Bamboo Bloodbath

Jason Striker #3

by Piers Anthony, Roberto Fuentes

Striker, master of karate, kung-fu, aikido, and judo, goes up against the Hyena, an unknown sinister force that leaves his victims chewed and scratched as if by a vicious animal!

Genres: Adventure

188 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1974

About the author

Though he spent the first four years of his life in England, Piers never returned to live in his country of birth after moving to Spain and immigrated to America at age six. After graduating with a B.A. from Goddard College, he married one of his fellow students and and spent fifteen years in an assortment of professions before he began writing fiction full-time.

Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.

Reviews

[Glen]

Third entry in the Jason Striker, Master of Martial Arts series.

This entry of the series opens with Striker, the most naive former green beret ever, teaching judo, when a former student (and lover) begs him to act as a bodyguard for her father, who is threatened by the master criminal, The Hyena.

Striker agrees, and has a run in with The Hyena. Then martial artist, Black militant, and Striker's former lover, Ilunga shows up out of nowhere. This leads Jason into a conflict with a Black revolutionary group, and takes him to Cuba. After several adventures, Striker meets Fidel Castro, and goes to destroy The Hyena.

Completely ridiculous, but entertaining because it is so bad.

[Skjam!]

I’ve mentioned before that one of my guilty pleasures is the “men’s adventure” paperback series of the 1970s. Violence, sex, drugs and the particular cultural trends of the Seventies mixed with a macho writing style and pulpish sensibility. In the case of the Jason Striker series, another cultural trend is added, a fascination with East Asian martial arts. Striker is skilled at judo (his actual job is judo trainer), karate, kung fu and related skills, and has a gift for accessing his ki (inner energy) whenever the plot requires it. He also has a gift for winding up in deadly situations requiring him to use his skills in lethal ways.

In this case, Jason Striker is up against the master villain known as the Hyena. The Hyena is not only a skilled martial artist who runs a lucrative extortion racket, but a druglord, the brains behind the militant organization Blackrev (despite being a white dude), and a famous businessman who regularly hobnobs with the Washington elite. That last part is especially impressive as the Hyena is also known for his pungent body odor and serious cocaine habit.

Striker comes into conflict with the Hyena when he’s talked into being a bodyguard for a wealthy man the Hyena is trying to extort. The rich guy has a hot and barely legal daughter who wants to jump Striker’s bones, which happens after Striker manages to fend off the Hyena’s attack and there’s a brief interruption by the book’s costar.

This is Ilunga, the Black Karate Mistress (her sections are in third person, while Jason’s are in first person.) In addition to being a skilled martial artist herself, Ilunga is the last surviving addict of Killer-13, a drug that gives near superhuman physical prowess at the cost of poor night vision and dying if you stop taking it. Ilunga’s half-brother Danny has gotten in too deep with Blackrev, and she’s seeking Striker’s help as the only white man she kind of trusts.

Striker is kind of busy training America’s team for the World Judo Championship in Cuba, so he gets Ilunga in touch with his old friend Mustapha, and moves on. He’s slightly worried that he doesn’t hear back, but Ilunga is more than capable of taking care of herself. Right?

After the judo championship (America does very poorly), the main plot comes crashing back in as it now turns out Ilunga is working for the Hyena. Or is she? Time for a showdown!

Piers Anthony is better known these days for his long running Xanth fantasy series, and Roberto Fuentes was his judo teacher, who presumably did all the martial arts knowledge bits while Anthony provided the plot and characterization. The book is littered with Japanese and Chinese martial arts terms like anime fanfic is littered with “-chan” and “baka.”

Good: Jason Striker is endearingly fallible, pulling some boneheaded moves like opening the front door to a house he’s just spent most of the chapter fortifying because the Hyena politely knocked. While being lethal in non-tournament combat, he’s not the top guy when he has to follow rules.

The book’s cover promises lots of violence, and the story delivers with multiple fatalities described lovingly. (By comparison, the sex is never described though it is implied that Striker is awesome at it.)

Fidel Castro gets to chew the scenery in a long scene where he gets to be competent and clever, though Striker never lets us forget this man is a Communist dictator who would have him killed in a second if it was convenient.

Less good: Rape. Ilunga’s reason for becoming a lethal martial arts mistress is being raped at age twelve and her white attackers getting off scot-free thanks to white police officers giving them a pass. Her favorite move is crushing men’s testicles, but that hasn’t been enough to prevent her being raped a few times since, including a rape by deception in this volume, and a sexual assault.

Odd: There’s a chapter-long digression where Striker investigates Strate, an anti-drug program for teens. It turns out to use cult-style brainwashing, but is apparently otherwise not connected to the plot at all and is not secretly run by bad guys.

Content note: In addition to the afore-mentioned rape, there’s torture and brainwashing. Racism is a frequent topic and some slurs are used. Cuba not being treated as entirely a third world hellhole may upset some conservatives.

Overall: A pretty good example of men’s adventure of its time period. The series was reprinted in two-novel volumes, which seem to be available online.

[Éric Kasprak]

In Bamboo Bloodbath, Jason Striker faces off against a villain known as The Hyena, an extortionist and drug lord who leaves victims looking as though they were mauled by a wild animal. The plot involves Striker acting as a bodyguard for a wealthy man and his daughter, while simultaneously dealing with the "Black Karate Mistress" Ilunga and a trip to Cuba for a judo championship. An almost perfect mix of Men's Adventure and Pulpy 70's kung fu flick, Bamboo Bloodbath is very good and quite crazy. The Jason Striker series is pure entertainment.

[Egghead]

worst dojo dumbo
destroys lives to lose cuban
judo tournament

[Hazel]

Ahh the Jason Striker Series. In book 3 we return to the strange world of the 70's where women are objectified, whilst trying to raise them up to a more equal level. Where racism is being brought into the light. Where martial arts master's don't consume alcohol or sweets, except when they can't quench their thirst with water and milk, and really love ice cream so are going to eat 12, oh and lets smoke a cigar later as well. A world where the fighting is mostly realistic, but if you're ever in dire straits Ki will save you.

Overall it's a pretty good book. It's weird meeting Fidel Castro and having him painted in a reasonably neutral leaning toward good light. The story is reasonably interesting though it does seem a bit curt at times. It's full of sex, drugs, and fighting as you would expect from a Jason striker book. And really most martial arts things from that period I believe.
Sexism is quite prevalent and not really balanced much by having powerful strong women as in the previous book.

I enjoyed the story, but it didn't seem to offer as much as other books in the series did.

I'll have to take a break from Striker for a while until I get a chance to buy the next book. There's not a copy to be found in the RI library system.

[Andrew]

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