The Ninja

I have read "The Ninja" by Eric van Lustbader. I read it for an English assignment where we could choose which book to read ourselves. I will now write a little bit about the book and my opinions of it. I tried not to say too much about what happens, but this blog post may contain some spoilers.

"The Ninja" is the first book in the series of Nicholas Linnear. He is the main character in all the books. In "The Ninja" the past is an important factor in what happens in the present. The book is divided into four parts, where each part contains chapters that is of the present and chapters that is of the past. It is a brilliant set up for this book because then as you learn more about the past you understand more and more about the present.

Nicholas Linnear is half English and half Chinese, but his family moved to Japan when he was little. In Japan Nicholas developed an interest for bujutsu, their form of martial arts. He started training in the art of bujutsu and became quite good at it. His cousin Saigõ also practices bujutsu and they become rivals pretty early. Through Saigõ, Nicholas met Yukio and he fell in love with her immediately. Yukio is a complicated girl with many problems, but Nicholas loves her anyway. To not spoil the book completely I will not tell you all about what happened in the past, but certain events lead up to Nicholas father dying and his mother committing seppuku, which is a ritualistic suicide. All of this is part of Nicholas past which eventually leads up to what happens in the present.

In the present Nicholas lives in America. He has a girlfriend called Justin and is living peacefully. Nicholas gets dragged back into his past when the police find a dead man who showed signs of being killed by a ninja. The ninjas were said to be extinct, but apparently they were not. In the old Japan, the society's military force where the samurai. They where people of high class who had trained in the art of bujutsu. The samurai had a strict code as to what was right and wrong and there were certain things they where honor bound not to do. When they wanted something questionable done, they hired ninjas. Ninjas where from the lower parts of the community and they had no rules. The ninjas where trained assassins, and now there was a ninja running around New York. Nicholas, who is an expert on the topic of ninjas, tries to help the police by giving them information about them. Suddenly Nicholas friends begin dying, and Justin gets an old Japanese warning sign. He then realizes that this is personal, and that he knows the ninja.

I think that "The Ninja" was a good book. It contained a lot of action, drama, romance and Japanese history. The main themes are revenge, family and loyalty to traditions and your country. I would definitely recommend "The Ninja" to those who enjoy reading about Japan and martial arts, and also to those who just like action.