The Heart of Iuchiban

Legend of the Five Rings

By: Evan Dicken

Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab

Return to the world of Legend of the Five Rings: Adventures in Rokugan, in this fantasy adventure pitting noble samurai against a forgotten evil corrupting the whole realm

Something is wrong in the Emerald Empire. The emperor is ailing, the court is weak and the Great Clans threaten to escalate their petty squabbling into all-out war. But in the shadows, another threat lurks—sinister Bloodspeaker cults attempt to resurrect the forgotten sorcerer Iuchiban, who possess a power so great it could destroy all of Rokugan. Now seven samurai, one from each of the Great Clans, must put aside their pride, fear, and rivalry to unite and prevent the Bloodspeakers from finding the legendary tomb of Iuchiban, and the hideous treasure locked inside. All that stands in the samurai's way is their hatred of each other. The road will be long and bloody, but glory waits for them at journey's end. As does death . . .

©2022 Fantasy Flight Games (P)2022 Tantor

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So good I listened to it twice back to back. I did not want to miss any details.

Great story

This was a lot of fun.
Magic. Betrayal. Adventure. Undead.
The best of ttrpg style storytelling.
Top notch performance too.

Excellent!

Excellent book! You really feel the distrust among the seven great clans. Also very well written characters. Highly recommanded.

Good samurai stuff

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n

An excellent adventure

It is a great starting place for those new to Legend of the Five Rings, as well as a week written adventure novel.

Fantasy/Horror

The Emperor has commanded an expedition encompassing all the great clans to put down a peasant rebellion, but something goes very wrong. A small group of heroes gathers to stop the existential threat revealed by that expedition.

The bones of this story are interesting enough, with an ancient evil rising and a disparate group gathering to oppose it. Unfortunately, I don't think the execution of that story is works.

The first problem is that while the individual members of the expedition are interesting, there are too many of them to focus on any one for long enough to hold my interest. I could really enjoy a story about any of the members of the group, but this treatment is too superficial.

Second, the main story takes too long to start. The beginning of the book is functionally a prologue, and it takes too long explaining the problem through characters that will just disappear. After the prologue, we get individual stories of each of the characters that are slowly brought together by fate, and it isn't until the book is half over that the group is assembled.

Next, once the group is assembled, the resulting story feels more like a dungeon module from an RPG than a real story. The individual obstacles are clever, but lacking a player character in the "game", one puzzle after another isn't really satisfying.

Finally, the tone of this book is closer to horror than fantasy. This isn't an inherent problem, and might be a net benefit for some readers. But horror isn't a genre that interests me much. The horror seems well-enough done, though I say that as an outsider.

There is some good intra-party conflict that supports good character development, and there is some decent revelation of the society of Rokugan, but ultimately, this book was only OK for me. If you are a horror and fantasy fan, it might work better for you.