Tales of the Otori, by Lian Hearn
Sep. 10th, 2018 11:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkThe Tales of the Otori books were the first books I ever read in English. I remember that it took me several chapters to figure out what "to bow" means and I was very proud when I got it. So there's definitely a nostalgia factor there, which makes it harder to evaluate the books now.
The original trilogy is a fairly typical coming-of-age story + adventure + romance with lords and ninjas in a weird fantasy-Japan. The main characters are teenagers who fall deeply in love at first sight *rolls eyes*, there's a lot of "honor!!" stuff going on, and the plot is okay/good at times but in the end resolves more by deus ex machine than the main characters' competence. I did love many minor characters, the characters torn between different loyalties, especially the Muto family, and later on Takeo struggling with different ways of life. Kaede, the heroine, had a lot of potential but I was disappointed by how little was realized. Another plus: several queer characters, including a bi hero.
And then there's "The Harsh Cry of the Heron," the sequel set sixteen years later. I've wanted fix-it fic for it ever since I finished it, and the reason why I reread the series now is because I decided to finally request it for Yuletide. Fingers crossed. (Now if only I could decide which characters to request.)
"Harsh Cry of the Heron" doesn't have a very happy ending – hopeful, but unexpectedly dark. When I read it the first time I absolutely hated it, and it seemed so random and cruel. This time I realized how much of the characters' ill fortunes were a result of their own actions, some more at fault (Takeo!) and some less (Taku) but even the seemingly random events had their logic. Characters are flawed and that's human, and it was already apparent in the original trilogy and it makes sense how things developed. It was frustrating that the good guys seemed less competent than the bad guys, but I think a lot of it was just because of what was highlighted for the plot/plot necessity. (Waiting sixteen years to contact the Emperor was incredibly stupid, like, what the fuck.) The book has a huge cast (and sometimes struggles with balancing it, and with the pacing.) I really hated the villains, good job with that, and I liked many characters and got invested in them. Overall I found the book very compelling.
What I hated were the occasional implications that love and sex and marriage and children make women weak, wtf. And that in a book with so many great female characters. Though Kaede deserved so much better, both from her husband and from the author. Also, I could imagine that some people would appreciate some content warnings, like for sexual abuse of children.
My favorite character, the last time around and this time as well, was Muto Taku. Not even completely sure why. (I wish he'd been slightly more competent as a spy master though, he was completely surprised by the depth of his brother's treachery, the foreigners in Kumamoto etc.) I liked his relationship with Hiroshi even in "Brilliance of the Moon," I wasn't at all surprised that it was confirmed that they'd been lovers for a while, and while it surprised me that he fell so hard for Sada, I also kinda liked what little we saw of their relationship. (Though telling her about the prophecy, especially the way he did, was careless and stupid.) And Maya as their kitten. I loved that Taku actually considered joining Zenko, and that it was the thought of Hiroshi who convinced him otherwise. (If only he'd actually killed Zenko…) (Kinda weird that he "accepted a political marriage with a Tohan girl" – why political, he's Tribe and doesn't really acknowledge his Arai heritage, and she's from a warrior family… Maybe his children did take the Arai name, at least if they don't show Tribe heritage, and he might have other children within the Tribe.)
While Maya's crush on Taku and Sada is a child's and cute, Hiroshi's crush on Shigeko seems kinda weird and almost creepy. He's apparently been in Maruyama for six years iirc, so when they parted he was twenty and she was nine, and he's been in love with her since then or even earlier? Did he fixate on her right after getting over Hana?
From Shigeko's side it makes more sense, especially since they apparently were students together. I liked Shigeko, though she got close to being too perfect at times.
The twins and especially Maya are kinda dicks early on, especially to Sunaomi, but it's also understandable with the way they've been treated by everyone, especially by their mother, and the contrast with how much everyone loves Sunaomi. It's nice that Kaede decides to stay alive for Miki in the end but man I hope she properly atones for how she's treated them. It's easier now that the second twin is dead, of course, but I hope Miki doesn't just forgive her. (I also want to write a short fic where Miki travels back in time and stabs Akio, it would be so satisfying.)
Hisao is really messed up, no wonder with a father who sexually and otherwise abuses him and growing up in the Tribe with barely any talents (that anyone realizes) and haunted by his dead mother. And the first time he disobeys Akio, because his dead mother's ghost forces him to, his biological father uses him to kill himself. Hopefully he can recover; maybe he can even bond with Miki.
I remembered (halfway through) that it was Maya who killed Kaede and Takeo's son, but I forgot that it was Yuki's fault, that it was Yuki taking revenge on Kaede because Takeo loved Kaede and not her. That is fucked up. But then Yuki is from the Tribe, has been forced to take poison right after giving birth to her son and spent the last sixteen years trying to force him to talk to her, she's probably not exactly mentally stable anymore either. (I want the AU where instead of taking poison she takes Hisao and flees.)
This is another book where half the plot could have been solved with Takeo just fucking talking to Kaede – but it was already established in the trilogy that he doesn't want to, that he's too afraid of her reaction, and that fear led to his downfall. And Kaede is not necessarily a good mother, is very fixated on a son etc., but we also saw beginnings of that, and that she clings way more tightly to warrior traditions than Takeo, in the trilogy. I would have liked to see her actually govern, we mostly just saw her be Takeo's advisor and that was a shame. In my head Shigeko will be more actively involved. Especially because Saga Hideki doesn't even know the Three Lands.
(And then there's "Heaven's Net Is Wide," the prequel to the trilogy, and I only remember it being extremely boring so I didn't even bother rereading it.)
The original trilogy is a fairly typical coming-of-age story + adventure + romance with lords and ninjas in a weird fantasy-Japan. The main characters are teenagers who fall deeply in love at first sight *rolls eyes*, there's a lot of "honor!!" stuff going on, and the plot is okay/good at times but in the end resolves more by deus ex machine than the main characters' competence. I did love many minor characters, the characters torn between different loyalties, especially the Muto family, and later on Takeo struggling with different ways of life. Kaede, the heroine, had a lot of potential but I was disappointed by how little was realized. Another plus: several queer characters, including a bi hero.
And then there's "The Harsh Cry of the Heron," the sequel set sixteen years later. I've wanted fix-it fic for it ever since I finished it, and the reason why I reread the series now is because I decided to finally request it for Yuletide. Fingers crossed. (Now if only I could decide which characters to request.)
"Harsh Cry of the Heron" doesn't have a very happy ending – hopeful, but unexpectedly dark. When I read it the first time I absolutely hated it, and it seemed so random and cruel. This time I realized how much of the characters' ill fortunes were a result of their own actions, some more at fault (Takeo!) and some less (Taku) but even the seemingly random events had their logic. Characters are flawed and that's human, and it was already apparent in the original trilogy and it makes sense how things developed. It was frustrating that the good guys seemed less competent than the bad guys, but I think a lot of it was just because of what was highlighted for the plot/plot necessity. (Waiting sixteen years to contact the Emperor was incredibly stupid, like, what the fuck.) The book has a huge cast (and sometimes struggles with balancing it, and with the pacing.) I really hated the villains, good job with that, and I liked many characters and got invested in them. Overall I found the book very compelling.
What I hated were the occasional implications that love and sex and marriage and children make women weak, wtf. And that in a book with so many great female characters. Though Kaede deserved so much better, both from her husband and from the author. Also, I could imagine that some people would appreciate some content warnings, like for sexual abuse of children.
My favorite character, the last time around and this time as well, was Muto Taku. Not even completely sure why. (I wish he'd been slightly more competent as a spy master though, he was completely surprised by the depth of his brother's treachery, the foreigners in Kumamoto etc.) I liked his relationship with Hiroshi even in "Brilliance of the Moon," I wasn't at all surprised that it was confirmed that they'd been lovers for a while, and while it surprised me that he fell so hard for Sada, I also kinda liked what little we saw of their relationship. (Though telling her about the prophecy, especially the way he did, was careless and stupid.) And Maya as their kitten. I loved that Taku actually considered joining Zenko, and that it was the thought of Hiroshi who convinced him otherwise. (If only he'd actually killed Zenko…) (Kinda weird that he "accepted a political marriage with a Tohan girl" – why political, he's Tribe and doesn't really acknowledge his Arai heritage, and she's from a warrior family… Maybe his children did take the Arai name, at least if they don't show Tribe heritage, and he might have other children within the Tribe.)
While Maya's crush on Taku and Sada is a child's and cute, Hiroshi's crush on Shigeko seems kinda weird and almost creepy. He's apparently been in Maruyama for six years iirc, so when they parted he was twenty and she was nine, and he's been in love with her since then or even earlier? Did he fixate on her right after getting over Hana?
From Shigeko's side it makes more sense, especially since they apparently were students together. I liked Shigeko, though she got close to being too perfect at times.
The twins and especially Maya are kinda dicks early on, especially to Sunaomi, but it's also understandable with the way they've been treated by everyone, especially by their mother, and the contrast with how much everyone loves Sunaomi. It's nice that Kaede decides to stay alive for Miki in the end but man I hope she properly atones for how she's treated them. It's easier now that the second twin is dead, of course, but I hope Miki doesn't just forgive her. (I also want to write a short fic where Miki travels back in time and stabs Akio, it would be so satisfying.)
Hisao is really messed up, no wonder with a father who sexually and otherwise abuses him and growing up in the Tribe with barely any talents (that anyone realizes) and haunted by his dead mother. And the first time he disobeys Akio, because his dead mother's ghost forces him to, his biological father uses him to kill himself. Hopefully he can recover; maybe he can even bond with Miki.
I remembered (halfway through) that it was Maya who killed Kaede and Takeo's son, but I forgot that it was Yuki's fault, that it was Yuki taking revenge on Kaede because Takeo loved Kaede and not her. That is fucked up. But then Yuki is from the Tribe, has been forced to take poison right after giving birth to her son and spent the last sixteen years trying to force him to talk to her, she's probably not exactly mentally stable anymore either. (I want the AU where instead of taking poison she takes Hisao and flees.)
This is another book where half the plot could have been solved with Takeo just fucking talking to Kaede – but it was already established in the trilogy that he doesn't want to, that he's too afraid of her reaction, and that fear led to his downfall. And Kaede is not necessarily a good mother, is very fixated on a son etc., but we also saw beginnings of that, and that she clings way more tightly to warrior traditions than Takeo, in the trilogy. I would have liked to see her actually govern, we mostly just saw her be Takeo's advisor and that was a shame. In my head Shigeko will be more actively involved. Especially because Saga Hideki doesn't even know the Three Lands.
(And then there's "Heaven's Net Is Wide," the prequel to the trilogy, and I only remember it being extremely boring so I didn't even bother rereading it.)
