Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Historical
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Maryann
Get It On Amazon | Heavy Metal Blood Box Set
About The Book
Go into battle expecting to die…
Born and raised as a samurai, Tetsuro Saito expected to die in battle. He didn’t expect to rise again.
Waking up in the middle of a bloodbath, Tetsuro is horrified to discover he’s been turned into a vampire by a man with a violent agenda. Unless Tetsuro can find a way to stop him, Maxwell Osborne will continue to create an army of immortals. Fighting the bloodthirsty urges now burning through his veins, Tetsuro vows to kill Osborne and spare the world fate he has in store for it.
Everything he once stood for has been ripped away. The life he once had is gone. Will Tetsuro be strong enough to defeat his maker while starving his new impulses? Or will victory demand he lose himself to the darkness rising within him?
This is a standalone novella, and can be read in any order.
The Review
Somewhere near Kagoshima, Japan in 1877, Tetsuro Saito faced a horrible awakening. For many years, he was a samurai, and he had never seen such carnage. The sight of all the bodies of soldiers, samurais and innocent, unarmed civilians were beyond impossible to accept. It made him sick. Who had done all this?
Then he hears a voice and sees a man, Maxwell Osborne. Maxwell carries a thin sword and a gun. Tetsuro still had his katana, the three body blade. Maxwell tells him how impressed he is with Tetsuro – of all the subjects, he was the only one to survive.
Tetsuro’s family served daimyo for generations back to the 15th century, but Osborne treats him as a commoner. Being addressed with the informal anata, rather than Saito-dono or Tetsuro-dono, is an insult and disrespectful. It’s deliberate.
Osborne makes his skin crawl. Tetsuro remembers being shot – they were out numbered. Sixty to one – five hundred samurai against tens of thousands of soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army. There was nothing they could do, as samurai never surrender.
He remembers the pale man, with pale hair and eyes crouching over him. He did this to Tetsuro with those sharp teeth. He needs to know why this man had done this to him. He knows now that he was a bakemono, a yurei or a shiryo.
Osborne explains he was given the task to recruit the new army that Queen Elizabeth the First had started. Tetsuro was now a test case. Tetsuro wants nothing more than to cut-down Osborne with his katana. No matter how hard he fights back, he cannot beat Osborne. Osborne gave him two choices and Tetsuro made the wrong one.
In 1953, Tetsuro finds himself in Alexandria, Egypt. Sixty-four years later, and the headaches still plagued him. Humidity and hunger add to them. He doesn’t need normal food – he needs blood to sustain him, and he refuses to think about it. After all these decades, he is still not used to the feeding.
He listens to a man playing a pear-shaped lute that looks like a biwa. The music is wonderful. He had training in music with several instruments: the koto, the fue and the sho, but he’ wa’s not very good. His talents are in the rhythm – the okawa drums. Leaving coins for the man, they look into each others eyes and recognize what they are. Tetsuro wants to draw his katana on the man.
After much indecision, the man introduces himself as Elyes Jaouhari. When Elyes hears of Tetsuro’s journey, he sends him to Damanhour, to find the white man, Maxwell Osborne. Elyes warns him to watch the roads, as they are patrolled by the Bedouin ghoul hunters. Tired, lonely, homesick and needing sustenance, Tetsuro does the one thing he hates, to survive.
In a battle with Osborne, Tetsuro is caught by a hunter, Ibrahim Al-Amin. He shares his story with Ibrahim, and tells him he means to kill Osborne. Ibrahim and Tetsuro make a strange connection. Will they make a pact to deal with Osborne?
Lane pens another heart-rending story in A Beat of Honour, the third tale in the “Heavy Metal Blood” novella series – another innocent corrupted by an evil Queens whims, to create an army that brings only death. The stories do have moments of gore and blood, but ultimately that’s not what they are about.
Tetsuro has a soul and a conscience, as well as a love of music. There’s something special between Tetsuro and Ibrahim, and it’s a real surprise. Tetsuro is really likable, and accepts what fate deals him.
As with all the novellas from “Heavy Metal Blood,” the chapters are headed with “Now Playing.” A Beat of Honourpresents folk songs from Japan and Algeria.
I highly recommend A Beat of Honour, and all the novellas for “Heavy Metal Blood.” The stories are really well written, and all have a surprise at the end.
Just a hint, catch up with the band “Bloody Morningstar,” with Brys Darcy, Jean-Etienne Petit, Elyse Jaouhari and Tetsuro Saito, in A Riff of Retribution from the “Heavy Metal Hunters” series.
All four books of the “Heavy Metal Blood” stories are available separately or in “The Complete Origin Series”.
The Reviewer
Hi, I’m Maryann, I started life in New York, moved to New Hampshire and in 1965 uprooted again to Sacramento, California. Once I retired I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida in 2011 and just moved back to Sacramento in March of 2018. My son, his wife and step-daughter flew out to Florida and we road tripped back so they got to see sights they have never seen. New Orleans and the Grand Canyon were the highlights. Now I am back on the west coast again to stay! From a young age Ialways liked to read.
I remember going to the library and reading the “Doctor Dolittle” books by Hugh Lofting. Much later on became a big fan of the classics, Edgar Alan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and as time went by Agatha Christie, Ray Bradbury and Stephen Kingand many other authors.
My first M/M shifter book I read was written by Jan Irving the “Uncommon Cowboys” series from 2012. She was the first author I ever contacted and sent an email to letting her know how much I liked this series. Sometime along the way I read “Zero to the Bone”by Jane Seville, I think just about everyone has read this book!
As it stands right now I’m really into mysteries, grit, gore and “triggers” don’t bother me. But if a blurb piques my interest I will read the book.
My kindle collection eclectic and over three thousand books and my Audible collection is slowly growing. I have both the kindle and audible apps on my ipod, ipads, and MAC. So there is never an excuse not to be listening or reading.
I joined Goodreads around 2012 and started posting reviews. One day a wonderful lady, Lisa Horan of The Novel Approach, sent me an email to see if I wanted to join her review group. Joining her site was such an eye opener. I got introduce to so many new authors that write for the LGBTQ genre. Needless to say, it was heart breaking when it ended.
But I found a really great site, QRI and it’s right here in Sacramento. Last year at QSAC I actually got to meet Scott Coatsworth, Amy Lane and Jeff Adams.