Black Wind [Mass Market Paperback]

F. Paul Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 2009

F. Paul Wilson’s powerful World War II novel is an unforgettable saga of passion and terror, the ravages of war, the pain of betrayal, and the glory of love.

At the heart of the story are four people torn between love and honor:  Matsuo Okumo, born in Japan, raised in America, and hated in both lands; Hiroki Okumo, his brother, a modern samurai sworn to serve a secret cult and the almighty Emperor; Meiko Satsuma, the woman they both love; and Frank Slater, the American who turned away when Matsuo needed him, and who now struggles to repay his debt of honor.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Black Wind:

“F. Paul Wilson weaves spells with words, and Black Wind is a stunner.  Ambitious, unusual, compelling.”
—Dean Koontz

“The reader comes to care intensely about the fates of the characters...a sharp and intelligent entertainment, a genuine page-turner many notches above standard fare.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“A high-powered page turner, with writing as honed as a samurai sword.”
—Adam Hall, author of The Quiller Memorandum

“A superb feast of storytelling.  Intricately plotted, compellingly told; suspenseful, moving, and at times intensely horrifying--F. Paul Wilson’s most ambitious novel so far, and surely his best.”
—Ramsey Campbell, author of The Grin of the Dark

“Of great and captivating sweep.”
—Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

F. Paul Wilson is the New York Times bestselling author of horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and virtually everything in between. His books include the Repairman Jack novels, including Ground Zero, The Tomb, and Fatal Error; the Adversary cycle, including The Keep; and a young adult series featuring the teenage Jack. Wilson has won the Prometheus Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Inkpot Award from the San Diego ComiCon, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers of America, among other honors. He lives in Wall, New Jersey.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; Second Edition edition (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765362929
• ISBN-13: 978-0765362926
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #474,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born toward the end of the Jurassic Period and raised in New Jersey where I misspent my youth playing with matches, poring over Uncle Scrooge and E.C. comics, reading Lovecraft, Matheson, Bradbury, and Heinlein, listening to Chuck Berry and Alan Freed, and watching Soupy Sales and horror movies. I sold my first story in the Cretaceous Period and have been writing ever since. (Even that dinosaur-killer asteroid couldn't stop me.)

I've written in just about every genre - science fiction, fantasy, horror, a children's Christmas book (with a monster, of course), medical thrillers, political thrillers, even a religious thriller (long before that DaVinci thing). So far I've got about 33 books and 100 or so short stories under my name in 24 languages.

THE KEEP, THE TOMB, HARBINGERS, and BY THE SWORD all appeared on the New York Times Bestsellers List. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS won the first Prometheus Award in 1979; THE TOMB received the Porgie Award from The West Coast Review of Books. My novelette "Aftershock" received the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for short fiction. DYDEETOWN WORLD was on the young adult recommended reading lists of the American Library Association and the New York Public Library, among others (God knows why). I received the prestigious Inkpot Award from San Diego ComiCon and the Pioneer Award from the RT Booklovers Convention. I'm listed in the 50th anniversary edition of Who's Who in America. (That plus $3 will buy you a girly coffee at Starbuck's.)

My novel THE KEEP was made into a visually striking but otherwise incomprehensible movie (screenplay and direction by Michael Mann) from Paramount in 1983. My original teleplay "Glim-Glim" first aired on Monsters. An adaptation of my short story "Menage a Trois" was part of the pilot for The Hunger series that debuted on Showtime in July 1997.

And then there's the epic saga of the Repairman Jack film. After 14 years in development hell with half a dozen writers and at least a dozen scripts, THE TOMB is finally moving toward production as "Repairman Jack" from Beacon Films and Touchstone. The plan is to make Jack a franchise character. (Gotta tell you: all the years of this has worn me out.)

I've done a few collaborations too. One with Steve Spruill on NIGHTKILL, and a bunch with Matthew J. Costello. Matt and I did world design, characters, and story arcs for Sci-Fi Channel's FTL NewsFeed, a daily newscast set 150 years in the future. An FTL NewsFeed was the first program broadcast by the new channel when it launched in September 1992. We took over scripting the Newsfeeds (the equivalent of a 4-1/2 hour movie per year) in 1994 and continued until its cancellation in December 1996.

We did script and design for MATHQUEST WITH ALADDIN (Disney Interactive - 1997) with voices by Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters, and the same for The Interactive DARK HALF for Orion Pictures, based on the Stephen King novel, but this project was orphaned when MGM bought Orion. (It's officially vaporware now.) We even wrote a stageplay, "Syzygy," which opened in St. Augustine, Florida, in March, 2000.

I'm tired of talking about myself, so I'll close by saying that I live and work at the Jersey Shore where I'm usually pounding away on a new Repairman Jack novel and haunting eBay for strange clocks and Daddy Warbucks memorabilia. (No, we don't have a cat.)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time favorite books ever, May 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Wind (Hardcover)

I read this book many years ago, it was passed around between family members. To this day, I have not read a book that has so powerfully depicted the tumultuous events involving Americans and Japanese during World War II. In fact, I was so dismayed that the book was out of print! This beautifully written historical epic is riveting, the kind that makes you cry and gets you all choked up, and the characters are admirable and true to life. F. Paul Wilson brilliantly weaves in historical details, native superstition and cultural differences around an unforgettable love triangle, and gives some very lasting (not to mention haunting) images of the war. Steven Spielberg should have made a movie out of it!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Black Wind, May 9, 2000

By 

Valerie Mercer (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Wind (Hardcover)

Fantastic! I want to give it 5++ stars! F. Paul Wilson has truly created a novel to capture the intricate dynamics of loyalty between friends, between lovers, between brothers, between family and child, between love and hate...inter-twined without gaps, fast moving...a tightly woven tale that held me spell-bound, anxious to keep on reading well late into the night. Excellent work, sir...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best F. Paul Wilson novel!, May 6, 2008

By 

J. Nicklin "kayenine" (Hood River, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Black Wind (Paperback)

Arguably the best yet from F. Paul Wilson including the entire Repairman Jack series. Don't get me wrong; I love Jack but he's getting a little long in the tooth and I think F. needs to move along and get back to his roots as we see in Black Wind. Wonderful story.