Thousand Shrine Warrior

Tomoe Gozen #3

by Jessica Amanda Salmonson

In the next dimension there is a world very much like ours, and on this world is an island nation much like our own Japan. In Naipon, however, the myths and dreams of the Japanese people are clothed in reality - sorcerers make magicks great and small, creatures out of legend walk the land from sea to sea. In Japan, magic exists now only in children's tales. In the Naipon, the wonder never died....

For Tomoe Gozen, the legendary Thousand Shrine Warrior, honor is life itself, and it is for honor that she will unsheath her splendid blade, the Golden Naginata, and defend a weak and wretched village from the powerful and evil shadow of her destined adversary - the priest from Hell, Kura the Darkness.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Japan, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Ebooks

275 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1984

Reviews

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Ah JAS. She named the epilogue 'Duel at the Beach of Tears' and a swifter, more swordlike reduction to tears was never known.]

This is a sheerly brilliant trilogy but I'm doing a 1000+-word review for a venue so, later. Much more later.

[Kaila · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series had moments of clarity and interest, but overall it did not work for me. My favorite parts were the beginning and end of book 1, the end of book 2, and the end of book 3. I'll say this for the author: she can write a ending. However, nothing else really stuck with me or made me care.

Book 3 was pretty disappointing, with Tomoe Gozen being even further from the reader than ever before, and we don't get to learn much about her or experience any growth. There was no travel like there has been in the previous installments, which belies the title.

I am still interested in reading other work by this author, and I will continue to seek her out.

[EggSalad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this series. It did seem to drag in a few places, and sometimes it was hard to empathize with the protagonist, but it was still a very enjoyable read. I tend to love kick ass female protagonists, and Tomoe Gozen is definitely among them.

The writing is of high quality, and the characters are interesting -- the protagonist especially. The plot seemed to jump around a bit, but was still well done. This jumping around, along with not really being able to love the protagonist, is my guess for why I sometimes lost interest in the story.

However, the ending to the series was excellent. It seemed just right, and is notable because I think endings are really hard to do well.

[Christoffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing end to an amazing trilogy that is strangely forgotten among fantasy readers today.

[Rindis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final Tomoe Gozen novel is much more cohesive as a novel than the first two. But it is broken into three parts, and they are somewhat independent.

A sad repeat from the second book is that there's an ad from the publisher of the Kindle version of the book right at the end of part three. And right before a final short story epilogue. This is a really bad habit by Open Road, and needs to stop. If it was before a preview of another book, that'd be one thing, but but this is splitting apart something that's supposed to be a cohesive whole.

At least they're not advertising soup.

At any rate, we have more grand adventure in a world of Japanese myth. Tomoe is now a mendicant monk, making her way while trying to atone for actions she now regrets. She is older, and sadder, and no less deadly, even as arthritis starts afflicting her joints.

Of course, this she stumbles into a small province where an ex-samurai will find plenty of things to regret. Much Japanese storytelling is somber, and this book has the tone down perfect, just like the entire series has gotten so much right.

Overall, the pace is often slow, but the fact that this is much more one cohesive whole helps a lot, and I think this is the best part of the series. Overall, it's well worth a read, and needs to be better known than it is.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best of the series. Instead of interconnected tales, a full-length novel effort.

Tomoe is showing her age in this one, suffering arthritis in her hands from wielding her blade for so many years. It adds a nice touch of character.

The story doesn't end Tomoe's saga but ends this particular series. Be interesting to see the author revisit the character.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tomoe's trilogy ends with some interesting adventures as a wandering esoteric nun, still battling mystical demons of the Shinto and Buddhist pantheon. The best part of these books is the Far Eastern focus and cultural elements. In the Ace publication, there are some beautiful illustrations done in the Japanese style, which go well with the story.

[David Pollison · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only complaint that I have for this excellent female, samurai, supernatural, fantasy adventure story is that it is the third and final book of the series. I wish there were several more novels and a book or two of short stories!

[Elizabeth R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The close of a complex & detailed epic. I hope to add a review before too terribly long.

[J.W. Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tomoe Gozen, to atone for her sins, has become an esoteric warrior nun, a wandering Thousand Shrine Warrior across the face of Naipon. When she hears of a local village under the tyrannical rule of a mysterious and darksome priest said to have come up from hell itself, she sees another opportunity to become a hero…..

The first two books of the Tomoe Gozen Saga, Tomoe Gozen and The Golden Naginata, were for me quite enjoyable, filled to the brim with action, adventure, political intrigue, and swift pacing; Asian-flavored heroic fantasy at its very best. But this third and last volume, I have to be completely honest and say I really struggled with. The high-quality writing of Salmonson is still there, there’s no doubt about that, but the main problem for me was the pacing. After the lightning-fast movement of the first two books the story in this seems to slow to a snail’s pace and focus more on the emotions and what’s going through the heads of the characters. And I’m not saying that’s in any way a bad thing, but after two whole books at the same relative speed of plot, this abrupt change of pace just didn’t work for me, and honestly turned me off.
While this book has its moments and is not all bad, I’m going to have to say it is the weakest of the trilogy, and didn’t round it off satisfyingly for me at all.
I give Thousand Shrine Warrior by Jessica Amanda Salmonson a 2.5 out of 5.

[bkwurm · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this final book of the trilogy, the story finally makes full use of the fantasy theme with the protagonist finally facing the full power of a sorcerer priest that has ensorcelled the entire region.

Interwoven with this is the continuing repercussions from the protagonist's involvement in the failed rebellion and her fame as a female warrior. Probably the best of the trilogy but the author has not managed to convey convincingly the samurai ethos - the choices the characters are not shown to be in line with the samurai code or no explanation is forthcoming for why the code was not followed. The finale in the epilogue would have benefited greatly from some explanation of why it ended the way it did.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the three books in the saga, this one was not my favorite, but it wasn't bad either. It had some good action but the plot sort of got bogged down here and there. I really liked the saga as a whole and would highly recommend it to anyone. Even though I only gave this one 3 stars it is still worth a read if you are going to read the while series.

[Mark Kreider · Rating 4 out of 5]

See Tomoe Gozen.

[Avis Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Tomoe Gozen saga years ago and didn't think highly of the first two books, but the third book was something else. It easily outstripped the first two in quality.

[James Debruicker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Badass ending to the series.