Lian Hearn

Heaven's Net Is Wide is a prequel to the Tales of the Otori series based in a mythical, medieval Japanese world and tells the story of Lord Otori Shigeru.

This book was recommended and leant to me by my friend, Melissa. The hardcover version that I read is visually beautiful and I don't want to return it so I can stare at it on the shelf forever.

Initially, I was quite daunted by the 640 pages of a genre that I'm not familiar with but I quickly became emersed in the Otori world. The characters are quickly introduced but you also get a deep insight in to the many characters and their motivations.

The book explores various tribes and clans and the creeds they live by which can so easily lead to an evaluation of your own values and beliefs.

I really enjoyed the book. It didn't quite make it to my 4 star rated books but I am very much looking forward to reading the rest of the series.… (more)

This was a mixed bag for me, having read the main trilogy. It is an extended backstory to the situation which the characters find themselves in at the start of "Across the Nightingale Floor". There are a few foreshadowing moments if the reader can recall events in the trilogy such as when Naomi mentions that she never learned to swim and doesn't like boats. And it was nice to spend more time with Shigeru, one of my favourite characters in the other books, though his relationship with women, his wife in particular, tarnished him somewhat.

But at 578 pages, the book dragged in several places. The pacing was also odd, with some detailed sections covering a few days and then years being skipped over. Yet the pivotal battlefield sequence which has such devastating consequences for Shigeru's life, family, friends and whole country, is dealt with very sketchily and summarily.

Ultimately, although there were some nice sections, the writing was decent and it was a chance to learn more about the survivors previously encountered, I didn't feel it really added anything. So I would only award this 3 stars.… (more)

This second volume in the Otori trilogy commences at the point where book 1 left off. Faced with an ultimatum from the Tribe, his biological father's people, to either join them and finish his training with them, renouncing his inheritance from his adoptive father Otori Shigeru, or else be killed, Takeo has to go with them. (Takeo's adoption into the Otori clan is later declared illegal by the self serving uncles who arranged for Shigeru's murder in any case). He then endures privations and punishments to make him comply, but it is clear that some of those among the Tribe resent his gifts and his possible supplanting of themselves in his Tribe family's hierarchy so are working their own agendas.

Left behind, Shirakawa Kaede has major problems of her own, finding her mother has died and her father has more or less suffered a breakdown after being unable to stop warriors travelling through his land enroute to the fighting which now has broken out between lord Arai and the former supporters of the dead warlord Iida Sadamu. Her father still has loyalties to the opponents of Lord Arai although Arai now expects Kaede to ally herself to him. The house and grounds are in poor order, as are the lands around, thanks to a combination of natural disasters and the ongoing fighting. A local lord then develops a fascination with Kaede: he is known to prefer men, but wants to 'collect' her and add her to his collection, something which would entail her having to marry him - which she is under pressure to do - and then being more or less sequestered for the rest of her life. Despite this she manages to convince her father to start teaching her - giving her a son's education as she only knows the script used by women - so that she can understand the estate accounts and know everything she needs in order to take over management of the estate which he has neglected for a long time. She also tries to protect her sisters.

The obstacles in the way of Kaede and Takeo ever marrying seem insurmountable, and political events are escalating. Only with allies can Kaede take the inheritance of the richer lands that her dead kinswoman intended she should have and can she and Takeo gain the resources they need as a power base.

In a lot of ways this is a typical middle book in a trilogy. It takes the characters forward in their personal timelines and development but not a great deal happens plotwise. Some of the things set up at the start of the book do not pan out as expected for instance, Kaede miscarries the child she conceived when she and Takeo made love on the night of Iida's death, thinking they would not survive. There are ominious indications of future threats as well as the immediate ones. The fantasy version of medieval Japan is again beautifully evoked with the very different attitudes, compared to Western ones, to honour, suicide and religion.

For me, the ending was a bit rushed and didn't quite gell with what has been developed up to now - the two main characters act out of a more Western style viewpoint than the one their culture would dictate. So I can only give this a 4 star rating.… (more)

The third volume in the trilogy starts where the second left off. Kaede and Takeo are now married in defiance of the norms of their culture and without the permission of Arai the powerful warlord who now controls a great part of the country. Takeo needs to fulfil his destiny as described to him by the holy woman in book 2, and to avenge his adopted father and uncle Shigeru. Kaede needs to travel to the domain she inherited from Shigeru's deceased lover and assert her claim, especially as the inheritance through the female line, operating only in that domain, is being challenged on all sides.

They arrive and start to organise the area but are aware that they are threatened by a number of different forces, including Arai and the Otori uncles who usurped his title to his domain. Takeo begins to build alliances with some unlikely groups, meeting resistence even from his close friend when this means treating the outcast Hidden (among whom Takeo was raised) as human beings. To nearly everyone else they are despised at best and at worst viewed as contaminations and subhumans to be exterminated.

In the course of negotiating with some old friends who have now turned pirate due to the oppression of the uncles, he learns of foreign barbarians (who sound European from the description, despite this being a fantasy based upon Japan rather than historical) and the firearms they use which would overcome the swords and bows of his own people. This eventually has a major role to play. However, his absence results in Kaede falling into terrible danger.

I did not enjoy this volume as much as the previous two unfortunately. A lot of it does consist of fighting from Takeo's viewpoint. As before, the sections where Kaede is the main character are in the third person which is a bit distancing, and despite her strength of character, which we saw in book 1 when she was often facing some pretty hopeless situations, in this she is reduced to powerlessness. The gender politics, based on the real position of women in Japan (and elsewhere) at this period means that, even before this happens, men defer to her husband all the time and do not take her seriously in any authoritative role despite this being historically the position in the domain she inherits. And her fighting skills, so prominent in book 1, are no use to her.

The body count in this series continues to be high with various characters being killed off, though some off stage, and there is a particularly sad fate for some of the horses.

I felt the ending relied on some lucky last minute rescues by minor characters rather than the lead characters being able to solve their own difficulties. And I was a bit thrown by the inclusion of an afterword set about fifteen years afterwards. So I found the situation in which they were left at the end of the actual story rather skated over. For all these reasons I am awarding this volume 3 stars.… (more)