Heaven's Net Is Wide (The Tales of the Otori) by Lian Hearn, J. Paul Boehmer, and Julia Fletcher

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Heaven's Net Is Wide (The Tales of the Otori)
Available from Amazon
Price: $29.07
Updated on 6-30-2008.

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Audio CD

Publisher: HighBridge Company; Unabridged; 17.75 on 14 edition (August 16, 2007)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1598871013

ISBN-13: 978-1598871012

Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 5.2 x 1.3 inches

Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces ()

From Publishers Weekly
Set in a brutal and breathtaking feudal Japan, this lyrical and moving prequel to Hearn's Tales of the Otori and also the fifth and final entry in this epic chronicle of ruthless warlords and ill-fated love (after 2006's The Harsh Cry of the Heron), focuses on the early life of Otori Shigeru, the young heir to the Otori clan. Raised in a strictly hierarchical society that reveres loyalty and honor, the adolescent Shigeru witnesses firsthand how treachery and duplicity play an integral role in the deaths of thousands of Otori warriors, the bloody annihilation of his family and, inevitably, his complete and utter degradation. As a dispossessed heir, Shigeru finds strength and retributive inspiration in the teachings of his former mentor, warrior-monk Matsuda Shingen, and in his illicit relationship with the resourceful Lady Maruyama, whose life has also been devastated by the Tohan. Equal parts historical fiction, high fantasy and revelatory Taoist fable, the now complete Tales of the Otori is a saga to be treasured. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
Reviewed by Elizabeth WardNobody should need to ask who the Otori are by now. Scions of an imaginary, quasi-Japanese feudal clan, they've made a big splash in the small realm of literary fantasy since Lord Otori Shigeru first hove into view in Across the Nightingale Floor (2002). That book, which plunged readers into an exceedingly violent, rivetingly elegant world, was followed in short order by three more, all with equally poetic titles: Grass for His Pillow, Brilliance of the Moon and The Harsh Cry of the Heron. The Otori found themselves with a following. There's been talk of a movie. Now, "Star Wars"-like, the series gets a prequel.This is good news across the board. Fans of the noble Shigeru, who was gruesomely dispatched at the end of Nightingale, should get a kick out of being transported back several decades to witness his childhood, youth and romance with winsome Lady Maruyama, as well as the battle of Yaegahara -- the Otori's Waterloo -- which casts its shadow over the entire series. Readers who forgot about Shigeru after his adopted son, Takeo, took center stage, will be jolted into a fresh understanding of Takeo's troubles. And those who wouldn't recognize an Otori if they fell over one have the satisfaction of knowing that if they enjoy Heaven's Net Is Wide, they don't have to wait around for the rest of the saga.There is, in fact, much to enjoy. Lian Hearn (a pseudonym for Gillian Rubinstein, a British-born Australian who made her reputation with fantasies for younger readers) is a serious student of Japan. She has lived there, immersed herself in its history and culture and reportedly learned its difficult, elliptical language. That pen name is surely a nod to the ultimate Japanophile, a 19th-century writer who became a Japanese citizen, Lafcadio Hearn. Her feeling for the place and its past is apparent here, as in all the books, in numerous little touches: "the drone of the cicadas, the constant sound of summer," winter roads icy underfoot, fermented bean paste and foaming green tea, lantern-hung boats and silk-smooth temple verandas, bush clover and camellias, and the ever-looming "plum rains." Even if, as Hearn insists, neither the setting nor the period of the Otori books represents an actual historical era, the customs and traditions, landscapes and seasons are those of Japan. And she has gotten them right.Not just the pretty stuff, either. Hearn doesn't shy away from old Japan's dark side. Early on in Heaven's Net, a master stonemason is sealed alive in the parapet of his own magnificent bridge to placate a river god. Members of "the Hidden," a persecuted, Christian-like sect, are suspended upside down above fires and ever-so-slowly roasted to death. Heads and limbs fly: Young Shigeru "was amazed at how easily the blade slid through clothing and flesh, how it whipped back and cut again, this time into the top of the neck as Miura fell forward." Capping the mayhem is a set-piece clash on the plain of Yaegahara, Hearn's persuasive version of the battle of Sekigahara that lofted the Tokugawa to power over the Toyotomi in 1600: "the screams of men and horses, the sigh and clack that preceded another deadly shower of arrows, the shouts and grunts that accompanied the heavy labor of slaughter." Then there's the interwoven thread of magic. Besides delving into Shigeru's past, Heaven's Net sheds more light on "the Tribe," the clan of ninja-like beings of superhuman abilities on whom much of the saga's intricate plot will eventually turn. Readers might be of two minds about the Tribe, depending on their tolerance for fantasy. "The other world of goblins, ghosts and inhuman powers" that it represents can seem jarringly at odds with the solid, human world Hearn has so lovingly imagined. At the same time, though, it has its own roots in tradition. Few things are more Japanese than the shivery perception of otherworldliness, of those moments when "the membrane between the two worlds thinned and one rolled into the other." Hearn has that right, as well.Too much should not be claimed for the Otori chronicles, mind you. While Hearn can clearly command a nice phrase, she also has a weakness for melodrama and platitude -- and when she indulges them, her prose can turn as stiff as a kimonoed warrior on a painted screen. " 'The past is all around us,' Matsuda replied. 'And the future.' " "The dignity of his passage was somewhat marred by the frenzied behavior of the townsfolk." "Rage seemed to lick his gut with its molten tongue." There's not much humor in Heaven's Net. It also takes some patience getting into the story through the thicket of name-clotted passages such as this: "The routine of study and training continued. Shigeru and Kiyoshige were joined by the two sons of Kitano Tadakazu, Tadao and Masaji." Who are these people?Still, the life of a feudal Japanese clan lord really was a somber, clotted affair. Stick with this book. By the end, those blank names -- and dozens of others -- might be as resonant to you as your own family's. Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Heaven's Net Is Wide (The Tales of the Otori) (Hardcover) This is book 0 in the series--it ends just where Across the Nightingale Floor starts. In quality, it's comparable to Nightingale Floor, and certainly better than books 2, 3, and 4. You'll meet many of the Nightingale characters here, many of whom play a much more significant role in Nightingale Floor. You'll find the training in the martial arts, the court life, etc, that made Shigeru who he was. There are battles, heroic deeds, sacrifice. One of the things I didn't like is that there's too much drawn in black and white. Shigeru has no visible flaws. Most of the "good" people have some fatal weaknesses, such as impetuosity. Shigeru's father, the head of the clan, seems impossibly weak. Shigeru's uncles are among the "bad" people, and I cannot recall any of the bad people who has any kind of redeeming good fault. There's no need to make this kind of delineation in a novel. Tony Soprano and Flashman are much more appealing and interesting because of their character flaws. Mother Teresa, recently in the news, had a serious crisis of faith--and she's more human for it. Bad people need not be 100% evil to be good villains. Shigeru is the top swordsman in the Three Countries--it wouldn't have hurt to have made him good, but not number 1--then the problem for him would have been how to deal with swordsmen better than he was. That would have made things a lot more interesting. So--for those who liked Across the Nightingale Floor, a decent prequel. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)

Heaven's Net Is Wide (The Tales of the Otori)
Available from Amazon
Price: $29.07
Updated on 6-30-2008.