Across the Nightingale Floor

My second time reading this book was equal to the 1st. After reading the prequel I wanted to read this 1st book of the series again 6 years after the first time. I look the intricate web of this feudal society and how the magic Tribe fits into and controls things. Well written to keep you constantly engaged and wanting more. Already starting on the 2nd book of the series. ( )

Not actually set in Japan, any more than most fantasy novels are set in England... ( )

This is Book One of Tales of the Otori--the start of at least a trilogy. It's set in a fantasized mediaeval Japan, not overly constrained by anything like real history. Takeo is, through his mother and stepfather, a member of an outlawed religious sect called the Hidden, who strongly resemble a somewhat idealized early Christianity. Through his dead father, he's a member of the Tribe, a network of spies and assassins with supernatural gifts--the rarest and most prized of which Takeo has inherited. Takeo's father quit the Tribe and married Takeo's mother against the Tribe's orders. This is not permitted, any more than quitting the Mafia is permitted, but Takeo's father died without revealing the location of his wife and son. Also through his father, Takeo is heir to the Otori clan, which is somewhat wealthy and powerful, but used to be much more so, having lost a major power struggle around the time Takeo's father died.

Takeo's entire village of peaceful, harmless Hidden is massacred by one of the enemies Takeo had no idea he had, while Takeo is out wandering in the hills.

This seem like incredibly unpromising material. It seems even less promising when one learns that "Lian Hearn" is the pseudonym of a British-Australian children's author who has become infatuated with Japan. In fact, though, it's delightful. Takeo is a real kid, reacting normally to trauma, the repeated changes in his circumstances, and the discovery of his varied talents--including the temptation to use them unwisely, for an adolescent's idea of immediate personal advantage. Even his extremely complicated courtship of Kaede, a girl almost as improbably well-connected and unfairly disadvantaged as Takeo himself, works, and adds to the texture of the story rather than detracting. There are cartoon characters here, but they're peripheral ones, not the crucial ones, and this first third of the story is very good. ( )

After a day in the forest, Tomasu comes back to his village to find it burned and the inhabitants all (he presumes) murdered. He himself barely escapes the wicked Lord Iida and his soldiers, but is rescued by Lord Otori, begins a new life as Takeo and discovers that he is a member of The Tribe, a clan with amazing skills in misdirection and fighting. He struggles with his new identity, his loyalties to the man who saved him and his new-found 'family,' and his growing desire for revenge.
My description isn't doing this one justice - it's a great story with excellent characters. Definitely recommended. ( )

I got this trilogy as audio books because I was going on a long road trip and wanted something to listen to. The two narrators really made the point of view changes easy to follow. After I listened to the books, I immediately went out and bought them so that I could read them and give them to friends to read.