Miriamele
December 21st, 2006, 01:16 PM
I just finished The Harsh Cry of the Heron, which is the 4th book in Hearn's Tales of the Otori series, a Japanese-style fantasy set in an alternate version of feudal Japan.
The original 3 Otori books were supposed to be left as a trilogy, and they did mostly wrap things up, but I suppose the author wanted to revisit this world to explore what happens to the characters. This book takes place 16 years after the events of the trilogy. Takeo and Kaede are still the main characters, and now they have 3 daughters.
Overall, I did like it. The writing quality was very high, the character development was interesting, the story was filled with surpises, and towards the end, quite a bit of fast-moving action. I can tell that the book was very carefully edited so that the story is told with as few words possible (for example some events are only mentioned briefly or inferred rather than everything being described), and I appreciated that. In that way the book reminded me of the first book, Across the Nightengale Floor, which also seemed to move very quickly.
I also liked that the fantasy element was a bit more played up in this than in the previous two books. While books 2 and 3 seemed to mostly be about battles, this one involved quite a bit of the mystical Tribe skills. And there is a ghost--not saying whose!--who makes an appearance many times in the story.
Although the writing strong and the story compelling, I can't say that I loved this book, because quite frankly, the ending was very sad. Very sad! It was beautifully written, very poetic, but heartwrenching. I don't want to give any spoilers but suffice it to say that the end of the book definitely contains some tragic elements.
I got the feeling halfway through the book that bad things were going to happen, and I was right. This is not a happy book. But at least everyone that goes down, goes down fighting. There are no passive characters in this book, but they are all trying to alter events to their own advantage.
If someone is a big fan of the first 3 Otori books, and would like to revisit Takeo and Kaede, I would recommend this one. If a person found the first 3 only so-so, I wouldn't recommend this book because it's the longest, and because it's so heartwrenching.
So has anyone else read this yet?
The original 3 Otori books were supposed to be left as a trilogy, and they did mostly wrap things up, but I suppose the author wanted to revisit this world to explore what happens to the characters. This book takes place 16 years after the events of the trilogy. Takeo and Kaede are still the main characters, and now they have 3 daughters.
Overall, I did like it. The writing quality was very high, the character development was interesting, the story was filled with surpises, and towards the end, quite a bit of fast-moving action. I can tell that the book was very carefully edited so that the story is told with as few words possible (for example some events are only mentioned briefly or inferred rather than everything being described), and I appreciated that. In that way the book reminded me of the first book, Across the Nightengale Floor, which also seemed to move very quickly.
I also liked that the fantasy element was a bit more played up in this than in the previous two books. While books 2 and 3 seemed to mostly be about battles, this one involved quite a bit of the mystical Tribe skills. And there is a ghost--not saying whose!--who makes an appearance many times in the story.
Although the writing strong and the story compelling, I can't say that I loved this book, because quite frankly, the ending was very sad. Very sad! It was beautifully written, very poetic, but heartwrenching. I don't want to give any spoilers but suffice it to say that the end of the book definitely contains some tragic elements.
I got the feeling halfway through the book that bad things were going to happen, and I was right. This is not a happy book. But at least everyone that goes down, goes down fighting. There are no passive characters in this book, but they are all trying to alter events to their own advantage.
If someone is a big fan of the first 3 Otori books, and would like to revisit Takeo and Kaede, I would recommend this one. If a person found the first 3 only so-so, I wouldn't recommend this book because it's the longest, and because it's so heartwrenching.
So has anyone else read this yet?