Lian Hearn

Tales of the Otori — (2002-2007) Heaven's Net is Wide is a prequel.  Publisher: A new epic trilogy that has already become a bestselling sensation in England and Australia, earning comparisons to The Lord of the Rings. It begins with the legend of a nightingale floor in a black-walled fortress — a floor that sings in alarm at the step of an assassin. It will take true courage and all the skills of an ancient Tribe for one orphaned youth named Takeo to discover the magical destiny that awaits him... across the nightingale floor.

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Across the Nightingale Floor: Excellent first book but series pales after this.

Across the Nightingale Floor is a wonderful fantasy novel set in an imaginative (as opposed to historical) feudal Japan. Its setting, sparse language, quick pace, relatively slim length, and lack of cookie-cutter fantasy races (dwarves, dragons, horse people, etc.) set it apart from much of the genre.

Young Takeo, one of two main characters, lives with his family, sans father, in a quiet village. They are all "Hidden," members of a persecuted early Christianity and the book starts out at a full dark pace as the village is quickly overrun by a local warlord Iida, with Takeo the only survivor. Rescued seemingly through random luck by Otori Shigeru, another warlord who holds Iida his enemy, Takeo follows Shigeru to his far-off home where he becomes his ward and is educated in the way of the upper class and the warrior. It also becomes clear as he ages that he has somehow inherited some of the skills of the Tribe, a secret group of assassins who can go invisible for short periods of time, put people to sleep, hear sounds from far off, and so on. As his unknown past becomes unraveled, Takeo becomes increasingly embroiled in the area's current political and social upheavals and finds himself conflicted within as well, torn by the obligations of family, religion, duty, class, and love to name just a few.

Across the Nightingale Floor shifts between Takeo and Kaede, the other main character — a young beautiful girl held hostage in Iida's castle. Kaede resists being used as a pawn in the world of men and must fight her own battles (sometimes literally). Eventually, as one expects, Takeo and Kaede's paths merge and a love story develops.

The story is fast-paced and the language sparse, making for a quick read. The language is beautiful in many places and its style and tone are perfect for the setting. The minimal style isn't quite so positive at times with regard to plot, as sometimes things skim by a bit too quickly, such as Takeo's training which turns him seemingly overnight (a slight exaggeration) into an amazingly effective assassin. And sometimes the world creation seems a bit thin. Despite the book's brevity, the characterization is mostly well-done — the two main characters have a sense of fullness to them and the side characters, if anything, are even better.

The style, language, setting, plot, and characters are all above average and combine to create an excellent first book in the series. The only complaint is that it is by far the best book in the series. Luckily, it doesn't rely on a cliffhanger ending so one can read it on its own with a sense of resolution. Strongly recommended, with fair warning that books two and three suffer greatly in comparison, being nowhere near as interesting, slower paced, a bit repetitive, and overall lacking the spark of the first.
—Bill Capossere

Across the Nightingale Floor: "You Don't Know Who May be Watching You..."

Tomasu is a young man of the Hidden People, who loves nothing more than to take solitary walks in the mountains. This is until the day he returns to the village and discovers the body of his murdered stepfather and other community members. They are victims of a merciless massacre by the Tohan Clan and their warlord Iida Sadamu, and when Tomasu flees into the forests he is rescued from pursuers by Otori Shigeru, a lord of the Otori Clan that opposes the rule of the Tohan. Taking him under his wing, Shigeru renames the young man "Takeo", and together the two return to his home in the city of Hagi. But what does Shigeru really want from Takeo? Was their meeting and Takeo's rescue an accident? As previously dormant abilities in Takeo gradually emerge (such as keen hearing, invisibility and supernatural agility), he begins to suspect that Shigeru is grooming him for a secret mission. When he hears about Iida's "nightingale floor" — a floor specially rigged to make noise when trod upon, he begins to realize where his training is leading him...

Takeo's chapters are told in first-person narrative, but they are alternated with third-person narration that recounts the activities of Shirakawa Kaede, a young woman who has lived most of her life as a hostage in a hostile fief. After she attacks a soldier who attempts to molest her, the family suddenly takes notice of her beauty and organize an arranged marriage for her. Naturally, these two lives are soon to be intertwined — and from there flows a story of intrigue, betrayals, alliances, assassinations, treachery and revenge — well paced and packed full of good ideas and vivid descriptions. Particularly interesting is the way Takeo is torn between opposing clans and tribes: the Hidden (his mother's people who raised him) who were pacifists, the Tribe (his father's people) who are hired assassins from who he inherits his particular talents, and the Otori Clan into which he's adopted by Shigeru. Trying to figure out exactly where he belongs is the main crux of Takeo's character, and his divided loyalties are played out reasonably well throughout the text.

However, on the whole Across the Nightingale Floor is a good example of how a very good story is told in the wrong way. Often Lian Hearn has characters with secret identities and hidden motives, but she gives them away too soon and without any sense of suspense or revelation (for an early example, there is the character of Shizuka: she's introduced as a flirty, flighty servant girl, though we are quickly told that she's a highly skilled agent for the Tribe. Instead of building our suspicions with clues and foreshadowing, Hearn gives the game away too quickly, not giving us the opportunity of being impressed with an established and carefully constructed plot-twist). There are many other situations when I was frustrated with Hearn's handling of her own story: she has good material here, but constantly fails to present it in a compelling way.

As well as this, I felt that the "love story" between Takeo and Kaede is mishandled. Here's a passage from the chapter in which Kaede first becomes aware of Takeo (and keep in mind that she hates and fears all males): "She had been dreaming vividly, but the moment she opened her eyes the dream vanished, leaving her only with the lucid knowledge that what she felt was love. She was astonished, then elated, then dismayed. At first she thought she would die if she saw him, then that she would die if she didn't." At this stage, Kaede hasn't even spoken to Takeo — simply seen him through a window. A love affair based on "love at first sight" (or alternatively, lust) in which there is very little interaction or conversation between the couple cannot help but be void of all emotion or resonance.

Due to these twin problems (the mishandling of the plot and the lack of emotional resonance in the characters) make this a novel full of potential, but frustratingly lacking in form. Drawing inspiration from Japanese culture, Hearn creates a world that is refreshingly different from the typical medieval-fantasy world, though in saying that, there is surprisingly little in the way of fantasy elements throughout the course of the story, with the minor exception of the paranormal gifts of the Tribe. How accurate it all is, I'll leave to someone more knowledgeable on the subject to comment on, but there is plenty of fascinating world-building at work throughout the story (okay, I'll admit I've been watching a lot of Avatar The Last Airbender lately, and it reminded me of that!)

Although there are some serious discrepancies in the writing, I've invested myself in these characters and their situation, so I'll be continuing the journey in Grass for His Pillow, the next installment.
—Rebecca Fisher

Across the Nightingale Floor: Great Story, but a warning about the audiobook.

This is an excellent book for all of the reason that Bill states: beautiful, concise writing style, good characterization, fast pace, interesting plot. (But I must agree with Rebecca about the ridiculousness of love-at-first-sight — that's almost never plausible to me, and it makes the characters seem a bit shallow.) But, Lian Hearn's oriental-flavored writing style is unique and compelling, so I really enjoyed Across the Nightingale Floor.

Warning about the audiobook: I listened to this book on CD. There are two readers — a man for the voice of Takeo, and a woman for the voice of Kaede. The man is an excellent reader with a lovely voice (he's got the oriental speech sounds just right). I think his reading made me sympathize with Takeo more than I would have if I had read the book in print format.

But the female reader was terrible — she speaks slowly and too distinctly, as if she's reading to kindergarteners. This was extremely annoying! Fortunately, most of the book is written with Takeo's narration, so her reading didn't ruin it for me.

Also, I think, as an American reader, I might have benefited from actually seeing the oriental names, rather than only hearing them. It took me a while to distinguish between some of the names because they were all unfamiliar to me and ... (sorry) they all sounded too similar at first. If you're planning to read this series, read it in print, not by audio. —Kat Hooper

Grass for His Pillow: "I Cannot Lie to the Entire World..."

This is the typical middle novel in any trilogy, which is free from the back-story and introductions of the first novel, but leaves all resolution for the final installment. As such, Grass for his Pillow is full of setup with little payoff, though it builds up plenty of suspense and intrigue. Like chess pieces on a board, Lian Hearn carefully arranges her characters and their motivations throughout the story, creating a tangled web of alliances, friendships, rivalries, enemies and every other kind of human relationship you can think of that stretches across the Japanese-inspired created world of the Three Countries. Keeping track of all these people and their intrigues is hard work, but Hearn shows a deft hand in juggling all her story components without getting bogged down in exposition. In fact, I was impressed by the swift pacing in Grass for his Pillow, which was a step up from Across the Nightingale Floor.

After the death of his adopted father Otori Shigeru, Takeo has left the Clan and fulfilled his promise to his father's people, the Tribe, by submitting to their orders and teachings. The Tribe-people are blessed with specialized gifts, such as invisibility, supernatural senses and the ability to create a spirit-doubling of themselves, making them highly prized spies and assassins. Takeo is particularly powerful, and the Tribe considers him a valuable asset to their people. But despite honing his gifts, Takeo isn't particularly sure he wants to be an assassin. Having been raised by his mother's people, a group of pacifists who worship a secret god, and adopted into the honorable Otori Clan, Takeo is torn between three groups with opposing views, each with a prior claim on his life.

Told in first-person narrative by Takeo himself, the young warrior wants nothing more than to avenge Shigeru's death and marry his beloved Shirakawa Kaede, a beautiful young woman who is secretly responsible for the death of the warlord Iida Sadamu. With Iida's death, Arai Daiichi has taken his place, a leader who secures some semblance of peace — but who despises the Tribe and wants to see them eradicated. Finding enemies on all sides, Takeo strikes out on his own in the attempt to find his own destiny. The emergence of a prophesy, the adulation of the outcaste society, the growing hatred of the Tribe toward him, and a dangerous journey through the winter mountains are some of the problems Takeo faces throughout the course of the story.

Meanwhile, Kaede has returned to her homeland (after being a hostage for most of her life) to find her home in disrepair, her mother dead, and her father reaching desperation. Now Kaede must find strength within herself to take on a patriarchal society, protecting her home, her younger sisters, and the inheritance that Lady Naomi bequeathed to her in the previous book: the lands of Maruyama. Told in third-person narrative, Kaede's story works best when describing this teenager's efforts to exert control over the scornful men around her and teaching herself how to think and behave like a man. It is weakest when Hearn harks on about how beautiful she is, and how men will desire and endanger her because of this beauty — heck, even her father has incestuous thoughts for her. Hating and fearing all men (except for Takeo of course, a man she hardly knows but claims to be in love with), Kaede has the potential to be an interesting character — so long as she's kept away from Takeo. The love affair between them has no emotional resonance at all, and her insistence toward the end of the novel that the two of them be married as soon as possible (regardless of the political repercussions) is a frustrating conclusion to a woman who has been trying to exert her independence over males.

In fact, all of the characters are emotionally cold and distant. Although I enjoy the way in which Takeo attempts to negotiate the warring personalities and loyalties within himself, and could really feel the rising pressure in Kaede's attempt to remain in control of her household, I can't really bring myself to like either of them. They are ambitious, calculating, and are directly responsible for several deaths in the course of the story. Now, these are not necessarily bad things, they can add to character depth and development if handled correctly. But Hearn pays little attention to the way these things affect her character's psyches, leaving them as figures that merely do things to further the plot, not three-dimensional characters that grow with each new experience.

Yet, the story itself has me hooked and Lian Hearn successfully makes me wonder: "what happens next?" —Rebecca Fisher

Brilliance of the Moon: "I Had Been Claimed by Both Sides of my Ancestry..."

Brilliance of the Moon wraps up the main plot of the previous novels, Across the Nightingale Floor and Grass for His Pillow. There is a forth installment (The Harsh Cry of the Heron) that is set fifteen years after the conclusion of this book which deals with a couple of plot-threads that were left dangling here (namely, the prophesy that claims Takeo will die at the hands of his own son). And Heaven's Net is Wide is a prequel, so for all intents and purposes, this is the grand finale of the story that has been gradually building up throughout the previous books, and Lian Hearn brings the semi-epic tale to a satisfactory and bittersweet conclusion.

Being the third novel, there is a huge amount of back-story and intrigue already set up, and so it seems pointless to summarize it here. Let's just say that there's no way you can understand this story without already having read the previous novels. Basically, our main character Otori Takeo is a young warrior with allegiances to three opposing factions in the Japanese-inspired world of the Three Countries. Attempting to negotiate his ties with all three of them (both within himself and in the world itself) makes up the crux of his character, as he is torn between the honorable Otori Clan (into which he was adopted), the pacifist Hidden people (who bear a resemblance to Christians) and the devious Tribe, a secretive and devious faction who instigate their near-supernatural abilities in the art of spy-craft and assassination. Told in first-person narrative, Takeo's story is suspenseful and poignant, as the young man is called upon to make some very difficult decisions throughout the course of the tale. The saying that there can be no peace without war is especially apt here, as Takeo deals with a range of betrayals, alliances, intrigues, enmities and battles that threaten his attempts to secure peace. Several times I found myself asking: "What would I do in that situation?" Lian Hearn doesn't hesitate to make her protagonist undertake some very dubious activities, which adds to the richness of the story itself.

In the final chapter of Grass for his Pillow, Takeo was wed to his beloved Shirakawa Kaede, something I felt was a surprise move on Hearn's part (usually weddings are postpones till the end of a story). Unfortunately, I never felt that the romance between them was handled particularly well, but having a married couple as a story's main protagonists is an interesting change. As in the previous books, Kaede's chapters are told in third-person narrative, although she has a lesser part to play here. Hearn seems to have lost interest in her slightly, as Kaede's development from a timid young girl into an independent and powerful woman is undercut in this installment when she becomes a prisoner of a malevolent lord — remaining there for most of the book's length.

However, one cannot say the same thing about Takeo, who has fully embraced his role as a war-leader and all the responsibilities that come with it. Hearn captures the burden of leadership perfectly, as Takeo struggles to maintain power whilst placating those that answer to him, seeking out allegiances whilst knowing he can trust no one, kill those oppose him whilst suppressing his own distaste for violence. Hearn handles the action sequences and the atmosphere of war extremely well, and though we don't fear for Takeo himself, be certain that all of his friends and comrades are up for grabs. Takeo has grown convincingly from boy to man throughout the course of the three books, capable of both compassionate and merciless actions, something that finally makes him a fully three-dimensional character (being rather distant in the previous books). He struggles, he doubts, he succeeds and fails, and although I would have liked a bit more commentary on Takeo's internal thoughts (often I wasn't sure whether many of the events were due to his own upbringing, or part of the Japanese culture itself — such as the many "honour suicides" that take place, something completely foreign to Western thinking).

Although the violence and randomness of war is captured almost-perfectly, I felt that the final confrontation with the Otori was rather abrupt and anti-climactic. Perhaps this was simply because it was building for so long, but it seemed to be over quickly, with very little effort on Takeo's part. However, though I have not yet read the forth book The Harsh Cry of the Heron: The Last Tale of the Otori, this is certainly the best book of the trilogy, with action, suspense, intrigue, revenge and a good wrap-up to what has gone before. —Rebecca Fisher

Heaven's Net is Wide: but its mesh is fine...

Beauty, Grace, Eloquence. These words define the writing of author Lian Hearn. Her Tales of the Otori series of historical fantasy novels are extremely popular worldwide. If you haven't read the first four installments, Heaven's Net is Wide is a great place to begin the story.

Because it is a prequel, Hearn has not assumed the reader has much knowledge about the setting or characters. She begins with a hook, describing a confrontation between two members of the Tribe — a family of assassins. Readers of the prior books will recognize the importance of this event right away, but for the new reader, Hearn begins on just the right foot, hooking them into the story.

The tale is set in medieval Japan, with some mythic elements, mostly in relation to the unique abilities of the Tribe. After that first chapter, the story abruptly shifts to the story of Shigeru, giving the reader the history of a character who plays a major role in the later books. Shigeru is first-born son of the weak-willed ruler of the Otori. Recognizing that his own son may suffer some of his weaknesses, that ruler seeks to train Shigeru to control his impulses. Shigeru is sent to learn from a sword master the way of the warrior. Upon his return to his father's castle, Shigeru find himself embroiled in political intrigue — intrigue which will eventually lead to war and its tragic consequences. The novel ends where Across the Nightingale Floor begins, leaving new readers desperately wanting to read on.

Lian Hearn has captured the legendary, mythic aspect of story. Although told as a history, with a lot of ground to cover, the story never drags or moves too quickly. Hearn slowly, subtly builds interest in her characters, her world, and her story. The reader is given time to grasp the strange culture in which the story is set, and is allowed time to tie his or her own emotions into the character of Shigeru. Told through an omniscient narrator, Hearn acknowledges what will happen, occasionally breaking the narrative to say that as a result of a particular event, this or that will follow. But it is a natural break, an obvious outflow of the narrator already knowing the later events. Yet it never reveals too much, nor does it happen often, perhaps only three or four times in the entire 500+ page novel.

Throughout The Tales of the Otori, Hearn explores the theme of spirituality. It has been believed throughout history that the Apostle Thomas went into the East to preach the Gospel, so Hearn introduces the Hidden — a seemingly Christian sect modified to fit Japanese culture — as a persecuted people of principles and morals. This positive take on Christian beliefs may offend some readers since it is juxtaposed against the Buddhist cultural traditions of most of the people in the story, but their tale is told in Heaven's Net is Wide because the protagonist of the later books — Takeo — is Hidden, and Hearn makes much of Takeo's beliefs making it hard for him to do what he must do in Across the Nightingale Floor. In fact, at her website Hearn says that "Takeo's journey is one that must transcend the constraints and beliefs of any one sect."

I thought the character of Shigeru to be a positive character example overall. His understanding of honor and loyalty grows and changes over time. What begins as a black and white issue for him broadens into understanding about shades of grey. His ability to grow and learn about these ideas makes him a fallible hero. He is not bigger than life, simply wise and strong in the face of adversity, and we see why he becomes a mentor, an Obi-Wan-Kenobi-like figure for Takeo. The novel is one I would want to read with my Japanese-culture-obsessed teenager so that we could look at Shigeru's character, the pros and cons of his decisions, and the way of life in this time and place.

Heaven's Net is Wide is written so lyrically, so beautifully, that I didn't want to put it down. Throughout my workday, I would ponder the events surrounding Shigeru, wondering how he was going to deal with the onset of war, balance his devotion to the Otori clan against his own desires, and take care of his turbulent love life. (The only thing I didn't like about Heaven's Net is Wide was the easy way that every woman Shigeru meets seems to fall in love with Shigeru.)

Hearn's story is so full of the alien, the other; the reader is transported away from him or her self. The primary themes of trying to understand the opposite roles of violence and peace, and whether one must inevitably lead to the other, are made to unfold in amazing ways. Heaven's Net is Wide is a novel you dive into, coming up for air only when you must.  —John Ottinger
FanLit thanks John Ottinger III from Grasping for the Wind for contributing this guest review.