Customer Reviews

The Musashi Flex (Matador)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Musashi Flex" by Steve Perry is another great offering for those who have enjoyed the Matadore series. This is a fast paced book, as all of Perry's Matodore books have been. Perry manages to insert his readers into a far distant future, but still make them feel at home.

Many of the technologies that were at first "cutting edge" when Perry began his series with "The Man Who Never Missed", are in production and common place today. To me, this points out the visionary quality that writers like Steve Perry and others in the SciFi genre have. They seem to be road maps for what is to come.

"The Musashi Flex" focuses primarily on the semi-illegal fight game going on among the many Confed planets. The Flex is kind of a cross between NHB martial arts with a taste of the old west gunfighters. The Flex players move from planet to planet essentially dueling each other for the title of Primero...the number one fighter. This little book has all the elements of the current state of sports, with illegal performance drug use and constantly imroving training technique and fighting technique. However, Perry manages to describe fairly accurately the movement of these competitors from fighter to Spiritual warrior.

For those that have enjoyed this series, this book is also the origin of the 97 Steps martial art featured in all the Matador novels as well as showing the origin of the rebellion against the Confed.

A good read from Steve Perry. Hopefully, he will delve further into this series and continue to flesh out his fascinating view of the future.

Lazlo Mourn is ranked in the Top Twenty of the Musashi Flex, a martial arts gladiatoral game that spans dozens of worlds in the Comfederation. Ellis Shaw, one of the wealthiest men in the ComFed, has just came up with a new drug that enhances a person's metabolism making him -- for a short while at a time -- one of the fastest beings in several worlds. These two men are fated to meet in the top rung of the Flex. But Lazlo Mourn, once a semi-burned out fighter who had reached the peak of his game, has just received an enlightment and is on a self-fulfilling journey to perfect the craft he's given his entire life to. Meanwhile, Shaw's drug invention is the object of a ComFed spy plot and could ultimately be his downfall.

Steve Perry returns to his Matador universe with this entry. Author of THE 97th STEP, THE ALBINO KNIFE, novels in the ALIENS series as well as STAR WARS, Perry also writes novels in Tom Clancy's bestselling Net Force series.

Perry has written a lean, mean book filled with action and character. It's not really deep enough to stay with a reader long after the final page is turned, but there are nuggets of pure gold within it. The character of Lazlor Mourn is real and honest, and Ellis Shaw comes across as a complex and complicated antagonist. In between the takes on marital arts and the psychology of fighting lie intriguing bits of a future world Perry has been writing about for twenty years. The layers and textures of the novel delight and provide glimpses of how the future may turn out. The reader moves swiftly through the action, and through the lives of Mourn and Shaw as each in turn has to hustle and evade the things that would hamper them from finding out who is best.

For good, old-fashioned action science fiction, a reader would have to look far and wide to find someone who equals Steve Perry's futuristic martial arts books. People who've enjoyed Gordon Dickson's Dorsai novels of John Ringo's military SF will probably enjoy this novel. Buckle in and be prepared to be totally entranced with the rapid-fire action and dialogue.

This book is great for any and all fans of the Matadora series.

Taking place years before any of the existing books, this helps to flesh out the Confed and history that becomes important later on in the series.

Fast paced as these books generally are, this is a good addition with some good surprises.

I, for one, am hoping for more books to flesh out this universe even more or to link the story in this book to the rest of the books with more of Perry's creative storytelling.

The Musashi Flex is not only a well told tale, but a believable and interesting portrayal of combat; something that is rare in Sci-Fi. I can easily imagine UFC-type competitions evolving into what the author has entertainingly described in his book. His experience in martial arts makes it a fascinating read, at least for guys like me who have experience with the real thing and have a hard time wading through the unrealistic fluff that many authors crank out. This outstanding tome has realistic fight scenes, compelling characters (particularly Mourn), an interesting plot, great pacing, and a fun vision of the future. This is the first of Perry's books that I have read and most certainly not the last!

Highly recommended!

Lawrence Kane
Author of Blinded by the Night, among other titles

Steve Perry will never be studied in high school literature classes, but he is fairly good at what he does -- the written equivalent of mass-market action films. This book is one of his better efforts.

It features four characters whose lives slowly come together into a final climax in the last few pages of the book. Two of them are men who have been interested in the "Musashi Flex" (a formal martial arts dueling society) for most of their lives, and two of them are women who (for various reasons) get involved with the men.

Behind the martial arts fighting scenes and the sexual scenes (both toned down a bit from some of Perry's other work) lies a basic question: "What happens when you achieve your life's goal? What do you do then?"

Mourn has lived his life existentially, from fight to fight, taking the traditional martial artist philosophy of striving only to improve yourself through training and practice and solitary contemplation. Shaw has been a wealthy industrialist who took a successful company and turned it into a huge corporation, but all the while has used his money and drive to create a drug that he hopes will make him an invincible fighter. Both men suddenly find their paths to be successful, and their drive to the top happens at the same moment. But who will triumph when the immovable object encounters the unstoppable cannonball?

In the background (and occasionally the foreground) lies the sinister and corrupt "Confederation" (the overthrow of which becomes the focus of the Matador series). This book is written about 20 years later than the original novels and also showcases Perry's own improvements in writing skill.

M. Perry has crafted a triumphant return to the love, honor, and politics of the Matador 'verse. If you are a fan of the Matador series, you will appreciate both the background provided here (pre-Pen) and the return of the author to a beloved series. Thank you M. Perry, for this gift.

Some might be questioning the limits of the author's ability to write novels beyond that of "Man Who Nevver Missed" universe what with his numerous "post" Confed and now even more "pre" Matador offerings he seems destined to eventually flesh out the timelines and tangents of action back to our present day.
I for one hope he does so, as every single selection, from Black Steel to The Albino Knife to even the obscure Omega Cage(an exciting Prison Break piece with 2 supporting chacaters from the Matador series= Dain Maro a black market operateer who actualy meets Khadaji only once and Juete, the sexy albino SkinSlave who was Khadaji's first love) all of them abound with sleek futuristic coolness, coupled with the fierce savagery of conflict, martial and political.
I eagerly await Mr. Perry's next foray into the past or future of that universe. Because so far every story has been well worth it.
1. The Man Who Never Missed
2. Matadora
3. The Machiavelli Interface
4. The 97th Step
5. The Albino Knife
6. Brother Death
7. Black Steel
8. The Omega Cage(2 supporting characters)
9. The Mushashi Flex

Question: What do thriller writers read when they want an adrenaline rush?

Answer: Steve Perry.

I've been hooked on the Matador books since I first stumbled across `The 97th Step' about fifteen years ago. I was disappointed when it seemed that the series had finally burned out. Then, along comes `The Musashi Flex,' and starts the fire all over again.

If you've followed the saga of Pen, Dirisha, and the Man Who Never Missed, you're in for a treat. Steve Perry is back, with more intrigue, action, romance, and gadgetry than every before. If you're a newcomer to the battle against the Confed, step right through this door... Adventure lies this way...

- Jeff Edwards, award-winning author of Torpedo

I bought this yesterday at the grocery store and I love it!
It's so hard to find someone who can write about the martial arts and tell a good story at the same time.
It's the first Steve Perry book that I've read and I'll definitely be reading others.

Steve Perry has a way of putting a reader into his unique world filled with intrigue, fast-paced knife fighting and characters so real they leap off the page. This sci-fi backdrop he's created seems familiar and fresh at the same time. Perry's writing is tight and hard-hitting. I could scarcely put the book down.

My favorite parts were the insights into human existence and fate-like this line:

"Luck could take you places, but She could never be trusted to stay in your bed once you got there."

The whole Matador series is excellent and I plan to re-read all of the books.

Thank you, Steve, for writing this prequel! I enjoyed every word.