Sigh... I was SO looking forward to reading this book after loving the first three. Sadly, I am left with a bitter taste of betrayal that has almost entirely harshed my literary buzz. I had to go so far as to create an alternate ending to make me feel better.

First, Takeo broke my heart when he didn't joyfully embrace his long-lost sister. It seemed so out of character that he would turn away from his sister Madaren because of a) his exalted status and b) her employment as a prostitute. I mean, really. A life of slavery and prostitution for his sister was a best-case scenario, horrible as it may be. At least she survived the massacre back in Mino... Also I was disappointed, because I'd been thinking "Right on! What a fabulous In with the foreigners! He's so got an advantage over the Arai and the Emperor now!" Nope. He didn't even think that her position as translator to the foreigners could bring information to his power plays. He just didn't want anyone to know about her because it made him feel icky? The Otori family cannot provide some sort of alternate and less shameful employment somewhere in the castle town, if not the household? A world of ewww.

Then the story arc of Kaede's betrayal of Takeo and the Otori just about broke me. I'd liked her so much, despite the way she stupidly rode up to the front door alone and put herself into Lord Fujiwara's hands. I liked her less because she was ashamed of the twin girls, but as long as I remembered the differing cultural mores, I could cope with that. So this part of the story was bad enough, but then at the end she went to Terayama wanting to take comfort in Makoto and realized that her surviving daughter, no longer a twin, finally deserved her mother's love. How I wished I had not read this book.

How disappointing that we never found out what happened to Shizuka, fed by birds in Daikufuji. It would have been nice to see a coda for her character.

My alternate ending: Kaede wakes up in a strange place. She looks in a mirror and sees that her nose is hooked and her body old but strong. Then she finds out that she's an indentured servant in service to the Octomom and Kate Gosselin, surrounded by multiples, bereft of her beauty, a stranger in a strange land, a servant who merits no honor. Let her cry her nights away mired in self pity and regret, wishing that she had not called the guards on Takeo when he tried to talk to her bitch ass.

The moral: Please do not piss me off and disappoint me when I have an emotional love affair with your characters. I'll wait awhile to read "Heaven's Net is Wide," and I fervently hope that I will find something between its covers that will heal the wound to this Gentle Reader's heart.

Sequel to the Tales of the Ortori trilogy, The Harsh Cry of the Heron provides a satisfying epilogue of the tales, taking place many years after the story left off. It is set in an unspecified place in feudal Japan, and though it deals with many aspects of Japanese culture, it is far more driven by themes and character development.
The novel is the true conclusion to the tale of a hero from a perspective we normally don’t get in our society. Many parallels can be drawn between the story of Takeo and that of King Arthur in The Once and Future King. They are in many ways synonymous, with differences being in the culture and setting.
The Harsh Cry of the Heron is an exceptionally strong novel. It is both exceedingly well-written, complex, and interesting in many ways more so than the preceding trilogy. It is strongest as an accompanying work, and it is best to read this after reading the preceding Tales of the Otori. ( )

Set in unspecified Medieval Japan; the last volume of a series involving the Tales of the Otori ( )

not as good as the others, but still entertaining. ( )

My review is here: http://moosplace.blogspot.com/2008/06... ( )