Review: The Making of a Hero
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 3, 2014
Christopher Lee (imagine growing up with that name!) has written a compelling but slightly scattered novel, which is a ripping read.  Opening in the everglades, a farmer on a lonely swamp island confronts super-predators that have grown in the murky isolation of the everglades – a mythological paradise/hell unto itself. The narrative switches focus to two boys who, as usual, are getting in trouble, but are cut off by the predators, and harrowing action scenes proceed from there.  Lee paints his scenes with a vivid brush, and the book tears along! It switches gears, however, when it turns out one of the boys is being horribly abused by his alcoholic father, and the book twists again after that. I found the twists a little disorienting, but I see what Lee’s trying to do, and it’s worth staying with him to see where it goes.Moving a couple of decades into the future, we meet those boys again, and one of them has evolved into a crack commando. His hazardous boyhood has made him into a resourceful, brave soldier, and Lee writes the military scenes in fresh, bold ways.  What has happened to the other boy is in marked contrast, and there is room for a sequel to see where their lives will go.  Anyone who enjoys action, and is interested in what makes a hero (not everyone has it in him/her) will get a lot out of Waking of the Samurai. I’m looking forward to the next novel!