![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elvenpirateladyOnce upon a time, a peasant boy of dubious parentage from a Doomed Home Town was saved from an evil overlord (which earned his undying hatred, of course) by a wise mentor, learned some awesome new skills, saved the day and got the girl. Sounds like just about every other fantasy novel in existence, but this one is set in Japan! With ninjas! And magic! How could it not be awesome?
I'll be telling you soon.
Before I start, I must say a few things: I liked the books, truly I did, but they could have been so much more. As it is, I've read only the trilogy, not the sequel nor the prequel so perhaps there are things I'm missing. And Lian Hearn is writing for young adults, not nineteen-year-old uni students with a slight addiction to TVtropes.com. Still, I came away feeling that it was competent. And that's not such a good thing when you're writing feudal Japan fantasy. But I digress.
I'll be telling you soon.
Before I start, I must say a few things: I liked the books, truly I did, but they could have been so much more. As it is, I've read only the trilogy, not the sequel nor the prequel so perhaps there are things I'm missing. And Lian Hearn is writing for young adults, not nineteen-year-old uni students with a slight addiction to TVtropes.com. Still, I came away feeling that it was competent. And that's not such a good thing when you're writing feudal Japan fantasy. But I digress.
We begin at the village of... er... well, its name doesn't matter anyway, because it's been burnt to the ground and everyone in it is dead approximately two pages into the story. Everyone that is except for Tomasu, Our Hero who lives with his peasant mother, peasant step-father and peasant half-sisters. He comes back from a lovely walk to find his village destroyed, and promptly decides to run away. This is possibly the smartest thing the kid does in the entire story. We've been told that he's quite the stealthy one and can hear a bit better than normal people, but apparently he's not stealthy enough yet, for Our Hero is pursued! By the Evil Overlord and guards, no less! You'd think that they'd pick him off with archers or somesuch and save themselves the bother of going after a kid who knows the country much better than they do, but are villains ever smart? (Not in this series, they're not.) And all this because Tomasu made the resident Evil Overlord, one Iida Sadamu, fall off his horse. Talk about an overreaction.
In any case, Tomasu flees with the guards (but not Iida, who's off kicking puppies or something) in hot pursuit. All seems lost until he's saved byObi Wan a mysterious warrior. Off they go across country, having a wonderful time evading guards until they eventually reach Obi-Wan Samurai's territory. Obi-Wan turns out to be Otori Shigeru, a samurai from the clan that was on the losing side of a rather nasty battle some years before. If you guessed than Iida was on the winning side, well done. Naturally, the two are bitter enemies because Shigeru lost his brother and father in the battle, and, well, honestly I have no idea what Shigeru did to Iida. Maybe he made him fall off his horse too.
If Iida walked around everywhere, a lot of problems could have been avoided.
So we press on to an inn just on Otori territory, where Tomasu (whose name is now Takeo, just to make things more confusing) and Shigeru meet one Lady Maruyama. She makes them green tea and we hear about how Maruyama is the last domain to inherit through the maternal line, how bad Iida is because he's kicking puppies and attacking secret Japanese Christian villages, and the state of the world in general. Shigeru and Maruyama also eye-fuck madly over cups of tea, and then there's the real thing later that night. We know because Takeo hears it, despite totally not wanting to. Yeah. Really. His hearing starts to improve until it reaches supernatural levels. This is important, but for now we leave Shiguro and Takeo on the road to Hagi, the Otori capital, and begin the story of...
Shirakawa Kaede, who's playing Japanese Cinderella and not having much fun. She's been a hostage since she was seven (now fifteen) because her father picked the wrong time to do a face heel turn and ally with Iida. Poor kid. Anyway, the first important thing to happen to her is that she kills a man for trying to rape her, which in feudal Japan is a Very Bad Thing, but she's let off the hook when her sometime-ally Arai claims the kill. Very gentlemanly of him, except for the part when he gets sent off home to look after his farms for a year, or something. The other thing to happen is that Kaede is told she's getting married to Otori Shigeru. Shigeru? Iida's enemy? The same Shigeru who really, really loves to drink tea with Lady Maruyama? Yes, him. This can't possibly end well, but at least Kaede gets some new clothes and a chance to look at herself in a mirror. Apparently she's pretty. Reeeeeeeeeally pretty. This will come in handy later on.
Time moves on. Takeo moves in with Shigeru and starts learning how to be a samurai. An old friend named Muto Kenji comes to visit and explain a few plot devices. Takeo's amazing hearing comes from the fact that his father belonged to a mysterious Tribe with supernatural powers &etc. Training is had, in which Our Hero learns such nifty skills as ninja fighting, turning invisible, splitting himself in two, being able to put people to sleep by looking into their eyes, and being very light on his feet. All very useful, I'm sure. Meanwhile, amazingly anvilicious hints are dropped about a trip to Inuyama, Evil Overlord Central, and what's going to happen there. You didn't think they'd train the boy and send him off for a life of flower aranging and origami, did you?
Shigeru is such a cool guy that he decides to adopt Takeo, which is awfully nice of him but not entirely popular with the rest of the clan. His uncles make him a deal: he can adopt Takeo if he marries Kaede, which mucks up the secret affair with Maruyama something awful but such is life. Arrangements are made to travel to Inuyama and pick up Kaede on the way, Kenji thinks it's all a trap, and Shigeru is almost assassinated. All in a day's work for the samurai class, really - get up, go to work, overthrow the evil overlord, possibly kill yourself in the afternoon. We also hear about an interesting thing called a nightingale floor, which squeaks whenever someone steps on it. Iida has one outside his bedroom so no assassin can get in without warning... unless that assassin happens to have supernatural powers. How convenient! And thus the main plot begins to fall into place.
Kaede sets off for Inuyama too, although they'll meet up with the men on the way and do a bit of a tour through the Japanese version of the lake district. Lady Maruyama and her daughter come with her, and since Kaede has no idea about the affair things are a bit frosty between them for a while. There's also Shizuka, Kaede's maid and Kenji's niece. She's generally nice to Kaede and shows her how to kill a man with a needle and other handy household hints. I like her already. Everyone meets everyone, much angst is had between the lovers and they all troop off towards Inuyama. They stop by at a temple called Terayama, where Takeo and Kaede fight with sticks and decide that since they can beat the crap out of each other they might as well fall hopelessly in love. Takeo goes off to brood and befriends Makoto, a young monk who likes to play the flute. No, the actual flute (although since it's Makoto, maybe...). They bid each other farewell as the best of friends after all of half a day, and the party goes on. Well, there's not really a party, but still.
They reach Inuyama and everyone must have a sudden attack of the blindness, because nobody notices the huge flashing sign of DO NOT GO IN THERE YOU IDIOTS YOU WILL ALL DIE hanging over the city. Now it's Kaede and Takeo's turn to trade burning looks over cups of tea, since Shigeru and Maruyama are off plotting in their rooms or something. Shigeru and Kaede are due to be married tomorrow, and Kenji takes Takeo off to draw pretty things in the city or something. And that's when the plan goes horribly, horribly wrong...
...would I leave you hanging like that? No, of course not. Kenji leads Takeo into a trap and he gets captured by other Tribe members, who after fifteen years of not noticing him have decided that he's too valuable to waste on assassinating Iida. Never mind that they could have brought him into one of their villages and trained him as a proper Tribe member, oh no. Shigeru is charged with treason and is hung from the castle wall in a crucifying-type execution style. Maruyama and her daughter attempt to escape and drown. Kaede sits in her room very quietly and pretends she doesn't exist, sensible lass. When they finally let Takeo out of his box he's not in the best of moods, understandably. He makes a deal with his Tribe clan leader, Kikuta Kotaro, to go and work for them if they let him save Shigeru and Kaede and kill Iida. He sneaks into the castle with Kenji and Shizuka, and while they manage to save Shigeru (well, they cut his head off, but it was a merciful death) credit for Iida's death goes to Kaede, who really didn't want to spend what she thought was her last night alive being molested by the evil overlord. That trick Shizuka taught her with the needle came in real handy. Takeo finds her in her room with Iida dead and his head on the floor, and they decide to have mad passionate teenage sex right there and then. Perhaps there were Goths in ancient Japan?
So the kids finally escape back to Terayama, while Arai seizes the moment to take over the country and put down the evil overlord. Huzzah, I guess. My hopes weren't terribly high in regards to Arai surviving the trilogy, but that's for later. Kaede begs Takeo to stay with her, and he puts her to sleep with his eyes and goes off with the Tribe. How noble and all. And that's where Book 1 ends, with everyone all over the place and the readers with Kung-Fu Fighting on repeat loop in their heads.
In any case, Tomasu flees with the guards (but not Iida, who's off kicking puppies or something) in hot pursuit. All seems lost until he's saved by
If Iida walked around everywhere, a lot of problems could have been avoided.
So we press on to an inn just on Otori territory, where Tomasu (whose name is now Takeo, just to make things more confusing) and Shigeru meet one Lady Maruyama. She makes them green tea and we hear about how Maruyama is the last domain to inherit through the maternal line, how bad Iida is because he's kicking puppies and attacking secret Japanese Christian villages, and the state of the world in general. Shigeru and Maruyama also eye-fuck madly over cups of tea, and then there's the real thing later that night. We know because Takeo hears it, despite totally not wanting to. Yeah. Really. His hearing starts to improve until it reaches supernatural levels. This is important, but for now we leave Shiguro and Takeo on the road to Hagi, the Otori capital, and begin the story of...
Shirakawa Kaede, who's playing Japanese Cinderella and not having much fun. She's been a hostage since she was seven (now fifteen) because her father picked the wrong time to do a face heel turn and ally with Iida. Poor kid. Anyway, the first important thing to happen to her is that she kills a man for trying to rape her, which in feudal Japan is a Very Bad Thing, but she's let off the hook when her sometime-ally Arai claims the kill. Very gentlemanly of him, except for the part when he gets sent off home to look after his farms for a year, or something. The other thing to happen is that Kaede is told she's getting married to Otori Shigeru. Shigeru? Iida's enemy? The same Shigeru who really, really loves to drink tea with Lady Maruyama? Yes, him. This can't possibly end well, but at least Kaede gets some new clothes and a chance to look at herself in a mirror. Apparently she's pretty. Reeeeeeeeeally pretty. This will come in handy later on.
Time moves on. Takeo moves in with Shigeru and starts learning how to be a samurai. An old friend named Muto Kenji comes to visit and explain a few plot devices. Takeo's amazing hearing comes from the fact that his father belonged to a mysterious Tribe with supernatural powers &etc. Training is had, in which Our Hero learns such nifty skills as ninja fighting, turning invisible, splitting himself in two, being able to put people to sleep by looking into their eyes, and being very light on his feet. All very useful, I'm sure. Meanwhile, amazingly anvilicious hints are dropped about a trip to Inuyama, Evil Overlord Central, and what's going to happen there. You didn't think they'd train the boy and send him off for a life of flower aranging and origami, did you?
Shigeru is such a cool guy that he decides to adopt Takeo, which is awfully nice of him but not entirely popular with the rest of the clan. His uncles make him a deal: he can adopt Takeo if he marries Kaede, which mucks up the secret affair with Maruyama something awful but such is life. Arrangements are made to travel to Inuyama and pick up Kaede on the way, Kenji thinks it's all a trap, and Shigeru is almost assassinated. All in a day's work for the samurai class, really - get up, go to work, overthrow the evil overlord, possibly kill yourself in the afternoon. We also hear about an interesting thing called a nightingale floor, which squeaks whenever someone steps on it. Iida has one outside his bedroom so no assassin can get in without warning... unless that assassin happens to have supernatural powers. How convenient! And thus the main plot begins to fall into place.
Kaede sets off for Inuyama too, although they'll meet up with the men on the way and do a bit of a tour through the Japanese version of the lake district. Lady Maruyama and her daughter come with her, and since Kaede has no idea about the affair things are a bit frosty between them for a while. There's also Shizuka, Kaede's maid and Kenji's niece. She's generally nice to Kaede and shows her how to kill a man with a needle and other handy household hints. I like her already. Everyone meets everyone, much angst is had between the lovers and they all troop off towards Inuyama. They stop by at a temple called Terayama, where Takeo and Kaede fight with sticks and decide that since they can beat the crap out of each other they might as well fall hopelessly in love. Takeo goes off to brood and befriends Makoto, a young monk who likes to play the flute. No, the actual flute (although since it's Makoto, maybe...). They bid each other farewell as the best of friends after all of half a day, and the party goes on. Well, there's not really a party, but still.
They reach Inuyama and everyone must have a sudden attack of the blindness, because nobody notices the huge flashing sign of DO NOT GO IN THERE YOU IDIOTS YOU WILL ALL DIE hanging over the city. Now it's Kaede and Takeo's turn to trade burning looks over cups of tea, since Shigeru and Maruyama are off plotting in their rooms or something. Shigeru and Kaede are due to be married tomorrow, and Kenji takes Takeo off to draw pretty things in the city or something. And that's when the plan goes horribly, horribly wrong...
...would I leave you hanging like that? No, of course not. Kenji leads Takeo into a trap and he gets captured by other Tribe members, who after fifteen years of not noticing him have decided that he's too valuable to waste on assassinating Iida. Never mind that they could have brought him into one of their villages and trained him as a proper Tribe member, oh no. Shigeru is charged with treason and is hung from the castle wall in a crucifying-type execution style. Maruyama and her daughter attempt to escape and drown. Kaede sits in her room very quietly and pretends she doesn't exist, sensible lass. When they finally let Takeo out of his box he's not in the best of moods, understandably. He makes a deal with his Tribe clan leader, Kikuta Kotaro, to go and work for them if they let him save Shigeru and Kaede and kill Iida. He sneaks into the castle with Kenji and Shizuka, and while they manage to save Shigeru (well, they cut his head off, but it was a merciful death) credit for Iida's death goes to Kaede, who really didn't want to spend what she thought was her last night alive being molested by the evil overlord. That trick Shizuka taught her with the needle came in real handy. Takeo finds her in her room with Iida dead and his head on the floor, and they decide to have mad passionate teenage sex right there and then. Perhaps there were Goths in ancient Japan?
So the kids finally escape back to Terayama, while Arai seizes the moment to take over the country and put down the evil overlord. Huzzah, I guess. My hopes weren't terribly high in regards to Arai surviving the trilogy, but that's for later. Kaede begs Takeo to stay with her, and he puts her to sleep with his eyes and goes off with the Tribe. How noble and all. And that's where Book 1 ends, with everyone all over the place and the readers with Kung-Fu Fighting on repeat loop in their heads.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 05:46 pm (UTC)Well, while I did enjoy the books, he did come across as a little slow on the uptake sometimes ;) It doesn't improve in the sequel... or maybe he was irredeemable in my eyes by that point. (I had the same issue with Robin Hobbs 'Assassin' series. OK - that probably says more about me then it does about the fiction :P)
I *love* your take on Makoto's flute... ROFL!
I await the review of the next book - entitled 'Why not to date creepy old men...' or something :P
P.S. Takeo and Kaede fight with sticks and decide that since they can beat the crap out of each other they might as well fall hopelessly in love.
This forms a great basis for a relationship - mutually assured destruction is a great deterrent :P
no subject
Date: 2008-04-19 06:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-19 06:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-19 03:43 am (UTC)I love you so much for this.
Makoto, a young monk who likes to play the flute. No, the actual flute (although since it's Makoto, maybe...)
And this.
My hopes weren't terribly high in regards to Arai surviving the trilogy, but that's for later.
You'd be surprised. Character arc liek whoa.
Why yes I did read these books as they first came out. I'd totally buy the prequel and sequel, but have no room on my bookshelf.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-19 06:49 am (UTC)I'd totally buy the prequel and sequel, but have no room on my bookshelf. Put them on the floor! Or take two large books of equal height, put a plank of wood over them and presto! instant extra shelf! :D