The Warrior's Path: Sisters of the Sword 1 [Paperback]

Feudal Japan, circa 1216. As teenage daughters of the local lord or jito, Kimi and Hano live lives of luxury tinged with frustration at being denied the opportunities to train to be samurai like their brothers. Still, their father being more enlightened than was usual, the girls have been taught to read, write, and defend themselves and their home in case of attack, but Kimi, the eldest and the narrator, in particular burns for much more, "I would rather spend my days fighting and studying the bushi code, like my father and brothers do."

She gets her wish in horrific fashion when she and Hana witness their uncle treacherously murder their father and two older brothers, plus all their family's samurai and servants, leaving only their mother and youngest brother missing and presumed alive. Managing to kill one of their uncle's samurai who was overconfidently tracking them alone but seeing their way to the local town blocked by more soldiers out looking for them, the sisters stumble upon the dojo of Master Goku, where their father and brothers trained to be samurai. Disguising themselves as boys, they gain admittance as servants with the promise of training if they do well, furthering them along the path towards their all consuming goal of avenging their father and brothers.

First of all, Maya Snow does a marvelous job of bringing this now alien but once quite real world to life. An expert on 13th Century Japanese history might find some nits to pick, but nothing struck me as wrong or out of place. I was particularly struck by how she brought the complex bushi codes of honor to life, to the extent that Kimi refuses a chance to take her revenge because to do so in that particular context would have been dishonorable.

In addition Ms. Snow avoids the feminist idiocy that tends to make these sorts of "girl power" novels unintentionally hilarious. The problem with having women physically beating up men in the real world is that women, being smaller, have less potential for muscle mass than men. Oh, a trained woman warrior could easily take out a legion of male couch potatoes, but against an equally trained male warrior, while she could very well be faster and smarter, she could almost never be stronger, and if the fight lasts long enough, brute force will prevail. Ms. Snow handles this by emphasizing that the most consistently successful warrior will be the one that can best analyze an opponent for weaknesses...

and exploit them before the opponent exploits hers, which a woman could do as well as a man, better perhaps if the man is deluded by unfounded assumptions of male superiority.

Defects? Hardly worth mentioning. A glossary of the Japanese words used in the text might have been nice, but Ms. Snow makes the meaning pretty clear from the context. In addition those squeamish about violence should be aware that there is a goodly amount herein, entirely appropriate IMHO, but be ye warned.

Some nasty twists at the end set up the sequels: Chasing the Secret and Journey Through Fire.