Customer Reviews

The Phoenix (Legend of the Five Rings: Clan War, Fourth Scroll)

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

 

 

I gave the first 3 books 4 stars and gave this one 3 stars only because it doesn't wrap up a story like the other previous books. That would have been nice...

Having said that, I guess you'd have to say that "The Empire Strikes Back" was a terrible movie because it didn't have a satisfying 'good guys win' sort of ending. Or that the first two books of "The Lord of the Rings" were weak because they didn't wrap things up at the end of each.

Wrong.

This series is (I think) 7 books long. ...Like LOTR, you can't take one of these books and read it alone except for maybe "The Scorpion". Legend Of The Five Rings:Clan Wars" is a huge story that is slowly developed through each book. There are major plot elements from the previous 2 books that are described in this book and make it clear what the heck has been behind them. Specifically where the plague came from and who's sending out all these monsters and undead to wreak havok on the land. That alone is worth the price of the book.

This book takes place during the same period of time that books 2 and 3 take place. Although events from those books are only briefly touched upon just to give you some bearing as to when things are, I didn't mind. I read those events already and don't need to read about them again. "Unicorn" and "Crane" seem intertwined, but "Phoenix" is pretty much independent.

There is a lot of action in this book. Since the Phoenix use sorcery, there are a lot of battles that are not just desciption of what a guys sword was doing... although there is a lot of that too. This time there is a good deal of magic doing the fighting. Armies burst into flame, strong winds push bad guys around, rocks suddenly jut out of the ground to impale bad guys. Very cool stuff.

Some things someone posted that I thought were misleading:

1- "Then, magically, Tadaka is transformed into something EVIL. No mucking about here; Tadaka goes from an obsessed, but good, priest to a demon-worshipping man who murders his best friend."

This is not really true. Tadaka is changing, but he's not worshiping any demons. He's doing something else with demons, but not worshiping them. He also doesn't kill his best friend. It wasn't like this "friend" was someone he knew all his life... let alone was 'friendly' with. It is shocking when he kills him, but not completely out of character. I believe he did half-heartedly attack him earlier in the book (to make him go away... not something you would do to a 'best friend'). Tadaka is changing. He's been tainted by evil because he's accessed the Black Scrolls and is slowly being consumed by that evil. Using a Black Scroll is something that caused another character in the first chapter to turn evil. It's all spelled out... not coming from out of nowhere. Killing his friend is more like a device to show that he's not the same anymore. What's more, there's no telling if he really killed his 'friend' or not. Read the book and you'll probably see what I mean.

2- "He befriends natives of the Shadowlands, the hellish locale where Junzo lurks, but they somehow prove inept at surviving their own front lawn."

Not really. It wasn't their front lawn. They were actually taking Tadaka to a region that they are afraid of and don't go to. The trek took many days to get there, so it wasn't exactly their neighborhood. When some die, they are taken by surprise or natural selection takes over and they die because they were stupid. Only one in the group actually knows the terrain and that character DOES survive.

Although I liked this book a lot, there were two things that bothered me:

1- The word "cool" was used to describe something as being good. This was done by a character whose speech is a lot closer to an American than a denizen of ancient Japan, but it still seemed wrong. You could assume, however that there was a Japanese term like it that he used and that translates into English as "Cool". It still seemed wrong.

2- I think the author is running out of decriptions. He tends to use the same words to describe things over and over. I'm really tired of reading the word 'sinews'. There's always something going on with 'sinews'. Would it kill him to use the word 'tendon' once in a while? Also, there were two situations only a couple chapters apart (or so it seemed) where 2 different characters did the same thing. They stuck their swords through the eye and out the back of the skull of a zombie. I could be wrong about the sword going throught the back of the head in both cases, but jeezz. Another one through the Eye? Maybe there was a reason for this, but it seemed random enough to me that another body part could have been used. There are also a lot of other descritpions that you know you've just read a bunch of times already. There could have been different ways to describe the same thing if it had to be described again. When I read what appears to be the same sentence over again... sometimes just on the next page... it pops me out of the story and I'm reminded that there was an author to this book. It's not really happening, it was written.

Those are pretty small gripes. Other than that, it was a good read. I wouldn't recommend it unless you've read the previous books, though. But I wouldn't recommend "LOTR: Two Towers" without reading "LOTR: Fellowship of the Rings" first... This is a huge epic that requires you to read all the books to get the whole story...

I have played in several L5R RPG campaigns... always as a Phoenix. As such, I had high hopes for this book. I thought Mr. Sullivan did a wonderful job with character development. I especially enjoyed his characterization of Isawa Kaede. However, like others reviewers, I was disappointed by the ending... or lack thereof. The ending "felt" like it should have been the midway point. You'd expect script writers for a soap opera to use that kind of technique, but it is not really befitting of a novelist. I am hoping that the seventh book, _The Lion_ (also written by Mr. Sullivan,) will tie up the loose ends that this book left behind.

The book is actually quite well-paced. Sullivan has definitely improved since his first outing in "Scorpion", and he handles the constant scene shifts quite well in his attempt to give a general picture of what the whole Phoenix Clan was going through. In addition, there is the sheer imagination which shines in the author's description of spells, landscapes, creatures and so on. While only 3 characters - Kaede, Tadaka and Ujimitsu could be said to be truly fleshed out, the others are given much attention as well. Such scenes may be slow, but they give the novel much more substance together with the fight and battle scenes which are detailed without losing tempo. Most importantly, the author manages to convey well not simply the individual personalities of the Elemental Council but also their respective hubrises which lead to their eventual downfall, especially the corruption in mind and body of Isawa Tadaka. Overall, this novel does much justice to the game and I look forward to Sullivan's next work in the series.

The Phoenix are the most powerful mages in the land. The five element masters have sat by and watched a war tear the land apart. Now they have decided to act. The Phoenix is the fourth novel in this series and it is a very good read like the other three. It takes place at the same time as the Unicorn and the Crane. This time though you are following the Element Masters of the Phoenix. All the characters are quite imppressive and well thought out. This one has a few spots where it slows down but it usally follows these up with a battle. The plot twists are frequent and really leave you wandering what is going to happen next. Also the magic that the Element Masters is quite impressive. Some of the things they do are quite cool. The only problems with this book are that parts can be slow. Also like all these books there are a lot of characters with similar names making it hard to keep track of them. Of course on the plus side they added a glossary to the back of this one.

I actually started with this book first out of the series due to my interest in the Phoenix clan. I had read about the Phoenix clan in the Rokugan roleplaying books.

Since I did not read any of the other books in the series, I base my review ONLY on this book.

I really enjoyed this book alot. The character Kaede, Mistress of the Void, was defenitely my favorite in the book. She was torn between her own self-preservation, her clan & the Empire.

One of the best book I have read in awhile. I am looking forward to the rest of the Clan books.

this book told the story of the corruption of the phoenix clan and how it palys out in the clan war a very good book for fans of the l5r game who like me came into l5r during hidden emperor

Right off the thing I loved about this book was that the author, Stephen Sullivan, was able to bring the world of Rokugan into mind so clearly that you didn't read the book, you lived it. His attention to detail was just so that you could see the waterfalls and feel the atmosphere, (I could see the entire book played out as a John Woo or Akira Kurosawa film).

Like the other L5R books this one played it's piece in the grand scheme of things by introducing the mystical pheonix clan. Every book in the Clan War series is "tainted" with a clans very biased perspective, which only makes the series better, and the Pheonix is no exception. The main character, a shugenja named Isawa Tadaka, is a great character told as an adventurous type who basically becomes a martyr for his clan (as any good samurai should). I'd tell you more about it but you should just get yourself a copy and read it!

This is a good book for any fan of Forgotten Realms, Planescape and Ravenloft and a must read for anyone who owns a copy of the Ninja Scroll!!

A must own!!

The Fourth Scroll of the Clan War is, in my opinion, the weakest of the Five Scrolls that I have read.

It is again a story of pride and adversity and the continuance of the Clan Wars of Rokugan Empire.

The Phoenix are the Masters of Elemental Magic of the Empire, they have positions that are dedicated to each of the rings; Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Void. I enjoyed reading the backgrounds of the various masters, and the Phoenix Champion is by far one of the most intriguing characters I have seen in the series, but the weakness of the book is the failure to contribute to the ongoing saga.

I also did not like the way the book ended, or rather failed to end. There is little resolved in this book, and the only contribution it made to the Clan War Scrolls was a very limited foreshadowing.

If you are a player of L5R or Clan War with an emphasis on the Phoenix Clan, you may enjoy reading this book. If you are a player of L5R or Clan war with no emphasis on the Phoenix Clan the book will contribute little to your reading enjoyment. If you have nothing to do with the Legend of the Five Rings or Clan War, I would not suggest this book.

With the Scorpion novel, Sullivan proved that he could make a villain into a sympathetic character.

Would that he could do the same with a hero like Isawa Tadaka.

Tadaka is on a quest to halt the depradations of the sorceror Yogo Junzo. Despite this sounding like the primal hero's journey of Joseph Campbell, in actuality this is nothing more than an extended quest for Tadaka to do silly, lethal hat tricks. He befriends natives of the Shadowlands, the hellish locale where Junzo lurks, but they somehow prove inept at surviving their own front lawn. When Tadaka finally catches up with Junzo, the leaps of logic simply pile up. Then, magically, Tadaka is transformed into something EVIL. No mucking about here; Tadaka goes from an obsessed, but good, priest to a demon-worshipping man who murders his best friend.

Sound bad? That's not all. No fewer than four other major protagonists populating this book.

Skip it.

...it's good as a fill-in. The series seems to be drawing too slow, and there could be too many books written before they hit the end of the L5R Clan War storyline. Great work was done with Tadaka but too little with the others and their corruptions. And contrary to popular belief, namely victor_kuo, the L5R product line is not being ended. Rather it is being sold, and rumors are all pointing to Alderac, who owns the RPG, Clan Wars miniatures and who have contributed much to the L5R history. I'm eagerly waiting for the Crab novel and hope it comes on time. Anyway, as the story of Isawa Tadaka this book is fantastic. As the story of the Phoenix it lacked. Much too similar to the Scorpion novel. While it worked for the Scorpion, as the Coup was essentially the story of Bayushi Shoju, it fails at the Phoenix. At least the fan fics can have some character development to play off of. Definitely a drop from the best book in the series, The Crane.