Across The Nightingale Floor (2002) - Plot & Excerpts
Okay. I'll try to be as kind and heartfelt as possible. This book is insultingly bad. Normally a bad book is just that, but this book is actually infuriatingly bad.Firstly, it's a fantasy book set in feudal Japan. That's fine. I would think that it being set in Japan, Hearn would have learned anything about the place, but she apparently did not. This book is written as if Hearn simply googled Japan and then decided to write a book on it. I'll go down the list of failings.Religion Japan wasn't Christian. It persecuted Christianity in the same way that Rome did; it's teachings undermined the ruling order. But in Hearn's world everyone is predominantly Christian, or at least they worship a god an awful lot like the Christian god; like looking down on suicide, which was a part of the way of life in Japan. So, okay, Hearn didn't do that justice; base a book of a land and F up their religion, okay. But this is the least of her offenses.Language Other novels written about or in Japan (Shogun, to name one) have tried to successfully capture the way people spoke; saying one thing and meaning another. Hearn tries to do this... I think. It's hard to tell because it is so blunt but she implies that they are saying something else. I guess. Either way the dialogue is awful. There is a two-page dialogue about a characters past that is painfully bad. It isn't emotional, even the character seems to know this, and it isn't realistic. The conversations are flat and would fail if they were imitating normal conversation, in that they should be trying for feudal speech they fail astoundingly.Terrain/Geography/History This is pretty hard to F up but Hearn does it anyway. She apparently read somewhere that Japan gets a lot of earthquakes, so the characters experience them, constantly. This would be informative of the climate and area, but it isn't - it's irritating. All it does is randomly distract from the story. The characters are talking about something and then the author stops to make everything shake, then everyone has to acknowledge the quake, then we resume. Maybe that's real, but it's also retarded. Include the quakes in exposition, don't stop the story to put them in. Realism only goes so far in books. If we had to read every time a character took a piss it wouldn't be interesting either. Now there is the infamous battle of Yaegahara from her book... which is clearly just a ripoff of the real battle of Sekigahara. The infuriating thing is that she uses the feuds, anger, and tension that came from the battle of Sekigahara but apparently didn't want to learn anything about it. Yeah, spending an afternoon researching battles and actual lords would have been so tough. It's insulting to every reader that she would be so lazy as to simply slap a 'Yae' in front of gahara and imitate such an important battle. How about a Japanese person writes a story about America and they talk about the bombing of Mearl Harbor? Or the Bivil War? Gimme a break. If you don't put the time into the work you don't deserve to have the job. Nuff said.Culture I'll just sum up the undulating wave of crap that she wrote under this category as culture. Hearn mentions the tea ceremony and Sesshu to add some sense of where the crap we are, but fails in both. The tea ceremony is highly regarded and ceremonial. It is obvious to anyone that knows anything about it that Hearn has no clue about it. So she simply puts a few ideas in and then assumes job well done. Or not. She does the same with Sesshu, a feudal artist. She drops him in and then completely inaccurately describes his artwork. Secondly, the characters act in no way as they would befitting their setting. Evidently Hearn has no clue about the hierarchy in Japan or how much different it was there than most anywhere else. Peasants were dirt to samurai. Samurai were the dogs of their lords, or daimyo. Or not. Hearn has everyone acting as if they grew up during the 1960's in America and freedom of speech is going strong. People constantly belittle lords, sons of lords, and people of higher rank. Speaking of samurai - THEY ARE CALLED SAMURAI! Why is it Hearn refuses to use the proper names for half of the things she is writing about? She will use fief to describe a lords power despite the fact that the average reader has no idea what a fief is, yet she won't use words like samurai, ninja, ninpo, ninja-to, and ninjitsu even though it's what THE BOOK IS ABOUT. It's as if Hearn was struck by some bizarre fear of using the actual words for anything. Normally this would just irk me, but it is to the point where misunderstanding is common. For example: The wooden training sword is called a boken not a pole. Those are completely different things. Hearn's lack of ability to describe anything leaves the reader with only the words she gives them, so when she says 'two people fight with poles' that is what we see. If she actually meant everyone fights with poles then... ugh, she really would have no clue what she is talking about.Historical Fiction This is not. It is hardly set in Japan. It is set in a place where they use the names of people from Japan. That is about it. The rest of this is the same fantasy garbage that proliferates the genre. And really, if you are going to base a fantasy world off of Japan then it should be pretty similar to it, otherwise why do it? You just like everyone looking Asian?So, aside from the fact that Hearn fails terribly at representing the people she set out to, how's the rest of the book?The characters are weak with unoriginal histories that are not spiced up in the least bit. The love is 'at first sight' which is the trademark of lazy writing. Why bother having to develop feelings when you can just say it was at first sight? Gimme a break. The hero, despite being written in 1st person, is remarkably flat. The beginning has him discovering his destroyed village and yet he seems pretty unperturbed by it. Later he feels something. Sort of.So, crappy characters. What else? Oh, everyone knows things that would be impossible for them to know just to move the story along and build superficial tension. For example: How the hell does a monk living in a temple in the forest know that the main character has acute hearing? Another: How is it everyone and their mom knows the main character is part of some assassin tribe by looking at him? Was his dad Elvis Presley and he looks just like him? I'm pretty sure assassins thing is to be unseen, but I guess that wouldn't make things tense, right Hearn?The prose is weak and most of the story takes place in exposition. They traveled here, they did this, and we are witness to very few of the actual happenings. What results is nothing that anyone really cares about.The only thing that bothers me more about having actually read this book is that anyone thought it was well-written, and worse, that it was awarded with anything. This is an insult to literature and I have very little hope left if this is what most people find 'good'.
Assassins are cool. Super powers, who wouldn't want some? That this is set outside the US and the UK, a huge plus. So what went wrong?Early on I assumedAcross the Nightingale Floor had been translated due to inconsistent, simple and superficial language. And I wasn't alone in my thinking. However, a quick search revealed the author to have been born and raised a few miles from where I live in England. Very little emotion is shown by Takeo, our hero, despite what should've been some harrowing scenes in the beginning in which he lost his entire family in the massacre of his village, witnessed by him. Balancing 'show' and 'tell' is a common problem and unfortunately there's far too much 'tell' than there really should be. Long conversations, flimsy explanations and detailed summaries are shortcuts used here contributing to a severe lack of depth concerning Takeo's character and a level of unreadability to his chapters as I was unable to connect or sympathise with him.On the other hand, Kaede, our heroine, manages to engender sympathy for her plight right away. Her chapters were noticeably different in quality, contained more action and the feminist-themed commentary was intriguing. "Even beauty is dangerous for a woman. Better not to be desired by men." Again and again this is proved in this patriarchal, feudal Japan. Including superstitious nonsense regarding the powers of women cursing men just by being arbitrarily associated with them. If a man happens to die at the hands of the woman he tried to rape it's the would-be rapist's fault, not the woman's. That's the social norm of the time period this is set it.Kaede's insta-love at first sight towards Takeo and its reciprocation turned me off for it's commonality and overuse amongst young adult novels but THT suggested it could be taken as "fated to be mated". I think, in the end, it was a mixture of both. Their relationship was engineered to be Shigeru and Maruyama's history repeating itself, an ill-fated one where being together would mean death. Our hope this second time around is that they'll finally be reunited and gain a happy-ever-after. For me, this isn't something I like, this repetition in the vain hope all will work out in spite of history attesting to that fact it most likely will not. I can see the poetic beauty and note the tragic Shakespearean nature of these circumstances, though I can't appreciate them here, not with this writing. And certainly not when it looks like the other books will draw out the angst-ridden will-they-or-won't-they. No, thank you.Hearn gives away her ending early on via heavy foreshadowing. Predictablity isn't something I'm a fan of, although I am grateful the author didn't go full Romeo and Juliet on her characters, close call though it was. I'm also glad the issue of sex wasn't glossed over or ignored. Sex was heard, had with prostitutes, and had next to a rapidly cooling corpse in what must've been a blood-spattered room and clothing. Sexy.Usually I'm an ardent lover of politics and dastardly machinations, I wasn't in this case. I had zero invested in the plot and no side ever revealed itself to be a favorable one to champion. Takeo, Shigeru, Iida, Kenji and the Tribe. I hoped for nothing. No, I tell a lie. I hoped they'd all die quickly so I could finish the damn book and move on. As super secrets assassins go I wasn't terribly impressed with the Tribe. Like everyone else they had an agenda, not one I could get behind, and possessed no members I could warm to. They were petty and patronising with no respect for free will, what's to like about that? Their skills were only mildly paranormal, mostly standard stuff to use to fight, escape and evade: enhanced strength and hearing, fast reflexes, creating temporary shadow doppelgangers to distract, and hypnotic gazes that can send you to sleep. Out of all the assassin scenes Takeo's acts of mercy were the ones to make a good impression on me and a bad one on Kenji, Takeo's teacher: "It's that softness he has," Kenji said. "It drives him to act from compassion, even when he kills."Villain, Iida, is defeated unbelievably fast and easy. You could argue a stroke of luck, a fortuitous accident, if you will. Not in my eyes. Iida lost his credibility as a convincing foe in the moment he was beaten. For someone so completely paranoid and obsessed about security he underestimated his opponents and ignored possible threats, not just the one that brought him down either.I understand what the author was trying to achieve with Across the Nightingale Floor and no doubt it would make for a beautiful, graceful yet tragic movie. As a book, it failed to seduce me. Reading shouldn't be hard work. Just skimming I struggled to stop my eyes from glazing over in utter boredom until the last 20% when the pace picks up. I couldn't, in good conscience, recommend this to anyone.*Read-along with The Holy Terror and Cillian.
What do You think about Across The Nightingale Floor (2002)?
When I first heard about this series I just had to read it. After all with my studies and deep interest in Japanese culture, language, and what have you, how could I not? It didn't help that it has an absolutely GORGEOUS cover, and AWESOME title. In fact, everything about this book is aesthetically pleasing. Even the layout of the book is wonderful. Oh, I forgot to mention, Across the Nightingale Floor is the first book in the Tales of the Otori trilogy.When I started reading it, I thought pah, this is just some wannabe trying too hard to make this seem Japanese-y. I mean, when I came across the name Tomasu, which basically equates to Thomas, only in katakana-ed forn (katakana is a writing system in Japanese used for foreign/loan words) I let out a big scoff of disbelief. But as I continued, I was thoroughly engrossed in the world she created. A sort of alternate feudal Japan based on and incorporating real places that can be found there. The writing was a bit sparse in some places, and the dialogue felt a bit unnatural at times, but overall it was pretty good. I especially loved the metaphors and descriptions that used lots of Japanese symbolism. The only real issue I had was that some times the author would tend to use those adverbs a bit too much. The book is written in the first pov, but when you switch over to the other main female character, Kaede, her chapters are written in third. I didn't really care for Takeo at first, and enjoyed reading Kaede's sections more, but as the book went on I empathized with both. The plot was fantastic, after you reach the halfway point it just races forward in a suspenseful rush for the finish. There were quite a few surprises at the end that left me in shock and going "I so didn't expect that." Her world building was fantastic and I now totally want to read more stories like this. You even get to read a snippet of the first chapter for the next book!If you want to test out the waters of Asian fantasy, or want a quick read, this is definitely the book for you. And, if you aren't that big of a fantasy nut, this book would be perfect for you too, since the main components that make up fantasy (ie: magic, swords and sorcery, and all the other stuff) aren't that prevalent in this book. I am so going to read the rest of the books in this series now!
—Krystle
Very fast read, in part because it was so utterly gripping (I nearly missed my bus stop because of it, then accidentally whapped the guy sitting across the way from me with my cello case in my hurry to get out.) Everything is beautifully detailed, and for this Legend of the Five Rings fan, it was an excellent addition to the mystical samurai sub-genre. My only quibbles were with the shifting narrative, which is fine if you keep it all from the same kind of viewpoint (e.g. consistently third-person as in Martin's Game of Thrones series) but switching back and forth from 1st to 3rd as done in this book was just distracting. Also the relationship w Makoto at the end seemed to come out of nowhere, though I'll admit that sometimes relationships just do. Otherwise, I quite look forward to reading the rest of the series, though I'm in no tearing rush to find them. Also, I'm quite a fan of some of the author's non-pseudonymous work.Now having read some of the negative reviews on the site, I'm a little appalled by how people are freaking out about how Ms Hearn isn't properly 'dignifying' Japanese culture (and usually, so far as I can tell, these people aren't all that familiar with the culture to begin with.) The book, like a lot of manga, doesn't pretend to be realistic, so the high level of dudgeon directed towards it on that account is certainly unwarranted.
—Doreen
Given the number reviewers who hated this book, I will begin with a caveat. I listened in audio format which was very enjoyable but I can see where some of the tedious elements (if reading) would be hard to take. However the audible version is performed in Takeo's voice as well as Kaide. For those who refuse to see any of the wonders of Japan and Japanese culture in the book I can only encourage you to "get over yourself". I have met many who people who, having spent some time in Japan explode at any attempt to capture the uniqueness of the Japanese culture and assume that anything that does not line up with their experience/knowledge is a misrepresentation. Eventually, if you have lived there long enough it is possible to enjoy even fictional (and admittedly inaccurate in some elements) accounts of Japan without needing to deride the story teller for their "stretchers" as Mark Twain would say. Yes this is a fantasy book, it is not deep on plot or character depth, but it is a good story with enough reference to Japanese history and actual customs to make it worth reading and apparently to confuse/anger some folks. In the end I would recommend this and the sequels to anyone who wants to read a really good story, with flavours of Japan sprinkled in. I would suggest the audio version as well as the performances are very helpful in setting a tone.
—Scott Gillespie
