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This week, I'm going to recommend The Bird King by G. Willa Wilson.

She's one of my favorite voices and pretty much everything she does, books, comics, what have

you, and this novel in particular is pretty fascinating.

It's very different from what you might call traditional fantasy, thanks in large part

to the fact that it has this Middle Eastern Muslim spin rather than the sort of European medieval spin

that is more standard to that genre.

So if that sounds cool to you, go to audible trial.com slash Japan to claim your copy. Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 299, The Rebellion That Never Was.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a masterless samurai must be in want of a master to serve.

You see, one of the reasons I find Japan's eddo period, the zenith of samurai rule over Japan, so fundamentally fascinating is that

generally it was not particularly a great time to be a samurai. Sure, it was a pretty good deal if you were

one of the 260-ish daimyo of Japan, or part of the close retinue of family that made up the elders of individual domains.

In that case, your family's social prestige would ensure you good positions with high stipends.

But if you were a regular samurai, you would face a middling stipend, one that never really grew in value,

and increasingly a difficult economic situation.

And, you would be one of the lucky ones.

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