Grey Ronin

Interesting concepts, well-written, enjoyed the battle scenes and the world-building. HOWEVER, author is not familiar enough with Japanese culture/language enough that character decisions and the reasons behind them were very steeped in Orientalism. This is a sticky point that MOST READERS WILL NOT AND SHOULD NOT BE worried about being familiar with. But over 30 years of Japanese language/culture (I have a degree, live and work in Japan as a translator/interpreter), so it sticks with me. I don't blame the author for not knowing, as I think he must have done a great deal of research, but it DOES affect my reading. There were some scenes that made me roll my eyes. So excellent effort, I think this is a book MOST scifi/samurai fiction reader WILL LOVE. It just wasn't for me.