Part of Series
The thrilling conclusion to Seasons of the Sword! Can one girl survive? An easy mission promises to be Risuko's last Kano Murasaki (called Risuko) and her friends Emi, and Toumi are accompanying a spoiled young noblewoman to her wedding. What should be a simple assignment—get the bride to the wedding, make sure she's properly dressed—is anything but. Because someone wants the lady dead. And because Risuko and her friends aren't just lady's maids. They are kunoichi. Trained spies, assassins—and in this case, bodyguards. The wedding—which Risuko herself negotiated at sword-point—has the potential to unite the most powerful clans in Japan under a single banner, ending over a century of bloodshed, Risuko must do everything that she can to keep the brat of a princess safe and deliver her to her groom. Failure would mean death not just for the bride and her bodyguards. It might mean another hundred years of destruction for the whole empire. Along the way, Risuko and her friends must confront hidden enemies and uncover who is behind the plot. She must confront the ghosts of her past to become, finally, herself. Can Risuko survive? Can Risuko kill? Seasons of the Sword: 1 — Risuko (Winter) 2 — Bright Eyes (Spring) 3 — Kano (Summer) 4 — Murasaki (Autumn—coming soon!) (Young adult historical adventure; Japanese Civil War) Projected release, late 2025 ACTUAL RELEASE DATE TBA
Author
David Kudler is a writer and editor living just north of the Golden Gate Bridge with his wife, actress, teacher, and author Maura Vaughn, their author-to-be daughters, and their (apparently) non-literary cats. His award-winning novel Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale , a young-adult historical adventure novel set in sixteenth century Japan, serves as the first book in the Seasons of the Sword series. The sequel, Bright Eyes , hit the shelves on May 5, 2022. He's now hard at work on Book 3 ( Kano ). He served as managing editor for the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, editing Pathways to Bliss, Myths of Light, and Campbell's Asian Journals) in addition to managing the publication of over a hundred other print, ebook, print, audio, and video titles, including the first revised edition of the seminal The Hero with a Thousand Faces since the author's death. Currently, he serves as publisher for Stillpoint Digital Press, producing fine print, ebook, and audiobook editions for all ages in a wide variety of genres from philosophy and poetry to memoir and historical to fantasy and romance.
