Review #1: Paths of Vengeance (Samurai Princess Chronicles Book 1)

Paths of Vengeance (Samurai Princess Chronicles Book 1)

By Shane Milton

What if someone took something from you? 
Would you try and take it back? 
What if someone murdered everyone you held dear? 
Would you seek revenge? 
What if you were forced from your home? 
Would you follow a new path? 
Would you seek power if it cost you your soul? 
4 path converge to 1 destination and their choices could determine the fates of all. 
Beware the Paths of Vengeance

Today I’m reviewing Shane Milton’s Paths of Vengeance (Samurai Princess Chronicles Book 1), an epic fantasy about samurai vs. “ninjas”. (Note the quotations as the ninjas featured in this book are some of the most incompetent, least stealthy ninjas to ever exist.) This book contains long descriptions of fight scenes, followed by traveling to places where more fight scenes happen. There are also long descriptions of training and occasional descriptions of torture. And there aren’t any paragraphs.

So here’s the short version to Milton’s Paths of Vengeance. Sukenyo, chief of the ninja warriors, is searching for the Crystals of Chaos, a powerful relic that will help him take over the world. To find the crystals, he must sacrifice a woman from the Zukaya family, the original creators of the relic. In his mad bid for power, he destroys the entire Zukaya bloodline. Akane is the only survivor of the massacre. Now this young woman seeks vengeance at any cost.

That’s a tight summary, isn’t it? Well we don’t meet Akane until Chapter 7 or about 21% through the book. Because before we tell you that story, we have to tell you this story.

Makenshi and Sukenyo, best friends and noble samurai. Together with their warrior brothers they must battle with the evil ninja clan, sworn enemies of the samurai. Taikeno, chief of the ninja warriors, is searching for the Crystals of Chaos, a powerful relic that will help him take over the world. To find the crystals, he must sacrifice a woman from the Zukaya family, the original creators of the relic. Makenshi manages to save the doomed maiden and marry her, but Sukenyo is kidnapped by the ninja clan. Never to be seen again.

That begins in Chapter 2. Chapter 1 describes the origins of the ninja clan and how Taikeno was kicked out for blundering into an obvious ninja trap set by fellow ninjas.

Now let me be blunt. This is not a finished book. It has about four beginnings. A long rambling middle. A couple more beginnings. More middle. And it doesn’t so much as conclude as come to an abrupt stop mid-battle. It’s like ending Raiders of the Lost Ark when God comes out of the box. Major Toht’s face melts off and then the credits roll.

Paths of Vengeance is a rough draft that’s been run through a spell checker and tossed on Amazon without so much as a table of contents. Characters appear and disappear forever. Plot points are retconned from chapter to chapter. Pacing is awful. Passive voice runs throughout. And for the purpose of this book, the rule of “Show, don’t tell” does not exist. Leading to lines like:

The view would have been awe inspiring. (Kindle Locations 767-768). 

A couple of hundred samurai faced off against nearly a thousand demons. It was abundantly clear who held the advantage. Those demons poured in and plowed through the ranks of the samurai like they were thinly sliced bread. (Kindle Locations 3280-3282). 

Sukenyo's eyes welled up and he was extremely upset at the situation. (Kindle Location 1196).

Now if you scroll back to the book blurb at the top you’re going to read this line:

4 path converge to 1 destination and their choices could determine the fates of all.

The quote refers to Akane and her two travel companions, as well is Sukenyo, the main antagonist. But if you were reading this book for the first time, you would not know this. As I stated earlier, new characters appear and disappear depending on the author’s mood. Secondary characters will pop up, be given equal importance and then fade away.

For example, in the middle of the book, there are two chapters about Akane’s brother. He’s been sold into slavery and forced to grow up as a house servant. His story ends when his master sells him to a gladiator ring. It has no impact on the plot, begging the reason why Akane needed a brother at all.
Can I still call this a mindless, bloated mess if we’ve already established that it’s a rough draft? I believe I can since it’s been published as a final product. There’s lots of stabbing and villages being burnt to the ground. That’s worth your money right?

You know what’s not worth your $1.99? Character development.

Akane is the hero of our story. She has all the right elements. A tragic backstory, a wise mentor, and the ability to become a skilled warrior in under a year. Instead of personality traits, Akane relies on being violent, suspicious and unlikable. At one point a monster attacks her party and nearly kills her companions. She barely defeats it and decides to leave her peers to die as they would only get in her way. They survive, but it’s revealed that Kumo broke his leg.

Kumo is less nasty, but he’s useless. Remember how I mentioned how the ninjas in this story are incompetent and clumsy? Kumo is the worst ninja. He tries to assassinate Sukenyo by trapping him in a ring of flames and challenging him to armed combat. He’s the comic-relief character except the story has no sense of humor.

And rounding up the party is Luna. She’s a Level 2 mage with a full set of 12-sided dice and less personality than a frozen bagel. The only reason to bring her up at all is because she was needlessly raped during the course of the story. It was tasteless and contributed nothing to the plot.

Together they are out for revenge against the evil Sukenyo, who is the one saving grace in this book.
Simply put, Sukenyo is my favorite character and I liked reading about him. He’s no more developed than any of the other characters, but the difference is that Sukenyo is batshit crazy.

Anybody who so much as looks at him the wrong way, he murders. Not only does he murder Akane’s parents, Kumo’s dad, and Luna’s mother, he flies halfway across the country to murder his own mother. He has a trophy room where he keeps the rotting heads of his enemies. He walks into villages and starts slicing people’s arms off when they talk back to him. At one point, he defeats a monster bird and forces it to be his personal mount.

Somebody else kills it.

So he brings it back to life through sheer force of will.

Sukenyo does what Sukenyo wants. He don’t give a shit. If this was just a book about him being an evil bastard, I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more. As is, he delivers a might amount of violent head chopping and that will be my silver-lining.

In the end, it’s not difficult to see why this book had no stars or reviews. Paths of Vengeance is just a bad book and I haven’t even done justice to describe how awful it is. Demons become canon three-quarters of the way through the book. There’s Tokoyo, the ambiguously gay ninja. And 10 year old Akane fights a fucking bear for its juicy bear meats.

My Rating 1/10 Super Stars

It was a long book and I’m relieved I’ve finished it. But even though I did not like it, I commend Shane Milton for finishing a project like this. Even a terrible novel takes time, energy, and a great deal of love. While I had little positive commentary to offer, I hope my review can generate interest in this forgotten story.

Paths of Vengeance (Samurai Princess Chronicles Book 1) is available on Kindle Unlimited.

Sukenyo was not going to leave without passage from this bird, and she had decided that she was not going to be going anywhere. Suddenly Sukenyo started sprinting towards the giant bird. She saw what he was doing, and she started immediately flapping her right wing. Sukenyo went flying backward due to the wind generated from her massive wing working contradictory to the wind’s direction. (Kindle Locations 1974-1977).