Geek of Oz

There is a fine line between objective and subjective criticism. Some reviewers can tell you the difficulty in maintaining professional distance when critically analysing something, especially if that something provokes the kind of absolute joy or abject loathing that keeps someone like me motivated to write. It's a difficulty I run into when reviewing Emperor of the Eight Islands , Lian Hearn's first book in the prequel to her acclaimed Tales of the Otori series. As a novel, there are a few points where Hearn falls short. As a story, I was completely in love with it, meaning those shortcomings weren't as noticeable. Set 300 years before Across the Nightingale Floor , two rival clans are battling for control of the Lotus Throne. A young man, nearly killed by his lord uncle, is revived as a new man named Shikanoko by a mystical sage. An ancient and mysterious woman gives birth to five supernatural children from five different fathers. After a devastating earthquake and...

Fourteen years since its initial publication, Across the Nightingale Floor is a calm, measured book. It's the kind of fantasy unconcerned with frenetic plotting and frequent action, preferring to channel its energy into developing compelling characters, multifaceted politics and a sprawling world inspired by the real feudal Japan. Though it's been a beloved Australian classic for the better part of two decades, I'm only now experiencing Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori for the first time. This is thanks in part to the recent re-release of Hearn's series in gorgeous new covers, but also because the prequel series, The Tale of Shikanoko , set three hundred years before Otori , begins in March 2016. So before seeing where everything begins in the fictional world, it's good to go back to the beginning in the real one. The Three Countries are ruled by the Clans. After escaping the destruction of his village and the murder of his family, the young boy Tomasu is res...