Running Rings around the Earth: Young Samurai, Book 4 - Ring of Earth

Young Samurai, Book 4 Ring of Earth:

Plot:

Jack Fletcher is lost in Japan, which itself is caught in the midst of a war between two of the greatest samurai of the country: the great master swordsman Masamoto Takeshi respected by almost all the daimyo in the land for his samurai school the Niten Ichi-Ryū, The Daimyo of Edo (Tokyo) also respected for his school, the sister school of the Niten Ichi-Ryū - the Yagyu Ryu.

The story starts with a simple competition of the schools. The loss of the competition to English teenager Jack Fletcher causes the daimyo of Edo - Kamakura Katsuo to hate all foreigners. In his eyes, Jack is a petty foreigner scum. He orders that all Christians in the land should be burnt. Jack runs away after The Daimyo starts a war and takes over Osaka Castle, one of the most heavily guarded castles in the land. Jack is on the run when he falls for a trap on a road set up by what would seem to be a boy of the farmer village nearby. Jack is taken in by the boy’s grandfather. Jack tells them his story, leaving out that he is the reason for the war. Jack later finds out that the villagers are actually ninja. Jack freaks out and tries to make a covered escape, as his past encounters with ninja have led to his father's death and his best friend's death. But the ninjas take him back to their village and tell him they are innocent and will not hurt him unless he sells them to the samurai patrols, on the outside of the forest.

Jack is skeptical but soon they gain his trust. He trains with them to be a ninja, whilst making friends with the village children. At the end of the book, the samurai daimyo of the province captures Jack and his group of ninja scouts who are looking to get in to the castle that the daimyo lives in, in an attempt to assassinate him. The daimyo hands Jack and his group over to his chief torturer. Jack manages to escape with his friends, but one of the group is actually a backstabber, as he sells the location of the village to the daimyo in exchange for life in the city. This leads to an attack in which many die including the Shonin of the village, which means his devastated son Tenzen has to take over. In the attack, Jack’s old friend Akiko meets him disguised as one of the samurai. She helps the ninja and finds her long lost brother at the end (the reason I do not go into much detail about this is that this would be too much of a spoiler, as in my eyes this is the best part of the book).

Recommendations:

This book is a bit gory but very educative and cultural, because it describes the way of life in ancient Japan. It teaches the reader a lot about Japanese culture and is entertaining at the same time. It is gory because near the end the book describes what tortures the samurai use - they are not pleasant. In addition to being very educative, it is very exciting and thrilling, this book is a real page turner. I think that this is a very important attribute to a book so I recommend this to young kids 11+ all the way to 18 because of the goriness and the torture.