Mrs Butler's Blog 3
September 2005 Number 3
I’ve just finished Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn. This is the third book in the series which began with the stunning Across the Nightingale Floor. Try it!
Across the Nightingale Floor is fascinating; it’s quite different from any other fantasy I’ve read before. Unlike most sword and sorcery stories which are set in a Lord of the Rings landscape before the industrial revolution (Think archers, horses, village mayors and inn-keepers!) it takes place in an island country resembling Japan, which is ruled by warlords and samurai-type warriors.
The first book began with the adoption of the boy-hero by the chief of the Otori clan; his education and his warrior-training. His aim is to get revenge on Iida, the ruthless warlord who killed his family. The politics of the kingdom, the feuds and alliances of the powerful families, are the causes of the wars and battles. There is no Lord of Darkness to defeat. The sorcery element is found in ‘The Tribe’, a mysterious family of professional spies, endowed with supernatural hearing or the art of invisibility (pretty useful talents for spies!) and it seems that our hero, Takeo, has both these particular gifts, although he did not realise that he was related to The Tribe.
The Japanese names are a bit tricky to get your head round at first (They work backwards, surname first, and some of them seem unpronounceable.) but they add to the terrific atmosphere of strangeness. I can really recommend this book. There are copies in the library. The Trilogy is called Tales of the Otori. Book Two is Grass for his Pillow.
ANYWAY, I’ve just the third book in the series, Brilliance of the Moon. It is quite horribly bloodthirsty. In order to claim the leadership of the Otori clan, and to assert his wife, Kaede’s, right to her inheritance Takeo has to fight just about everybody. There’s a prophecy that he will fight five battles: four to win and one to lose. (or it may have been 4 battles; 3 to win etc. I’m sorry I’ve already sent the book in to school so I can’t check.) The battles are gruesome skirmishes – lots of people and lots of horses get maimed and killed. It reads like real blood and real wounds - no magic involved.
There are some curious details at the end, about pale foreigners with telescopes and even guns, and an even stranger connection between the rites of the Hidden People and the religion of the foreigners. Lian Hearn has promised to add two more books to the trilogy which could well be about a ‘Japan’ which gradually opens up to Westerners and new technology. We shall see.
I’ve just finished Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn. This is the third book in the series which began with the stunning Across the Nightingale Floor. Try it!
Across the Nightingale Floor is fascinating; it’s quite different from any other fantasy I’ve read before. Unlike most sword and sorcery stories which are set in a Lord of the Rings landscape before the industrial revolution (Think archers, horses, village mayors and inn-keepers!) it takes place in an island country resembling Japan, which is ruled by warlords and samurai-type warriors.
The first book began with the adoption of the boy-hero by the chief of the Otori clan; his education and his warrior-training. His aim is to get revenge on Iida, the ruthless warlord who killed his family. The politics of the kingdom, the feuds and alliances of the powerful families, are the causes of the wars and battles. There is no Lord of Darkness to defeat. The sorcery element is found in ‘The Tribe’, a mysterious family of professional spies, endowed with supernatural hearing or the art of invisibility (pretty useful talents for spies!) and it seems that our hero, Takeo, has both these particular gifts, although he did not realise that he was related to The Tribe.
The Japanese names are a bit tricky to get your head round at first (They work backwards, surname first, and some of them seem unpronounceable.) but they add to the terrific atmosphere of strangeness. I can really recommend this book. There are copies in the library. The Trilogy is called Tales of the Otori. Book Two is Grass for his Pillow.
ANYWAY, I’ve just the third book in the series, Brilliance of the Moon. It is quite horribly bloodthirsty. In order to claim the leadership of the Otori clan, and to assert his wife, Kaede’s, right to her inheritance Takeo has to fight just about everybody. There’s a prophecy that he will fight five battles: four to win and one to lose. (or it may have been 4 battles; 3 to win etc. I’m sorry I’ve already sent the book in to school so I can’t check.) The battles are gruesome skirmishes – lots of people and lots of horses get maimed and killed. It reads like real blood and real wounds - no magic involved.
There are some curious details at the end, about pale foreigners with telescopes and even guns, and an even stranger connection between the rites of the Hidden People and the religion of the foreigners. Lian Hearn has promised to add two more books to the trilogy which could well be about a ‘Japan’ which gradually opens up to Westerners and new technology. We shall see.
posted by Extreme Reading Group | 10:02 AM
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