Neal Stephenson reconsiders a storyline from his novel "The Confusion" in light of his recent experiences with rapier [and dagger].

The author of The Confusion says practical sword training has caused him to rethink a combat scene from the book. He writes:

There is a scene in my novel The Confusion where Jesuit ronin Gabriel Goto, armed with a katana, takes on several Frenchmen armed with rapiers and daggers and kills them all. Admittedly, he gets a lot of help from the fact that he has stationed himself at a needle’s eye (narrow arch) so that they must attack him one at a time.

Having learned a lot about swordsmanship since having written that scene, I am now pretty sure that I got it wrong....