Book Review: Sensei by John Donohue

In fiction, the portrayal of the martial arts and those that study them tends to be have a certain sci-fi plausibility. It's mildly plausible, if you take one tangental scientific fact or theory and mix it with a series of extrapolated possibilities - each one wilder than the next - and believe in a working tractor beam or time travel or a self-aware, intelligent viral computer. Likewise, it's sort of plausible to believe in a martial artist with mystical or near-superhuman powers if you look at the heightened powers of balance, focused power, or concentration that many martial artists develop at the height of their skills - then make a series of fantastical interpolations.

There's nothing wrong with fiction like this; it's a fun, fast read. It's like popcorn or cotton candy - great in limited amounts.

In "Sensei," you still have to suspend your sense of disbelief - it's a mystery thriller, after all - but unlike with other novels that feature martial artists such as those that comprise the "Ninja" series by Eric von Lustbader or the "Matador" series by Steve Perry, you feel a little less silly explaining the plot to your friends. I'd never heard of author John Donohue before, but even with a brief skim of the first chapter, there was no doubt in my mind that Donohue is a real, hard-core, serious student of the arts. It turns out that Donohue has more than 25 years in the Japanese arts, such as judo, karatedo, iaido, and aikido, and is an editor of the scholarly Journal of Asian Martial Arts.

The protagonist of "Sensei" is Connor Burke, an East Asian studies professor, the senior student of a reclusive master from Japan, and brother to an NYPD detective. The gist of the plot involves the killings of three well-known sensei in formal challenge matches by someone calling himself a "ronin" - a term for a masterless samurai in feudal Japan. Burke's involvement in the story stems from his close relationships with his brother and his sensei and his immersion in both of their worlds. The plot reads rather well, and the characters have enough depth - although just barely - to be interesting and to make us care about them. The one exception to this is that of the villain, whose possible motives are discussed, but demonstrates a bit of a comic-book villain's mindset at the concluding climactic fight scene. It is a bit of a letdown to discover at the end of the book that the dangerous killer that scares everyone so badly plagiarized his master plan from a cliche-ridden melodramatic dime-store novel.

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