Way of the Dragon is the third book in the Young Samurai series and in my opinion is so far the best one. The series is about a young English boy who sails to Japan with his father but is ambushed by a ninja called Dokugan Ryu(Dragon Eye). Now the lone survivor of his crew, Jack is stranded in Japan with no friends or family until he is rescued and adopted by a samurai and taught their ways.
The best thing about the series is that it is fast paced and actions packed and the third book definitely sticks to the same trend. As soon as the book starts their is immediate action and interrogation which hooks you into the story. It links nicely into the last book and not much explanation is needed to fill in the gap.
The characters continue to be developed well and the bonds between different characters strengthen and create a better atmosphere for this very eventful book. The story builds up to a climactic finish where the main character is forced to make multiple difficult decisions. The Way of the Dragon encompasses multiple emotions as it contains a good balance of romance, victory and death(however this book is particularly high in death).
This book does rid itself of many influential and popular characters that do not appear in any of the later books. This does leave a large dent in the novels that can be seen as a positive or negative thing. In my opinion some of these characters are too well developed to be so permanently be removed from the series. On the other hand though this could just be seen as a way to move along the story.
As a whole this series is an excellent read and this book is especially gripping and tense. The series gives you a deep insight into the Japanese culture, history and traditions. I would rate this book five stars and I would highly recommend it.
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