Kamikaze Justice

Six-Gun Samurai #4: “Kamikaze Justice” by Patrick Lee (Mark Roberts). Thomas James Fletcher joined the Navy as a young boy, but while in Japan he is alone and struggling to survive when a powerful samurai takes him under his wing. For the next twenty years he is trained as a Samurai warrior. A letter from home tells him of the problems plaguing his family in Georgia, and he returns to seek vengeance upon Colonel Edward Hollister, the leader of a renegade commander and his troops, raiding and pillaging, killing and raping. As an American, raised in the land of the Shogun and trained as a warrior knight in Japan, he’s now known as Tanaka Tom Fletcher and bound by the Samurai code of the Bushido to a bloody vendetta against the Yankee marauders who slaughtered his family in Georgia. He must carry out his mission to its ultimate conclusion – the destruction of his enemies or himself. This is the basic premise of the backstory and series. As long as Colonel Hollister eludes him, the series will continue, I guess. But in each story he finds one of the ex-members of the 251^st Ohio Regiment, and must kill them to get closer to Hollister. In this current story, he has trailed ex-lieutenant Ashton to the valley of Yellow Creek, where Ashton has set up a religious cult, keeping everyone drugged while he takes their money and has his way with the young girls. He brings gunslingers in as Deacons to keep everyone in line. In the meantime two bounty hunters are following the Six-Gun Samurai from San Francisco, hoping to the get the reward money. So Tanaka Tom is caught between Ashton gunmen and the bounty hunters while trying to stop Ashton and protect the young girls. Well, this is men’s action adventure, so we don’t really need to expect much in way of plot. Just throw in enough action and sex, and the readers are satisfied. The author appeared to be an excellent writer and could be writing better material than this. As it is, I believe three different writers wrote the series, so there wasn’t any problem finding writers to churn out this stuff. Literature it isn’t, but that’s not what it intended, and it succeeded.

Gundown At Golden Gate

Six-Gun Samurai #3: “Gundown At Golden Gate” by Patrick Lee (William Fieldhouse). Thomas James Fletcher joined the Navy as a young boy, but while in Japan he is alone and struggling to survive when a powerful Samurai takes him under his wing. For the next twenty years he is trained as a Samurai. A letter from home tells him of the problems plaguing his family in Georgia, and he returns to seek vengeance upon Colonel Edward Hollister, the leader of a renegade commander and his troops, raiding and pillaging, killing and raping. As an American, raised in the land of the Shogun and trained as a warrior knight in Japan, he’s now known as Tanaka Tom Fletcher and bound by the Samurai code of the Bushido to a bloody vendetta against the Yankee marauders who slaughtered his family in Georgia. He must carry out his mission to its ultimate conclusion – the destruction of his enemies or himself. This is the basic premise of the backstory and series. In this current story Tanaka Tom Fletcher’s quest for vengeance has led him to San Francisco, where an agent of his archenemy, Colonel Hollister, is running for mayor of the great city. Tanaka Tom intends to terminate his campaign. However, there is a violent power struggle between the forces of the corrupt politicians and the ruthless blue dragon tong society, and Fletcher finds himself in the middle of two warring factions – and both sides want him dead. This is a silly plot for a western series, but good writing for the most part. Don’t expect much characterization, but there is plenty of action.