Book review: Jimbo Yojimbo – David W. Barbee

 

After slogging through a recent novel I was looking for something a little light-hearted, fun, fast, and a little bit odd, too. I certainly got that with Jimbo Yojimbo by David W. Barbee.

I’d enjoyed David’s previous novel, Bacon Fried Bastard, released last year and was only too keen to get my fishy fingers on his latest story. Like Bacon Fried Bastard, this short novel has its feet firmly in the realms of the bizarre as our samurai protagonist, Jimbo Yojimbo sets upon a bloody quest for revenge against the evil master chef, Bushido Budnick! Budnick is a part man, part machine, fish grilling, wasabi serving tyrant in the vein of Kim Jong-Un, and it’s up to Jimbo to hit the Buddha Gump Shrimp Companies HQ and lay waste to this foul man/machine!

What unfolds is a truly bizarre tale set in a world that is like a melding of Seven Samurai and Blade Runner. Jimbo Yojimbo‘s strength lies in its fantastic world building and characters. Jimbo is fabulous, but he isn’t the only shining light in this tale. I could talk forever about the other fantastic additions like Toadlicker, the catfishdragon, Budnick himself, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. Jimbo Yojimbo is action-packed, humorous and never gets too weird for it to become distracting. The pacing too is wonderful as we are thrown into the action from the very first page which sees Jimbo make a daring prison break and from here on in it is go, go, go!

I’m a big fan of David’s writing and I’ll be picking up everything he publishes from here on in. Highly recommended!

4/5 sushi rolls from the Grim Reader.

Pick up a copy from here.