Larry Ivkovich's The Sixth Precept was published by IFWG Publishing in 2011.
Here's information about the author:
IT professional Larry Ivkovich is the author of several science fiction, fantasy and horror short stories and novellas, published online and in various print publications and anthologies including M-Brane SF, Afterburn SF, Penumbra Magazine, Twisted Cat Tales, Abaculus III, Raw Terror, Triangulations and Aoife's Kiss Shelter of Daylight. He has also been a finalist in the L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future contest and was the 2010 recipient of the CZP/Rannu Fund Award for fiction. His fantasy adventure novella, Reunion at Olan, will be published in 2012 by Wolfsinger Publications. Larry is a member of two local writing/critique groups, the Pittsburgh Southwrites and the Pittsburgh Worldrights and lives in Coraopolis, PA with his wife Martha and cats Trixie and Milo.
Here's a description of The Sixth Precept:
In 16th century medieval Japan, Yoshima Mitsu, who is gifted with psychic powers, uses her prescient abilities to send her young attendant, Shioko, into the future. There, Mitsu belives Shioko will be safe from the purges of the maniacal warlord Omori Kadanamora, his warrior monks, and his half-human, half-bestial Shadow Trackers.
In present-day Pittsburgh, police lieutenant Kim Yoshima is attacked by a creature out of someone's twisted nightmare. In the aftermath of the terrifying struggle, Kin finds a young Japanese girl named Shioko, lost, confused, and calling Kim "Mitsu" and her monstrous attacker a "Shadow Tracker."
Wayne Brewster dreams of a costumed hero, ArcNight. But more than that, he feels bizarrely connected to the fictional crime fighter as if ArcNight and his comic book world are real. And in all of his dreams, Wayne sees one constant, one face repeated over and over - the face of Kim Yoshima.
Using her powers, Kim, accompanied by Shioko and Wayne, travels by means of a temporal rift to feudal Japan. There they must assume different personas to fight Omori and creatures of Japan's mythological world to fulfill ancient prophesy and modern historical fact.
If they fail, history will be altered and the world will be forever changed.
A REVIEW OF LARRY IVKOVICH'S THE SIXTH PRECEPT
Categorizing The Sixth Precept is easy. It's urban fantasy, but it isn't exactly the kind of urban fantasy which most people call urban fantasy, because it contains several different elements from ancient Japanese mysticism to time travelling.
I have to confess that I consciously try to avoid reading urban fantasy, because I've read a few bad books, which were quite horrible in almost every possible way. I've noticed that finding good urban fantasy seems to be difficult, because it often feels like several authors tend to clone the plots from other books and avoid originality as much as they can.
Fortunately The Sixth Precept was a totally different kind of a book and I found myself liking it very much. The Sixth Precept is a surprisingly original and exciting urban fantasy book. To be honest, it's an exceptionally good book.
Before I write more about this book and my thoughts about it, here's a bit of information the plot:
The events in The Sixth Precept take place in ancient Japan and modern day USA. The story begins in medieval Japan. A woman named Yoshima Mitsu sends Shioko into the future in order to protect her. In the present day Lieutenant Kim Yoshima is attacked by a shadowtracker and finds Shioko. Kim finds out that she has psychic powers. Brewster dreams of being a hero and learns things from his dreams. These characters meet each other and decide to fight together against evil...
I enjoyed reading about the characters, because Larry Ivkovich writes about the lives of the characters in an interesting way. Each character has his/her own life, but each of them is drawn to towards the mysterious happenings and can't fully explain why they're so interested in the happenings. The author doesn't underline what happens to the characters, but writes convincingly about their lives and problems.
One of the best things about this book is that the bad guys aren't as black and white as they usually are in several other modern urban fantasy books. It was interesting to read how Omori's father's beatings made Omori a cruel man. This gave depth to the character and made the reader understand his motives better.
The slowly manifesting psychic powers of Kim Yoshima are handled well. The author writes about these powers fascinatingly, because Kim has to learn how to use her powers. The author also writes fantastically about Brewster's dreams and his life, because Brewster dreams of being a super hero called ArcNight and is able to learn things from his dreams.
The shadow trackers are interesting creatures, because they're intelligent and ruthlessly hunt their prey. What makes shadow trackers especially interesting is that the author writes about their feelings and their ancestry. The author tells how they have been bred for their master to do what he wants them to do. (Several other authors would've probably just written about the main characters and not about the beasts and their thoughts.)
I was impressed by the author's writing style, because he gradually added depth to the storyline and made the characters come alive with a few carefully chosen words. One of the best things about this book is that the author writes fluently about time travelling (the time travel elements are handled believably in fantasy context).
Larry Ivkovich has clearly spent a lot of time doing research for this book, because he uses Japanese names and terms. He also writes about Japanese culture and history. In my opinion, he manages to combine elements of urban way of life and ancient Japanese culture and mysticism perfectly, because reading about them is genuinely fascinating.
I think it's great that IFWG Publishing published The Sixth Precept, because this book demonstrates that small presses often publish better and more intriguing books than big publishers.
I can recommend The Sixth Precept to fantasy readers and especially to readers who love urban fantasy. The Sixth Precept is almost like a hidden treasure, which awaits to be found by urban fantasy readers. If you're interested in good modern urban fantasy, this book will be of interest to you, because the story is surprisingly complex and intriguing.