The second book in the Black Samurai series pits Robert Sand again a maniacal billionaire who wants to pit Russia and China against each other, all in the name of good business. Ahh yes, the maniacal billionaire. Is there any character so overused in the world of action-adventure? I know there are plnety of dastardly rich guys who built their empires on the backs of exploited workers, but I wonder how many of them also have private armies, fortified castles, and plans to play super-powers against one another for their own amusement. I often get a hearty chuckle out of imagining Sam Walton, Dave Thomas, or even Bill Gates standing in a vast underground compound, cluthing at the sky, and screaming, "Now the time has come to put my master plan in motion!" as dozens of jumpsuit-wearing private security guards cheer and wave their machine guns in the air.

Well, I guess there's a reason I don't like movies about actual rich guy conquest, and that's because it's pretty boring stuff. I mean, if the black samurai busted in on Bill Gates and, instead of finding him torturing a young virgin while clad in a black cloak and big-ass purple hat with a peacock feather in it, found him sitting in a board meeting trying to figure out how to get Windows Me onto ten thousand more desktop PCs by the end of fiscal year 2000, it wouldn't make for a very interesting read unless you are one of those stock market types. I guess it could get interesting if one of those oval display screens suddenly showed Steve Jobs laughing and going, "So, we meet again. Now you shall witness the full power of my genesis device!" Of course, being a product of Steve Jobs engineering, it would probably crash and freeze up before destroying Moscow.

So given the alternative, I'm willing to play along with the megalomaniac billionaire with a vast global empire and a right hand man named Talon who commands an army of killer falcons. It's not quite as scary as Ted Turner sicking Jane Fonda on someone, but a human can only stand so much.

The billionaire in question here has hatched a dastardly scheme to cause a war between China and Russia. Seems that the two communist adversaries are about to hammer out the details of a plan that will facilitate the sharing of a vast deposit of Chinese gold and thus bring the two nations closer together. The billionaire figures if he can get them to hate each other, he has a good chance of getting the mining contract for himself, which will help him heal his ailing empire and buy some more castles and other crazy rich guy stuff. So he starts ordering the assassination of important Chinese officials, making it look like the Russians are behind it all.

Of course, he didn't plan on the Black Samurai taking an interest in his affairs.

But of course it wouldn't really be a Black Samurai story if the Black Samurai didn't get involved. At the bequest of his chief employer, ex President Clarke, Sand sets off to find out who is really behind the murders and to kill everyone responsible. There's a pretty cool exchange as Sand takes the job, where Clarke says he is glad to have Sand working for him. Sand cooly replies, "I don't work for you. I work with you."

What follows is more action-packed kungfu and spy action. As witht he last time, the books are relatively low on sex, very high on action and violence. Sand punches, kicks, and slices his way from New York to England as he tracks downt he ruthless businessman and his chief of security, Talon. The Black Samurai also discovers they are hatching a plot to drop chemical weapons on an entire Chinese village if the assassination plots don't prove enough to break down relations between Russia and China. Nothing is ever simple when you are a Black Samurai.

Sand finds an unexpected ally in the billionaire's abused and terrified wife, and together they build toward a climactic showdown inside a castle full of armed henchmen, Talon, and his assorted birds and dogs. All in all, it's a pretty cool story, though I like the first book a little better than this one. Tons of action, tragedy, and even more action made for a swifta nd enjoyable read. The bad guys are nearly as fleshed out this time around as they were in the previous book, and they seem more cartoonish and one-dimensional. That's a small fault in the greater scheme of things, especially snce you know one way or the other they're getting a katana in the belly.

Labels: Espionage