Book Review: The Bamboo Bloodbath by Piers Anthony and Roberto Fuentes
I’ve mentioned before that one of my guilty pleasures is the “men’s adventure” paperback series of the 1970s. Violence, sex, drugs and the particular cultural trends of the Seventies mixed with a macho writing style and pulpish sensibility. In the case of the Jason Striker series, another cultural trend is added, a fascination with East Asian martial arts. Striker is skilled at judo (his actual job is judo trainer), karate, kung fu and related skills, and has a gift for accessing his ki (inner energy) whenever the plot requires it. He also has a gift for winding up in deadly situations requiring him to use his skills in lethal ways.
In this case, Jason Striker is up against the master villain known as the Hyena. The Hyena is not only a skilled martial artist who runs a lucrative extortion racket, but a druglord, the brains behind the militant organization Blackrev (despite being a white dude), and a famous businessman who regularly hobnobs with the Washington elite. That last part is especially impressive as the Hyena is also known for his pungent body odor and serious cocaine habit.
Striker comes into conflict with the Hyena when he’s talked into being a bodyguard for a wealthy man the Hyena is trying to extort. The rich guy has a hot and barely legal daughter who wants to jump Striker’s bones, which happens after Striker manages to fend off the Hyena’s attack and there’s a brief interruption by the book’s costar.
This is Ilunga, the Black Karate Mistress (her sections are in third person, while Jason’s are in first person.) In addition to being a skilled martial artist herself, Ilunga is the last surviving addict of Killer-13, a drug that gives near superhuman physical prowess at the cost of poor night vision and dying if you stop taking it. Ilunga’s half-brother Danny has gotten in too deep with Blackrev, and she’s seeking Striker’s help as the only white man she kind of trusts.
Striker is kind of busy training America’s team for the World Judo Championship in Cuba, so he gets Ilunga in touch with his old friend Mustapha, and moves on. He’s slightly worried that he doesn’t hear back, but Ilunga is more than capable of taking care of herself. Right?
After the judo championship (America does very poorly), the main plot comes crashing back in as it now turns out Ilunga is working for the Hyena. Or is she? Time for a showdown!
Piers Anthony is better known these days for his long running Xanth fantasy series, and Roberto Fuentes was his judo teacher, who presumably did all the martial arts knowledge bits while Anthony provided the plot and characterization. The book is littered with Japanese and Chinese martial arts terms like anime fanfic is littered with “-chan” and “baka.”
Good: Jason Striker is endearingly fallible, pulling some boneheaded moves like opening the front door to a house he’s just spent most of the chapter fortifying because the Hyena politely knocked. While being lethal in non-tournament combat, he’s not the top guy when he has to follow rules.
The book’s cover promises lots of violence, and the story delivers with multiple fatalities described lovingly. (By comparison, the sex is never described though it is implied that Striker is awesome at it.)
Fidel Castro gets to chew the scenery in a long scene where he gets to be competent and clever, though Striker never lets us forget this man is a Communist dictator who would have him killed in a second if it was convenient.
Less good: Rape. Ilunga’s reason for becoming a lethal martial arts mistress is being raped at age twelve and her white attackers getting off scot-free thanks to white police officers giving them a pass. Her favorite move is crushing men’s testicles, but that hasn’t been enough to prevent her being raped a few times since, including a rape by deception in this volume, and a sexual assault.
Odd: There’s a chapter-long digression where Striker investigates Strate, an anti-drug program for teens. It turns out to use cult-style brainwashing, but is apparently otherwise not connected to the plot at all and is not secretly run by bad guys.
Content note: In addition to the afore-mentioned rape, there’s torture and brainwashing. Racism is a frequent topic and some slurs are used. Cuba not being treated as entirely a third world hellhole may upset some conservatives.
Overall: A pretty good example of men’s adventure of its time period. The series was reprinted in two-novel volumes, which seem to be available online.
