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Sword of the Taka Samurai #1
Cold Blood: A Yamabuki Story
Ever kill a man?" The fencing master's eyes searched hers. "I can see you haven't. That takes cold blood."
Sixteen-year-old Taka Yamabuki, royal by birth, but samurai by training, embarks upon her first mission: to deliver important dispatches to the capital. Untested and traveling alone for the first time in her life, Yamabuki encounters a vivid tapestry of natural beauty, unusual characters, unexpected friendships, and indiscriminate brutality and violence.
But an unknown assassin dogs her trail. And before she knows it, her life hangs in the balance.
A lyrical novella of adventure, young love, and self-discovery, Cold Blood brings alive the experience of a young woman warrior in 12th-century Japan.
Sixteen-year-old Taka Yamabuki, royal by birth, but samurai by training, embarks upon her first mission: to deliver important dispatches to the capital. Untested and traveling alone for the first time in her life, Yamabuki encounters a vivid tapestry of natural beauty, unusual characters, unexpected friendships, and indiscriminate brutality and violence.
But an unknown assassin dogs her trail. And before she knows it, her life hangs in the balance.
A lyrical novella of adventure, young love, and self-discovery, Cold Blood brings alive the experience of a young woman warrior in 12th-century Japan.
116 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 25, 2014
42 people are currently reading
352 people want to read
About the author
Katherine M. Lawrence
6 books20 followersAccording to the Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2015, Katherine M. Lawrence may very well have originated the widely used term, "glass ceiling."
Currently her Yamabuki series is about a woman samurai who breaks through a ceiling in ancient Japan to become an accomplished warrior, but without losing her humanity.
The author first became interested in Japan while growing up in Seattle, Washington, and at a young age having several playmates who were Japanese-Americans, Japan seemed natural and accessible. Fascinated by the beauty and elegance of Japanese art, architecture, and style, she grew up with a growing appreciation for Japanese aesthetics.
For several years, Katherine M. Lawrence has been researching and writing the adventures of Yamabuki, an actual historic female samurai who lived in the Heian Era of Japan. Inspired by several decades in the martial arts halls led by women: as a martial arts student in residence for four years at the Ja Shin Do Academy both in Boston, Massachusetts, and Santa Fe, New Mexico; the San Jose State University Kendo Club; and Pai Lum White Lotus Fist-Crane in Albany, New York, style Katherine set out to write about the experiences of women who train in warriors skills...and Yamabuki in particular.
Katherine graduated from the University of Washington with a BA degree in both History and Chemistry, and continued with work on a Masters in History at the Far Eastern and Slavic Institute. She also graduated with an MBA from Harvard. For several years she provided consulting services for the Japanese firm, Kaneka, helping them with their marketing efforts in the United States.
In her undergraduate and masters degree work she developed an appreciation for the different mentalities and mind-sets of people in other eras and other cultures--for the assumptions of 21st century Americans are very different from late 19th century Europeans, let along people of other cultures in by-gone eras.
When she is not writing, she is the CEO of Pingv, a leading Drupal development shop.
When she finds any additional free time, she pursues motor sports, cooking authentic cajun food, studying advanced mathematics, trying to beat the computer at chess, and eating all the sushi she can find.
Currently her Yamabuki series is about a woman samurai who breaks through a ceiling in ancient Japan to become an accomplished warrior, but without losing her humanity.
The author first became interested in Japan while growing up in Seattle, Washington, and at a young age having several playmates who were Japanese-Americans, Japan seemed natural and accessible. Fascinated by the beauty and elegance of Japanese art, architecture, and style, she grew up with a growing appreciation for Japanese aesthetics.
For several years, Katherine M. Lawrence has been researching and writing the adventures of Yamabuki, an actual historic female samurai who lived in the Heian Era of Japan. Inspired by several decades in the martial arts halls led by women: as a martial arts student in residence for four years at the Ja Shin Do Academy both in Boston, Massachusetts, and Santa Fe, New Mexico; the San Jose State University Kendo Club; and Pai Lum White Lotus Fist-Crane in Albany, New York, style Katherine set out to write about the experiences of women who train in warriors skills...and Yamabuki in particular.
Katherine graduated from the University of Washington with a BA degree in both History and Chemistry, and continued with work on a Masters in History at the Far Eastern and Slavic Institute. She also graduated with an MBA from Harvard. For several years she provided consulting services for the Japanese firm, Kaneka, helping them with their marketing efforts in the United States.
In her undergraduate and masters degree work she developed an appreciation for the different mentalities and mind-sets of people in other eras and other cultures--for the assumptions of 21st century Americans are very different from late 19th century Europeans, let along people of other cultures in by-gone eras.
When she is not writing, she is the CEO of Pingv, a leading Drupal development shop.
When she finds any additional free time, she pursues motor sports, cooking authentic cajun food, studying advanced mathematics, trying to beat the computer at chess, and eating all the sushi she can find.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 20, 2023
quick but enjoyable
It’s only about a hundred pages long, but we are soon wishing only the best for our young 17 year old female samurai, Yamabuki, and enjoying ourselves as she rides her beautiful horse into adventure.
In a way it’s a coming of age story. She has a mission to accomplish and she is sent out to accomplish it alone. She is dressed like a man. Enjoys the amorous attentions of a boyfriend she has not seen in four years. Is attacked and must fight to the death, killing for the first time. Which upends her.
It’s lightly written yet entertaining. I enjoyed learning Japanese words the most because you don’t just learn a word you learn a whole context, a spirituality, and a culture with it. There were plenty of those moments.
I suspect this might be mature YA. Not sure. The lovemaking is in another room, so to speak, but the sword fighting is bloody and explicit. Nevertheless a delightful read and I’ll move on to Book 2.
It’s only about a hundred pages long, but we are soon wishing only the best for our young 17 year old female samurai, Yamabuki, and enjoying ourselves as she rides her beautiful horse into adventure.
In a way it’s a coming of age story. She has a mission to accomplish and she is sent out to accomplish it alone. She is dressed like a man. Enjoys the amorous attentions of a boyfriend she has not seen in four years. Is attacked and must fight to the death, killing for the first time. Which upends her.
It’s lightly written yet entertaining. I enjoyed learning Japanese words the most because you don’t just learn a word you learn a whole context, a spirituality, and a culture with it. There were plenty of those moments.
I suspect this might be mature YA. Not sure. The lovemaking is in another room, so to speak, but the sword fighting is bloody and explicit. Nevertheless a delightful read and I’ll move on to Book 2.
January 16, 2015
Yamabuki is back in Cold Blood, the second Yamabuki book to be published by Toot Sweet, but taking place much earlier than the events in Cold Sake. I said in my review of the latter book that I wanted to learn much more about how Yamabuki became an accomplished lone female samurai. Katherine Lawrence has outdone herself in this latest book.
In Cold Blood, Yamabuki is very young (17) and has been sent by her teacher and her father on her first mission for the Taka Clan. Quite an honor for the young warrior, apparently away alone from her birth home for the first time, and immersed in a world of characters she doesn't yet have the experience to judge. On the journey to the ferry from her home island to the mainland, a true passage takes place in her understanding of life, through the people she meets. One Eye/Eyeball, seemingly a fisherman. Blue Rice, whose background (and foreground) she can't really put her finger on but for whom she feels some liking. Akibo and Iebo, the Buddhist monks. And most important to this story, Long Sword, the brusque and argumentative samurai/training master she meets at the ferry.
She is very capable, and very enterprising, and yet she is learning that she hasn't much control over how her mission will play out or even what her mission really is. She has an idea of what it means to be ready to kill if she has to (and the feeling of unanticipated dread hanging over her journey is skillfully brought out by Lawrence), but it seems to be more an aspect of her training than a reality for her. Every so often, when I was still fencing, the thought would come to me that these epees were once used to kill people rather than just touching them for points and that the fencing we do now was the training for that killing, but that notion was always at a distance. Yamabuki's journey in Cold Blood covers that very long distance, another passage for her.
Lawrence's descriptive skills struck me especially in this book. The spilled basket of spider crabs in The One-Eyed Daimyo of Ten-Legged Things, the clothes worn by the various people Yamabuki meets, the dances at the Inn of Young Bamboo and the song of the ferrymen, and especially the details of Yamabuki's own armor and equipment - all are vividly depicted. The complicated fights in the clearing after the ferry crossing are evocative and lead to Yamabuki's first (I think) dealing in death.
Yamabuki is a wonderful character, and she is coming of age just before a ruinous war in Japan: "eight years before the Genpei War" according to the inscription at the beginning of the book. Cold Heart takes up her journey after the fight in the clearing.
In Cold Blood, Yamabuki is very young (17) and has been sent by her teacher and her father on her first mission for the Taka Clan. Quite an honor for the young warrior, apparently away alone from her birth home for the first time, and immersed in a world of characters she doesn't yet have the experience to judge. On the journey to the ferry from her home island to the mainland, a true passage takes place in her understanding of life, through the people she meets. One Eye/Eyeball, seemingly a fisherman. Blue Rice, whose background (and foreground) she can't really put her finger on but for whom she feels some liking. Akibo and Iebo, the Buddhist monks. And most important to this story, Long Sword, the brusque and argumentative samurai/training master she meets at the ferry.
She is very capable, and very enterprising, and yet she is learning that she hasn't much control over how her mission will play out or even what her mission really is. She has an idea of what it means to be ready to kill if she has to (and the feeling of unanticipated dread hanging over her journey is skillfully brought out by Lawrence), but it seems to be more an aspect of her training than a reality for her. Every so often, when I was still fencing, the thought would come to me that these epees were once used to kill people rather than just touching them for points and that the fencing we do now was the training for that killing, but that notion was always at a distance. Yamabuki's journey in Cold Blood covers that very long distance, another passage for her.
Lawrence's descriptive skills struck me especially in this book. The spilled basket of spider crabs in The One-Eyed Daimyo of Ten-Legged Things, the clothes worn by the various people Yamabuki meets, the dances at the Inn of Young Bamboo and the song of the ferrymen, and especially the details of Yamabuki's own armor and equipment - all are vividly depicted. The complicated fights in the clearing after the ferry crossing are evocative and lead to Yamabuki's first (I think) dealing in death.
Yamabuki is a wonderful character, and she is coming of age just before a ruinous war in Japan: "eight years before the Genpei War" according to the inscription at the beginning of the book. Cold Heart takes up her journey after the fight in the clearing.
February 16, 2016
Author Katherine Lawrence seems to channel this time period, replicating it as if it were her own. The lay of the land, the sensory details, the clothing and weaponry, the cultural customs—all are painted in accessible detail. Lawrence wields theatrical tools when she slows down the combat scenes so that the nuances of timing and strategy may be experienced in almost slow motion. Yamabuki is believable, as are the villains and secondary characters—believable and enjoyable. I am looking forward to reading the continuation, Cold Heart, when it is released.
March 15, 2021
This was a gift, a book I hadn't seen before, and it was a good choice. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Taka Yamabuki is a great main character--confident and capable but still inexperienced, still learning how to read people and not be taken advantage of. She is both admirable and flawed, which is just about ideal.
The story follows her on a journey, making it episodic, with characters entering and exiting in the way of classic novels, but there is also an arc to the story, a concrete goal for her with intrigue surrounding it, that makes it work for modern expectations. The author also does a good job of educating the western reader, explaining cultural norms that would otherwise be opaque (at least in my case). I enjoyed everything about it, including the cover and end matter, except for it coming to an end too quickly!
I'm excited about grabbing the sequels. I don't think I'll wait for my next birthday to be surprised with volume 2.
Taka Yamabuki is a great main character--confident and capable but still inexperienced, still learning how to read people and not be taken advantage of. She is both admirable and flawed, which is just about ideal.
The story follows her on a journey, making it episodic, with characters entering and exiting in the way of classic novels, but there is also an arc to the story, a concrete goal for her with intrigue surrounding it, that makes it work for modern expectations. The author also does a good job of educating the western reader, explaining cultural norms that would otherwise be opaque (at least in my case). I enjoyed everything about it, including the cover and end matter, except for it coming to an end too quickly!
I'm excited about grabbing the sequels. I don't think I'll wait for my next birthday to be surprised with volume 2.
March 15, 2021
It is a very well written story. Or, I guess it is a great beginning of a story to more precise. It is less than ninety pages. The character is engaging and the author breathes life into the ancient samurai world.
The only problem is that just when things are getting very interesting, it ends. I'm really torn on this one. I want to read more, but I think I will wait until all of the "novelettes" are consolidated into one novel.
If it were a completed story I am sure I would have given this 5 stars. Again the writing is top notch.
The only problem is that just when things are getting very interesting, it ends. I'm really torn on this one. I want to read more, but I think I will wait until all of the "novelettes" are consolidated into one novel.
If it were a completed story I am sure I would have given this 5 stars. Again the writing is top notch.
April 6, 2020
Well written, historically accurate, interesting story. As books go, too short. Looking forward to the next one.
January 10, 2016
Katherine is Best Samurai
I was taken back in time to an era before the Sengoku Jidai, which is refreshing since it seems that is the time period movies/literature tend to focus on exclusively as far as Samurai are concerned. The world is beautifully depicted, the characters are vivid and I never wanted to stop reading for a moment - I needed to see more of Ancient Japan! I'll definitely be picking up the other books of the series.
I was taken back in time to an era before the Sengoku Jidai, which is refreshing since it seems that is the time period movies/literature tend to focus on exclusively as far as Samurai are concerned. The world is beautifully depicted, the characters are vivid and I never wanted to stop reading for a moment - I needed to see more of Ancient Japan! I'll definitely be picking up the other books of the series.
July 19, 2016
Loved it!
A quick read--not only because it's short but because of Lawrence's clear, strong writing. This was a great window into Japanese culture. The description was rich and by the end I was caught up in Yamabuki's quest and felt I understood her character really well too. Can't wait to read the next one!
A quick read--not only because it's short but because of Lawrence's clear, strong writing. This was a great window into Japanese culture. The description was rich and by the end I was caught up in Yamabuki's quest and felt I understood her character really well too. Can't wait to read the next one!
October 22, 2019
very well written
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews