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Location: Canada

Member Since: May 08, 2015

Alex Gilbert

To Dance With Death (A Practical Guide To Mastering The Art Of The Sword) on May 17, 2015

I wanted to love this book... A new work dedicated to learning swordsmanship? I thought, Great ! Sadly, it is -- after some reading -- not quite as good as I'd hoped. Furthermore, it is filled with more "mumbo jumbo" than the author claims. "No nonsense" the author says, or "Yoda talk"... Unfortunately, I found this to be false. I'll admit I promptly put it down after Chapter 5. The author states there is no need for a sword with two edges "simply because there is noneed for two edges." Ah... Now I understand. I suspected early on, from the wanna-be quasi-spiritual talk (despite the author's claim that there wouldn't be any) that this was really a book about Eastern martial arts. Then the author made that very telling remark: so this isn't a book about swordsmanship as much as it is a book about the katana. What about the sidesword? Arming sword? Longsword, anyone? How about the rapier? How can the tag "western sword" bl00dy be included in this book's page? If you are interested in katana swordsmanship, and don't mind the author's less-than-humble approach, then PERHAPS you will enjoy this book... Otherwise, stay away, and save the small amount of money this book costs. And from what I did read... There is sadly precious little practical in this "instruction manual".