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A Single Link
"A Single Link NEVER Breaks!" After suffering a brutal rape at the hands of a martial arts champion, Remi “Ray” Swan decides that, to gain closure and empowerment, she must face her attacker in the first professional fight between a man and a woman. Join Ray in this powerful, two-fisted adventure as she fights, not just for herself, but for all who have suffered at the cruel hands of those who would wreak pain, oppression, injustice and death! Step into the cage, where action, adventure, bone shattering fights, and a touch of romance await you!
148 pages, Paperback
First published December 7, 2013
17 people want to read
About the author
Balogun Ojetade
93 books98 followersBalogun Ojetade is the author of the bestselling non-fiction books Afrikan Martial Arts: Discovering the Warrior Within, The Afrikan Warriors Bible, Surviving the Urban Apocalypse, The Urban Self Defense Manual and The Young Afrikan Warriors’ Guide to Defeating Bullies & Trolls.
He is one of the leading authorities on Afroretroism – film, fashion or fiction that combines African and / or African American culture with a blend of “retro” styles and futuristic technology, in order to explore the themes of tension between past and future and between the alienating and empowering effects of technology. He writes about Afroretroism – Sword & Soul, Rococoa, Steamfunk and Dieselfunk at http://chroniclesofharriet.com/.
He is author of sixteen novels and gamebooks – MOSES: The Chronicles of Harriet Tubman (Books 1 & 2); The Chronicles of Harriet Tubman: Freedonia; Redeemer; Once Upon A Time In Afrika; Fist of Afrika; A Single Link; Wrath of the Siafu; The Scythe; The Keys; Redeemer: The Cross Chronicles; Beneath the Shining Jewel; Q-T-Pies: The Savannah Swan Files (Book 0) and A Haunting in the SWATS: The Savannah Swan Files (Book 1); Siafu Saves the World; Siafu vs. The Horde; and Dembo’s Ditty – contributing co-editor of three anthologies: Ki: Khanga: The Anthology, Steamfunk and Dieselfunk and contributing editor of the Rococoa anthology and Black Power: The Superhero Anthology.
He is also the creator and author of the Afrofuturistic manga series, Jagunjagun Lewa (Pretty Warrior) and co-author of the Ngolo graphic novel.
Finally, he is co-author of the award winning screenplay, Ngolo and co-creator of Ki Khanga: The Sword and Soul Role-Playing Game, both with author Milton Davis.
Reach him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Afrikan.Mart... and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Baba_Balogun. Find his books on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Balogun-Ojetad....
He is one of the leading authorities on Afroretroism – film, fashion or fiction that combines African and / or African American culture with a blend of “retro” styles and futuristic technology, in order to explore the themes of tension between past and future and between the alienating and empowering effects of technology. He writes about Afroretroism – Sword & Soul, Rococoa, Steamfunk and Dieselfunk at http://chroniclesofharriet.com/.
He is author of sixteen novels and gamebooks – MOSES: The Chronicles of Harriet Tubman (Books 1 & 2); The Chronicles of Harriet Tubman: Freedonia; Redeemer; Once Upon A Time In Afrika; Fist of Afrika; A Single Link; Wrath of the Siafu; The Scythe; The Keys; Redeemer: The Cross Chronicles; Beneath the Shining Jewel; Q-T-Pies: The Savannah Swan Files (Book 0) and A Haunting in the SWATS: The Savannah Swan Files (Book 1); Siafu Saves the World; Siafu vs. The Horde; and Dembo’s Ditty – contributing co-editor of three anthologies: Ki: Khanga: The Anthology, Steamfunk and Dieselfunk and contributing editor of the Rococoa anthology and Black Power: The Superhero Anthology.
He is also the creator and author of the Afrofuturistic manga series, Jagunjagun Lewa (Pretty Warrior) and co-author of the Ngolo graphic novel.
Finally, he is co-author of the award winning screenplay, Ngolo and co-creator of Ki Khanga: The Sword and Soul Role-Playing Game, both with author Milton Davis.
Reach him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Afrikan.Mart... and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Baba_Balogun. Find his books on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Balogun-Ojetad....
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 3, 2015
I appreciated this book because it was familiar to me while being a completely new story to me. I connected to the main character Remi/Ray and her struggle but the plot was too fast for me. I wanted to know more about Remi I think that there is part of the background that I'm missing and I needed it in order to understand Remi's life and why she chose to fight? I loved my book cover by the way. She's lovely in her fierceness!
My real issue with the book has nothing to do with the actual story. In the afterword, the author gives their perspective on how women can avoid being attacked and I personally disagree with this perspective. The problem is not women existing in the world it's men thinking that they have a right to women regardless of whether the woman is interested in engaging. I think that the conversation that needs to happen is around how it is culturally acceptable to sexually assault women, verbally, emotionally, and physically. Giving women tips on how to avoid being raped is victim blaming and it's wrong.
Like I said earlier I do appreciate the attempt to write about an issue that is not taken seriously in fiction. I liked that Remi chooses to do something in order to move on and heal after she's attacked and I'm glad that I got to follow part of her journey, even if the story has some victim blaming in it, I felt that it was real to the experience of a woman who's been sexually assaulted.
In the end, I wish that the story was longer with more detail but I liked it generally.
My real issue with the book has nothing to do with the actual story. In the afterword, the author gives their perspective on how women can avoid being attacked and I personally disagree with this perspective. The problem is not women existing in the world it's men thinking that they have a right to women regardless of whether the woman is interested in engaging. I think that the conversation that needs to happen is around how it is culturally acceptable to sexually assault women, verbally, emotionally, and physically. Giving women tips on how to avoid being raped is victim blaming and it's wrong.
Like I said earlier I do appreciate the attempt to write about an issue that is not taken seriously in fiction. I liked that Remi chooses to do something in order to move on and heal after she's attacked and I'm glad that I got to follow part of her journey, even if the story has some victim blaming in it, I felt that it was real to the experience of a woman who's been sexually assaulted.
In the end, I wish that the story was longer with more detail but I liked it generally.
May 30, 2016
A Single Link normally wouldn't be my sort of book since I don't partake in sports fiction (and I normally need elements of the fantastic to stay interested in anything). It is the prequel to the superhero thriller Wrath of the Siafu though, so I decided I wanted to see the backstory of superheroine Remi Swan. It was a good choice; even without any of the fantastic elements of the sequel, A Single Link is good stuff.
What makes the book is Remi herself. She is an incredibly likable, strong protagonist and the book has you rooting for her every step of the way. Remi is the best depiction of a rape survivor I've seen in a book; her reactions and ways of coping are realistically and sensitively handled, and her friends and family are fully supportive of her with no shaming anywhere. Her enemy, Chris Cunningham, is no ugly creep hiding in the shadows to rape unsuspecting women—he's scarier than that, being handsome and disarming, charming Remi into dropping her guard before revealing his true colors as an entitled monster who can't understand that some women might not want sex with him. It's all too real, and author Balogun Ojetade hammers the point hope with the helpful essay included at the end. We spend the whole book looking forward to when Remi will take her revenge on Chris, building up her skill and strength to take him down in the ring.
On the downside, like a lot of Ojetade's books there are a lot of grammatical errors; words will be missing letters, words are capitalized where they shouldn't, and most jarring of all was when Chris first appears he's calling himself Mike, but a few times is called Chris by the text; this left me extremely confused for a while. There are no LGBT characters even though the cast is quite large and would have been easy to include a few. As much as I liked the essay at the end, I didn't like the unnecessary jibe at taekwondo. Finally, and this is more my problem than the book's, I didn't get all the fighting techniques used through out the book, making it hard for me to picture them; I have no idea what a "rear shin kick" is. I should look these up myself since I'm not the normal audience for a mixed martial arts novella, but there could have been more description for these techniques.
What makes the book is Remi herself. She is an incredibly likable, strong protagonist and the book has you rooting for her every step of the way. Remi is the best depiction of a rape survivor I've seen in a book; her reactions and ways of coping are realistically and sensitively handled, and her friends and family are fully supportive of her with no shaming anywhere. Her enemy, Chris Cunningham, is no ugly creep hiding in the shadows to rape unsuspecting women—he's scarier than that, being handsome and disarming, charming Remi into dropping her guard before revealing his true colors as an entitled monster who can't understand that some women might not want sex with him. It's all too real, and author Balogun Ojetade hammers the point hope with the helpful essay included at the end. We spend the whole book looking forward to when Remi will take her revenge on Chris, building up her skill and strength to take him down in the ring.
On the downside, like a lot of Ojetade's books there are a lot of grammatical errors; words will be missing letters, words are capitalized where they shouldn't, and most jarring of all was when Chris first appears he's calling himself Mike, but a few times is called Chris by the text; this left me extremely confused for a while. There are no LGBT characters even though the cast is quite large and would have been easy to include a few. As much as I liked the essay at the end, I didn't like the unnecessary jibe at taekwondo. Finally, and this is more my problem than the book's, I didn't get all the fighting techniques used through out the book, making it hard for me to picture them; I have no idea what a "rear shin kick" is. I should look these up myself since I'm not the normal audience for a mixed martial arts novella, but there could have been more description for these techniques.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews