Matsuo’s brother doesn’t care for Meiko, but he needs her to gain power in a secret mystical sect of Samurai. Both men have fallen in love with Meiko, but neither can act on it. Meiko then meets and befriends Frank who Matsuo has not forgiven. Matsuo returns to Japan hating Frank, he is more than willing to take a job as a spy on America.He returns to America to attend college and watch over his brother’s fiancé (Meiko) from an arranged Marriage. In the greatest shame of his young life Frank stands by as a neighborhood bully beats up his Japanese friend. Frank’s only friend is the Nephew of their Japanese house servant Matsuo. The story told partly in first person by Frank Slater- the son of a San Francisco factory operator. This novel is a heartbreaking love quadrangle. Using the clash of Japanese and American culture as a starting point and the back drop of the conflict in the pacific Wilson again weaves a complicated plot. This is a more straight forward epic war novel, think of it as lightly seasoned with fantastic elements. That novel has monsters and is more outright horror but there is a supernatural element to Black Wind albeit more subtle. Wilson has already written a classic of WW II horror in his classic The Keep (Adversary Cycle #1) which took place in Europe. Three hundred and fifty pages in I was struck thinking that Michael Bay would have been better off using Black Wind instead of the plot he did for his Pearl Harbor movie. ) for many things but mostly for events in the last 40 pages of the book. Black Wind earns it’s spot in Wilson Secret history of the world time line ( see. While not directly related or apart of the Adversary Cycle(the literary sister to Wilson’s Repairman Jack series), Black Wind is an important part of the secret history of the world and directly connects to the RMJ novel “By the Sword.” I choose to read this novel right before reading By the Sword, and I think that is the way to go. While it is not my personal favorite (That would be Harbingers so far) I can’t argue that it is not his strongest novel. It is my understanding that Wilson considers this his masterpiece or at least one of his very best novels. That might be a record for me, actually I know it is. This is the 15th F.Paul Wilson I have read in five months. Remember the extremely wooden romance in The Keep? Multiply that times three and you have what goes on here. Still, at the heart of this novel are the various romances among the main characters and while I like Wilson's work, romance is definitely not his strength. Also, the representation of Japan- its culture and the politics of the era- seemed up to snuff for me as well, although I am no expert here. Countless times the main characters are separated by 1000s of miles and yet they keep meeting in the strangest places! I did like how Wilson portrayed the horrible racism Japanese people faced in the US, both before and during the war he pulls few punches here. To really love this, however, requires such a suspension of belief that it was beyond me. Wilson gives us a true family soap opera here involving the four and alongside that, the unfolding of WWII with Japan. It seems everyone falls in love with Meiko, including Matsuo and Frank and, well, hormones and all! The only one not in love with her is ironically Hiroki, who just wants to possess and use her. Finally, we have Hiroki's fiancé, Meiko, who is also sent to the US for education. His older brother, Hiroki, still lives in Japan and is part of the 'monk cult' behind the Black Wind. Matsuo is from an old, noble family in Japan and his father sent him to be raised in the US to 'learn their ways' and such. A wealthy family (whose wealth was primarily in stocks), they employed a live in Japanese cook and gardener, along with a Japanese boy named Matsuo who is Frank's age. Our main protagonists are Frank, the American, who is introduced in 1926 or so, living in San Francisco. The 'recipe' for this, however, has been lost hidden by a monk 100s of years ago, but the powers that be in Japan hope to find it to win the war. Basically, the 'Wind' kills everything living that is touched by its black bellowing 'smoke'. The Black Wind is the name of an ancient 'mega' weapon purportedly developed hundreds of years ago by a Japanese 'cult' fiercely loyal to the Emperor during the Shogun era. Having recently read Masterton's Tengu where we learned that the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima to thwart more Tengu production, Wilson wants us to believe that it was really to stop the Black Wind? What is a reader to do? Black Wind is a long book, and a bit long winded at times, but definitely Wilson did his homework here, while adding his own 'alternative history' into the mix. Wilson's sweeping saga of WWII centers upon four main characters, three Japanese and one American, and chronicles the war from both a Japanese and American perspective.
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