Fantasy
436 Pages
Published by Booklocker (15th November 2022)
Purchase from | Booklocker | Amazon AU* | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Booktopia | Fishpond AU*|
My rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
I received a complimentary copy of this book and am leaving this review voluntarily.
As a child, Coletrane Marx, the only son of an eccentric billionaire archaeologist, wrote a story. In this story, he created the character of a cursed Samurai warrior – Kojiro. Only, he didn’t just write Kojiro’s story, and Kojiro’s character didn’t stay on the page where he was supposed to. Coletrane Marx created a Tulpa – a thoughtform that went on to live a life completely independent from its creator; a creature that can sometimes hold a hostile relationship with said creator. Coletrane knows this all too well, as he watched Kojiro appear and cut down his parents before his eyes. As an adult, Coletrane is every bit the eccentric billionaire his father was, but with one difference; he has trained for his entire life so as he might, one day, find Kojiro and exact his revenge upon the creature that he created. Only Coletrane is now realising that he didn’t just create a warrior, he created an entire alternate reality of feudal Japan that is full of mythical creatures, living deities, and evil tricksters. A world where Kojiro has his own prophetic story to live out. Time is running out however, as Coltrane and Kojiro’s worlds threaten to overlap, causing catastrophic consequences. If the two cannot reconcile their shared dark pasts and come together as one in order to stop what is happening, a thoughtform turned living will be the least of every body’s worries.
I was approached by Barnett roughly twelve months ago with this book. During a tumultuous time in my life. I was finding my way back to myself but didn’t realise at the time that I still had a long way to go. At the time, I was declining a lot of ARC and review requests because I just did not have the capacity to fulfill my promise to read and review things within a timely manner. However, when Kojiro graced my inbox, I honestly could not say no. Japan is my ultimate. I have been enamoured with the country of the rising sun for as long as I can remember. So, when I read the blurb for this book, I was sold instantly. Promising a deep, rich world full of Asian myths, legends and lore; a protagonist with a deeply troubled past that is still trying to heal from the trauma he encountered as a young boy; a Samurai warrior on a journey to enact revenge upon the trickster that hurt someone he loves; and the human race caught in the crossfire between the two. Kojiro delivered on all of these, and more. It wasn’t until I was discussing the book with a close friend across the weekend that I realised how many different themes and issues are present in this book. It’s complex, it’s deep and there is a LOT going on, but is it rewarding? Yes. Yes, it is. This book has made me sit with the different themes present within it and actual ponder it for a while, and I’m honestly still finding bits and pieces slipping into my mind daily. I finished this book almost a week ago.
The story is a complex one, as stated above. The main theme of Kojiro is how two people can be connected across time and distance, even across planes of existence. How their stories can mirror each other, and one person is none the wiser to the other’s plight. It’s funny, Barnett and I discovered that we were actually living and experiencing this theme for ourselves after a conversation through email. Both experiencing similar situations, while having absolutely no idea that the other was going through it, having not actually known each other, yet somehow finding connection across great distance. It’s one of those things that really makes you marvel at the universe, and makes you feel that there is a much bigger picture than what we can ever hope to see. As I read through this story, I also noticed other themes peppered throughout. How one man’s greed can become another’s destruction, how those ‘on top’ can fail to think of those below and how their actions might impact the little guy. How maybe even the beings that people put so much faith and belief in, may not have all the answers themselves. And how important it is to above all, be kind, for you never know the battles that someone else is facing – I saw this in a boy that we meet, whose father just wanted them to have a better life, who ended up living on the streets simply because someone had a shoot first and ask questions later policy. When you are faced with the idea that one person can have the power to bring the entire world to its knees, you can’t help but stop and wonder at the likelihood of that happening, and for me, it’s entirely too possible.
Told through alternating points of view, mostly between Coletrane and Kojiro, but also through the eyes of various other characters that we meet along the way, this story can, at times, feel very overwhelming. Not in a bad way, just in that, as said above, there’s a lot going on, and it took me a minute at times to keep everything straight. By halfway through I pretty much had it all worked out and the story flowed better and quicker. I don’t think that the complex story could have been told in any other way, as this was a story that slowly weaved itself together from all the different threads, it wasn’t until the end that the picture had mostly taken shape and you could see the purpose behind all of the different balls of wool. This instalment definitely had a lot of work to do in setting up the worlds, the characters, and laying the foundations for what is yet to come. And even though it had all of this work to do, I can’t recall it ever feeling like an info dump. Information was filtered through to me as the story progressed, and I was able to catalogue it and put the pieces together as I was given them. I won’t lie, this book was very daunting, it’s one of those books that is so deep and rich and heavy that it made me feel like a potato at times. Again, not in a bad way, that’s born from my own inferiority complex issues (that no longer seem to plague me, at least not as much as they once did), it comes from my innate ability to second guess myself, to gaslight myself into thinking that I’m not understanding what I’m being told, or what I’m reading or experiencing, when I know that I am. So, it took me quite a while to get through this story, longer than I would have liked it to because of the enormity of the story itself. Once I picked it up and started reading, at any given time, I found it incredibly difficult to put back down. I read well past my bedtime on numerous occasions, and as the pieces started to fall into place, I found myself needing to pick it up at any chance I got. So, if you feel overwhelmed, please, stick with it, I promise you won’t regret it.
The characters. There are many. And every single one of them is important to the story. Coletrane is a deep and complex character. It took me quite a while to warm to him, I’d say almost the entire book, but I DID begin to warm to him by the end. He has managed to endear himself to me, along with Patrick the photographer and Poole – Coltrane’s only remaining family. Kojiro, now he shone for me from the minute I met him as a shadow. His story really pulled me in, and part of me wishes that the entire book was just the journey that he is following, but the logical part of me knows that I don’t really want that, that Kojiro’s story is enthralling because it’s a piece of a much bigger story. I think the reason that Kojiro’s chapters drew me in so much was because they reminded me so much of InuYasha – the anime. It’s one of my all-time favourites. When Kojiro is marching onward with the Live Crew, all I could see was The Band of 7 from season 7 of InuYasha. Completely different and unique, to each other of course, but what I saw was the camaraderie, the brotherhood, and the connection between the characters. The alternate feudal Japan that Coletrane created just threw me straight into an InuYasha type story line and I was here for it. I found myself smiling at my book on many occasions, thankfully I tend to hide away and read alone, so I didn’t have people looking at me like I was losing my marbles. There is still so much to learn and discover about so many of the characters, that I don’t want to mention any others. Only that I need to know what becomes of each and every single one of them, because these are characters that are stuck in my head, and I honestly find myself thinking about them a lot.
I don’t want to say too much more because I feel like you need to experience the story without knowing much of anything bar the basics. I feel like the experience of Kojiro would be lessened without the constant feed through of revelations and realisations at how things are connected. Just know that this is a very deep and complex read, it deals with a lot of different themes, topics and issues, and it will make you think. Its world is deep, and we’ve only just scratched the surface. The characters are rich, complex and feel so real that I can hear their footsteps beside my own. I won’t lie, part of me low key wants to be a part of the Live Crew. If you want a story so unique, that you cannot really compare it to another; one that is full of Asian myths and legends; and one that will stick with you long after you close the back cover; pick Kojiro up. It may not be a quick read, but it is definitely an enjoyable and rewarding one. I can’t wait for the next instalment.
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