Shrike read and liked Joe Moley's review of The 47th Samurai (Bob Lee Swagger, #4):

"uh... really?

I was stuck at an airport recently with nothing to read so decided to pick this book up. Though it’s not my first choice, I generally enjoy the action/suspense genre and have read plenty of Clancy, Lee Child, and my newest...more uh... really?

I was stuck at an airport recently with nothing to read so decided to pick this book up. Though it’s not my first choice, I generally enjoy the action/suspense genre and have read plenty of Clancy, Lee Child, and my newest favorite, Barry Eisler. This book seemed fairly intriguing as it seemed centered around Samurai and Japanese culture, two topics that should be near impossible to mess up. Unfortunately, had I not been on a flight with nothing to do I would have trashed this early on. Instead, I slogged through it anyway.

I'll preface this with the fact that I have not read any of the other books by Mr. Hunter. This being said, I found this book to quite possibly be the worst novel I've ever read. Take out the fact that the main character seems mildly retarded, the story in itself is so ridiculous that it had to be intentional. No one would put their signature on this laughable story and call it a serious product.

Let’s see, 60 year old man watches 40 samurai movies then becomes a master swordsman in a manner of a few days practice in order to take on a serial killer yakuza underboss. This needs to hit the big screen immediately. I’m thinking Bruce Campbell with some CGI induced aging effects coupled with a Sci-fi channel production team and budget. People’s Choice award all the way!

I was shocked to find there were several other books published by the same author. As my brain continued to hemorrhage with each passing page, I kept returning to the novel list at the front of the book in a futile effort to banish my disbelief. Needless to say, the book list was there every time. Thankfully, the flight ended before I was forced to finish this piece of crap.
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