years of training, fighting and surviving together, the idea that their paths were to separate forever was as unimaginable as it was heart-rending. Glancing at Akiko beside him on the deck, her hair billowing in the sea breeze, Jack realized that he was already home."