Sword Punk: Saving Seoul

by Steven Kelliher

Akio Prince is one of the best in the world at a dying art.

He’s put a lifetime of martial arts training to work in the arena, dueling with pulsing resin blades and glowing carbon fiber for the masses. But winning championships is small consolation while his city is taken over by the Hachinin, ruthless criminals spreading corruption, violence and debauchery across the east.

When the same syndicate that claimed the life of Akio’s master threatens the few friends he has left, he decides to make a stand.

After refusing to throw a fight at the behest of the city’s kingpin, Akio enters a dangerous game of hunter and hunted—a bloody revenge tour that will push him to his limits and put his martial skills to the ultimate test.

In the near-future far-east, where heroes are hard to find, Akio discovers that a little bad might do a world of good.

Genres: Cyberpunk, Science Fiction

405 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 7, 2020

About the author

Steven is a fighter-turned-writer who resides in the Boston area. A former sports and entertainment writer, he now focuses exclusively on his true passion: epic action fantasy and sci-fi. He wishes all disputes were still settled with a friendly game of hand-to-hand combat, is a fan of awesome things, and tries to write books he’d want to read.

He hopes you like them.

Reviews

[John #Audible · Rating 1 out of 5]

2 hours into it and this is what I gotten out of it. First, this is 100% YA novel based on the sad interactions of the 2D characters.

Thugs trying muscle into a territory. ( check ) The story taken from any number of webtoon and wuxia novels. ( check ) and a stupid amount of fighting expose that means nothing but for showing off and filling empty pages. Did I get any back story of the MC? Nope I did not, aside from he takes god damn forever to fight someone. FYI, fights do NOT last that long.

You are not writing a DBZ or Bleach episode from FKS sake where one dude spends the entire god damn episode powering up to attack or inner monologuing.

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the author who gave us the Landkist Saga in epic fantasy and Titan Online, the LitRPG book comes this amazing action filled adventure story full of amazing hand to hand combat scenes between our hero and those playing in the league games. In Free Seoul life is ruled by the Yakuza who in turn have their strings pulled by the eight most powerful people known as the Hachinin, a syndicate who were based in Tokyo and whose puppet is Goro who ran the League. Violence, and drug rakeetering where rife on the streets and the kids were in danger for their lives all the time. Akio and his two friends Joon and Min decide to tackle this problem of cleaning up the streets and turning them safer for the children in their own different ways. Min decides to join the SPDF, the police force and to do this job legally, Joon inherits the dojo from their mentor Kenta and offers a safe space for the kids as well as training in self defence whilst Akio who is a champion in the games decides to go on the attack after being forced to lose in the semi finals. His way is dangerous as he is challenging the eight most powerful man in Seoul and their lackey and he brings danger down on all his friends heads. However as he sets out his plan, he starts gaining support from unexpected sources. Can Akio take Goro down and will he stop at this or will he want to go on with his crazy, life threatening challenge and go after the big guys in Tokyo who were stifling life for all who wanted freedom in Seoul? Akio Prince got labelled the ghost of Seoul, the sword PUNK and he had woken up a hornets’ nest when from a fighter he turned into a killer in his bid for freedom. I think this is one of the best combat books I have read, I really enjoyed the thrill of the fights both in the arena and on the streets and I absolutely love the main characters as I am a real sucker for a rebel and a revolution. So I cannot wait for book 2 in this thrilling and very gripping series.

[Danny Moody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun futuristic fighting tournament. I need to establish that I am a sucker for fighting tournaments. So with that being said, I loved this book. The fighting was well explained and abundant throughout the book. The world was well described and created a cool setting where this can all transpire. The characters are diverse and interesting.

[Ulric Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing original story

I loved this book from beginning to end it was full of action drama and cool characters i hope the Mr Kelliher will continue the story