CLOUD OF SPARROWS

This historical adventure explores the inevitable clash of cultures that occurs when, after years of isolationism, Japan opens its doors to the West. In Matsuoka's sweeping saga of 1861, the Shogun's secret police conspire to assassinate young Lord Genji. Genji has prophetic powers, and, in one of his visions, an outsider saves him from death. When three outsiders arrive in Edo, Genji believes one of them is his salvation. Grover Gardner, one of AUDIOFILE's Golden Voices, is splendid in this tale of samurai and gunfighters, geisha and missionaries, fraught with bloody battles and courtly intrigue. His portrayal of the self-righteous, sexually repressed missionary, Zephaniah Cromwell, is riveting, as are his interpretations of Emily, Cromwell's young fiancée; Matt Stark, a man with a secret; and Heiko, the extraordinary geisha Genji loves. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 03]