Customer Reviews

The 47th Samurai

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a big fan of Stephen Hunter and his Bob Lee Swagger series. I would give most of them 5 stars. I saw Shooter on TV last night and remembered how much I enjoyed that book and how quickly I read it.

This book took me over a month to finish. The premise is that Bob Lee (after a week of acquaintance) got so close to a Japanese family, that he sought revenge after they were all killed. I don't see Bob Lee that way. I see him as a tough guy who lets few people in but when he does he is loyal to the end. When this is explained it is too late to make the book believable.

The book talked endlessly about sword fighting and the Japanese expressions for all the cuts that I found myself skimming all those parts just to see who survived so I could continue with the book.

The plot was not engaging and I found that I did not "connect" with Bob Lee as I had in the rest of the series. I had read some reviews that were not flattering but I ignored them. Wish I had taken them to heart and at least waited for the paperback. I won't be buying his next one in hardcover.

There comes a time when all fictional characters must be dispatched, and Bob Lee Swagger is past that point. This book is a waste of time, unless one is dedicated to absorbing an unhealthy amount of samurai trivia. Poor old Bob Lee has moved form heroism to hokum, and the plot is so cliche-ridden it needs a wheelbarrow to haul it around. A waste of time, ink, paper & money.

I've read and enjoyed all of the previous Bob Lee books, but I came close to giving up several times during this book (something I very rarely do). I basically kept reading out of morbid curiosity - to see how bad the novel would get. The story is preposterous and not in the least bit engaging. As someone who likes Bob Lee, it was a real disappointment to see the author turn him into such a ridiculous caricature. I'm not sure why I'm not giving it one star, but I've already given the book too much thought...

Hard old man Bob Lee Swagger achieves super-human proficiency with the samurai sword in a week of intensive training that brings to mind "The Karate Kid", in order to wreak bloody revenge on his enemies who were foolish enough to brutally dispatch a family he'd recently befriended. High on body count and low on credulity, Hunter constructs a wildly implausible plot but one that is completely unselfconscious. If you suspend your disbelief, it's a rollicking read and perfectly enjoyable; I just wish old man Swagger at some stage did the Indiana Jones trick and just shot the silly bugger waving a sword at him.

If you are brand-new to Bob Lee, perhaps this is not the best way to start the series. Many literary gourmets consider Bob Lee to be "the" most fully-developed 100% pure American hero in the history of modern literature, and with reason. Based on the earlier books in the series, this lanky, terse character, aka BOB THE NAILER, who (from Hunter himself) "looks like Clint Eastwood and talks like Gomer Pyle" makes John Wayne seem, in contrast, like a girlyboy. If you liked the Hollywood take on Bob Lee -- SHOOTER -- (which was hugely miscast BTW) you are going to LOVE the originals, which offer craft, skill, brilliant narrative and invariably a great payoff. Which brings us to 47th Samurai. You REALLY have to ask yourself whether Hunter, himself a Pulitzer Prize winner for non-fiction, was irritated at the soaring popularity of Bob Lee and deliberatly tried to throw his readers a curve..? This is, astonishly, a Bob Lee novel where the character never touches a gun in the story, not once, and, although in his mid-50's, masters the Samurai sword in one week and defeats the greatest swordsman in Japan. Oh yeah, here the usually terse Bob Lee in this one is suddenly Chatty Cathy, and suddenly speaks entire paragraphs. Summary -- OK action thriller but a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT to serious Hunter fans.

product note on the 1st edition hardcover

The two copies I have seen both had a ragged (untrimmed) right-hand edge to the pages. I would speculate that this is intentional on the publisher's part, perhaps to give a more "antique/distressed" feel in keeping with the cover art.

AMAZON.CA staff don't seem to be aware of this as of 10-Sep-2007.