Lian Hearn

Otori Takeo and Kaede have ruled the Three Countries peacefully for over sixteen years, following the events laid out in the epic Tales of the Otori. They have three daughters. Kaede knows nothing of the prophecy that Takeo will die at the hands of his son and longs to give him a male child.

The Harsh Cry of the Heron

After the trilogy this book is really disappointing. Getting through his book was like wading through frozen mud. 

Most of the book reads like a regurgitated history book. There is a lot of chopping and changing between characters. The characters don't seem to have taken on cardboard caricatures of themselves. Characters that I had come to love from The Otori Trilogy became boring names on a page with no substance. 

Hearn narrowed in on the politics, religion, history and ruling of state which was expected to some extent but became tedious to read. There seemed to be a few occasions where Hearn couldn't decide what subplot to follow with which characters and it became a sort of churning mess. 

Without some characters being grossly out of character, the main plot would have fallen on its face. 

The villains in this book reminded me of cartoon villains that would laugh evilly at their own nefarious plots. They didn't seem to hold any weight or real threat in the story. 

Hearn also took a particular fondness to ruining her own twists and surprises before they happened. There was a lot of 'telling' in this book and not enough 'showing.' She also seemed to forget about 'The Tribe' until much later in the novel, which was upsetting as that was part of the reason I was drawn in by the first books.

I will give credit where credit is due, the last 15 or so chapters of the book was the point where the story actually came alive and actually became interesting and engaging. I would argue that in a 700 page novel, the hook of the story shouldn't be at page 500.

I don't think I could recommend it to other readers. My imagination of how the prophecy ended held up better than this book. 

Steph Gram

After the trilogy this book is really disappointing. Getting through his book was like wading through frozen mud. 

Most of the book reads like a regurgitated history book. There is a lot of chopping and changing between characters. The characters don't seem to have taken on cardboard caricatures of themselves. Characters that I had come to love from The Otori Trilogy became boring names on a page with no substance. 

Hearn narrowed in on the politics, religion, history and ruling of state which was expected to some extent but became tedious to read. There seemed to be a few occasions where Hearn couldn't decide what subplot to follow with which characters and it became a sort of churning mess. 

Without some characters being grossly out of character, the main plot would have fallen on its face. 

The villains in this book reminded me of cartoon villains that would laugh evilly at their own nefarious plots. They didn't seem to hold any weight or real threat in the story. 

Hearn also took a particular fondness to ruining her own twists and surprises before they happened. There was a lot of 'telling' in this book and not enough 'showing.' She also seemed to forget about 'The Tribe' until much later in the novel, which was upsetting as that was part of the reason I was drawn in by the first books.

I will give credit where credit is due, the last 15 or so chapters of the book was the point where the story actually came alive and actually became interesting and engaging. I would argue that in a 700 page novel, the hook of the story shouldn't be at page 500.

I don't think I could recommend it to other readers. My imagination of how the prophecy ended held up better than this book. 

Sarah Escorsa

The very disappointment conclusion to a fantastic series, what a shame! This book was as uninteresting as the other three in the series were gripping. What bothered me most in this instalment is that some characters seem to have undergone a total personality change (and not for the best), which was very annoying. I am really glad that Hearn somehow redeemed herself when writing the Prequel to the series Heaven's net is wide, which is a fantastic read and a great beginning/end to the wonderful Tales of the Otori.

The Harsh Cry of the Heron

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