Eternal Samurai

By B. D. Heywood

In Japan in 1180 rather than accept defeat in battle the warrior monks of the Temple of Mii-dera commit suicide. The last, Saito Arisada, is turned into a vampire. Arisada vows that no matter how many lifetimes it takes, he will find the reincarnation of his lover who betrayed the Temple and kill him. Eight-hundred years later, Arisada sees that soul in the emerald eyes of the human Tatsu Cobb, and knows he still loves that soul. If he spares Tatsu’s life, Arisada will betray all he swore to avenge and lose all honor. Yet how can he kill his soulmate?
Human Tatsu Cobb hunts the dark streets of Seattle’s Vampire Quarantine for the monster that slaughtered his family. The last of a noble Japanese house, Tatsu is driven to find the killer and the truth behind the murders. When he meets Arisada, the vampire calls him beloved and kisses him. Engulfed by a passion he has never known before, Tatsu falls for the beautiful creature. Yet vengeance and honor demand Tatsu turn away from Arisada’s love.
When Seattle’s vampire Master threatens to destroy all humanity, Tatsu and Arisada join forces to fight to save the city. To lose means they will give their lives but never their honor. To win, they might gain the freedom to love each other for eternity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: B. D. Heywood
• Release date: Jun 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9780988300033

B. D. Heywood

Born and educated in England, B. D. Heywood lived in several countries before moving to the United States. Heywood has a Bachelor’s in English and another in Secondary Education-Language Arts. On the way to a career as a journalist, Heywood worked as a researcher, teacher, lecturer and construction estimator. Heywood’s study of Buddhism and martial arts evolved from a long-time admiration for the culture and history of Japan. In addition to working on a second novel, Eternal Warrior, and an anthology of erotic gay stories, Heywood is involved with gay rights advocacy, supporting several community organizations including one for at-risk GLBTQ youth and an equine-rescue operation.

Reviews for Eternal Samurai

[sadiesforsythe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really quite enjoyed that, but I suspect it will have a rather small core audience. Because what it reminds me of more than anything else is a Yaoi manga. This despite it being a literary novel instead of a graphic novel. It just feels like yaoi in that strange, nebulous way of mental association. You see, just as most fans of PNR or Urban Fantasy or even regular American M/M romance novels can often sketch out the basic shape of the plot most common to their genre of choice, this one follows yaoi's established format in fairly recognisable ways. But you see, I like Yaoi, so I wasn't at all put off by the similarities. The association was undoubtably helped along by Heywood's liberal use of Japanese terminology. No doubt my closet manga addiction and the two years I spent studying the Japanese language (which doesn't get you very far, BTW) helped me out here. I suspect some readers would have appreciated that help, because though I knew enough to be able to pronounce the words and recognise all of the ritualised terminology (seppeku, kinbaku, kaishakunin, etc), some of the curses and a couple of the normal words (like daisuki), it felt like there were an awful lot more than was necessary. It tended to clutter the narrative at times, even when quickly followed by an English translation (which most, but not all were). If all those extra words had felt completely foreign, instead of just kind of foreign, they might have really grated on me. Some of the English language did grate on me, if I'm honest. Mostly during the extremely long sex scenes. You see these aren't hearts and flowers, gentle, clean exploits. Its often rough, dirty and ... well, I probably can't say realistic. It's obviously not, but I thought the fact that things smelled, chafed, hurt, bled, and so on lent a real(ish) feel to it all. And while I appreciated this aspect of the story, some of the terminology used to create that same impression left me wanting--phrases like, piss slit or the liberal use of spunk--once or twice, fine, but over and over...not so much.What I liked most in this story, and one more thing that reminded me of Yaoi, was Saito's long standing, unquestioning, whole-hearted love for his unmei no hito (soulmate), regardless of the body it resides in. He pined for him for 800 years for gods sake. That's what I call dedication and I found it to be one of the only sweet things about the story. Almost everything else had an edge of some sort. On a side note, while probably not purposeful on the author's part, because of the red hair and scarred cheek I couldn't help visualising Saito Arisada as Rurouni Kenshin. I found this a little distracting.All-in-all however, while not without faults and inconsistencies, I enjoyed the read and would be up for trying another of Heywood's works.