Description

The Disfavored Hero by Jessica Amanda Salmonson

Tradepaperback – Pacific Warriors – Jan1999

The first volume in the Tomoe Gozen Saga, first published in 1981 by Ace Books in paperback. This edition includes a full color wrap-around cover and twelve black & white interior illustrations by Wendy Adrian Wees.

From the publisher:

The Disfavored Hero, Book One of the Tomoe Gozen Saga, is a fantastic tale of a female Samurai general and folk hero who lived, and fought, during the Gempei War period-1180AD through 1185AD.

During this famous war, between the Minamoto Family and the Taira House, Tomoe Gozen fought along side her husband Kiso Yoshinaka, the Rising Sun General. While Yoshinaka and Tomoe’s brother Imai Kanchira both died in 1184 near Awazu, Tomoe went on to become the subject of legends, plays, and poems for hundreds of years after. Even today Tomoe is celebrated as a folk hero during Japanese festivals and has inspired comic books and cartoon characters.

Our Tomoe Gozen lives in Naipon, a universe parallel to Japan, where one encounters the full spectrum of beauty and violence-experiencing firsthand the pathos of all things, and where “occult happenings were the meat of everyday life”. Jessica Salmonson has blended historical accounts with Japanese folk tales of heroes, heroines, and the supernatural to weave a story truly worthy of the Tomoe Gozen legend.

The Tomoe Gozen Saga is a passionate tale that, once begun, demands nothing short of the reader’s soul. After, one will never again see the world in quite the same way.

Originally titled “Tomoe Gozen” by ACE paperbacks, this is the restored and definitive edition of The Disfavored Hero with corrections by the author.