Steve Perry The Musashi Flex

The Musashi Flex

Steve Perry

Ace, Jan 2006, $7.99, 336 pp

ISBN 0441013619

In the twenty third century, planets have been colonized all over the galaxy policed by the confederation who has spies everywhere. The MUSASHI FLEX, a martial arts game where contestants duel each other, is one way to move up in a stagnant hierarchy. Lazlo Mourn, who played the game for fifteen years, is ready to retire until he saves the life of journalist Cayne Sola who was trying to tape the number ten player. Lazlo finds that he has stepped outside the box and into a new paradigm that lets hims beat opponents he couldn't touch before.

Multibillionaire Ellis Shaw has it all, power, prestige and women but what he really wants is to be the champion in the MUSASHI FLEX. However, he lacks that something extra needed to become a champion. He has his scientists work on the drug Reflex that speeds up his movements and starts steadily moving up in the numbers of MUSASHI FLEX. He meets the beautiful Azul at an art gallery and the two starts a relationship not realizing that she is a plant sent by control to find out about Reflex. These four people are going to find themselves linked in a way they never thought possible.

With steroids making superstars in sports and some suggesting the use of asterisks for modern records, though occurring in the distant future, MUSASHI FLEX is a timely science fiction thriller as the wealthy Shaw uses his money to find a chemical way to become the sport's champion. The three prime relationships, Shaw-Luna, Mourn-Sola, and Shaw-Mourn are deftly handled to enhance the personalities of the two male combatants so that the audience knows the demons that drive each before they finally meet with everything on the line. Weird but fascinating in many ways, this is an intriguing science fiction tale with a timely message.

Harriet Klausner