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Read Heaven's Net Is Wide (2007)

Heaven's Net is Wide (2007)

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Author
Rating
4.14 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
159448953X (ISBN13: 9781594489532)
Language
English
Publisher
riverhead hardcover

Heaven's Net Is Wide (2007) - Plot & Excerpts

This is so sad, and very disapointing.I have loved this entire series, even more by the fact that I feel like I happened upon it myself years ago and how it seems to have a small audience. You know how it is when you have a favorite book or movie thatyou don't think anyone else knows about about but you, and that it seems made for you? That was how it was for me and the Tales of the Otori series. This book, technically the fifth in the series but written as the "first", is presumably the last book and I hope so. I was fine with the original four in the "trilogy". To be fair, I gave this book several chances. Of the 480-odd pages, I made it just past 230 - almost half way through. I add that as a disclaimer, because by this point in every other title in the series I was hooked and wanted to call out of work to keep reading. It's such a wonderful world to be in. So far in this title, we've seen a lot of banal political machinations and TONS of unrequited love. This book could easily be shelved in the romance section for all it's dwellings on Shiegru, his mistress, and his wife. That's not to say that the other titles were lacking on romance (they actually thrived on it at times), but it was broken up with bits about The Tribe and other more interesting fantasy elements. They've barely touched upon that here. It seems, at the point I had reached, they are just now introducing elements and characters that would play out in the other four books, and even knowing that, I still don't care. When it feels like it's a chore to force yourself to pick up a book and continue reading it, it's maybe time to stop. And I have. However, I have not completely abandoned it. I do plan on popping in a reading some chapters here and there, just in case (mostly because so many of the other reviews on here about the title seem to overwhelmingly positive - I have not been reading the same book thus far!) I'll update if it changes my opinion any.

I've had this book in my shelf since the day it first came out, yet I couldn't manage to pick it up and read it until five years later. Surprisingly, it only took me five days to finish it despite my busy activities, and now I just realized how much I missed the entire Otori klan! Harsh Cry of the Heron was so traumatizing that I refused to remember them for years. (For you who haven't read the other books, this may contain spoilers!)So, the book started with Otori Shigeru being a 12-year old boy who saved his brother's live with the help of a girl, who later became one of his most favorite persons. The story continued, and suddenly Shigeru faced a great loss in a war against the Tohan, where he lost his father and his best friend. His life turned upside down, and he decided to be a farmer while growing a friendship with the Tribe and plotting a revenge to Iida Sadamu. During the long years, he developed a secret relationship with Lady Maruyama Naomi and some sad events including his lover, his mother, and his brother Takeshi occured. And at the end of the book, he met the future Otori Takeo, and that was the start of Across the Nightingale Floor. Okay, I'm sorry I'm not a good reviewer but that doesn't matter. The book is great and beautifully written, although there were some things that didn't quite catch my heart, like the way Shigeru decided to live that was so un'warrior'like, and how could Hearn made Takeshi's death so quick and sudden that it wasn't able to shed my tears? I was totally drowned in despair when I finished Harsh Cry of the Heron, and I expected her to do the same with HNiW. But she didn't. And that kind of disappointed me.Anyway, I still give this book my five stars, probably because of the bond I've made with all four previous books.

What do You think about Heaven's Net Is Wide (2007)?

When I read Across the Nightingale Floor more than ten years ago, I really liked it, and my favorite character was Shigeru. I was increasingly less enchanted with the sequels until I found I couldn't read any of the Otori books anymore, but I thought I would give this one a chance because of its subject. While it started good, in the end I was also disappointed with it and its characters. I don't know if it is age or familiarity breeding contempt, but for the life of me I can't remember why I once liked Shigeru enough to cry at his death. He wasn't a bad character, but he wasn't anything special. Even more of a problem was the course of the plot. Hearn was so focused on making its events meet up with the first book that its own narrative arc was sacrificed. The most dramatic scene took place in the middle, and the rest of the book felt like a slow slide down into inevitability. If this were the only book in the series that you read, I think it would be very unsatisfying because its latter half was all set up rather than the resolution of its own conflicts.What I will say about Hearn is that the fantasy Japan was done incredibly well. I last read this series before I lived in Japan, and so I did not appreciate all the countless small details that are just spot on. The world came alive to me. Sadly, the story did not.
—Nicole

kisah Lord Otori Shigeru yang sangat mengasyikan. Buku yang menarik karena merupakan buku yang paling terakhir keluar setelah Kisah Klan Otori 1-4, padahal ceritanya duluan.Klan Otori 1-4 berkisah dengan tokoh utama Otori Takeo, keponakan dari Lord Shigeru tapi beda ibu. setting pada buku 1 berawal dengan kondisi bahwa Otori sudah kalah dari Klan Tohan di Yaegahara. Kisah mengenai kekalahan Otori dan intrik-intrik setelah kekalahan tersebut dikisahkan dengan sangat menarik dalam buku ini sampai akhirnya Shigeru menemukan keponakannya yang selama ini hilang dan tidak diketahui orang lain selain Shigeru dan Lord Shigemori. sayangnya sebelum bertemu dengan Takeo, Shigeru harus kehilangan adiknya Lord Takeshi karena dibantai oleh Tohan.bagi teman-teman yang senang dengan novel dengan latar belakang sejarah Jepang, saya sangat merekomendasikan buku ini (5 buku). tetapi jangan memperbandingkan kisah dalam buku ini dengan Buku Taiko karena memang pendekatannya yang berbeda. Taiko lebih kental fakta sejarahnya dibanding dengan seri buku Klan Otori ini. sedangkan buku ini benar-benar novel sehingga ceritanya banyak dibumbui misalnya dengan adanya kaum Tribe yang mempunyai keahlian hampir supranatural dan kaum Hidden sebagai kaum kristen pertama di Jepang yang diburu oleh para penguasa pada saat itu.
—Ade

Okay, so I don't often do reviews of the books I read, but this is going to be an exception. This is the prequel of the series "The Tales of the Otori", and being a Japanophile I absolutely fell in love with this book. I anxiously await reading the rest of the series, but they are surprisingly hard to find (not at the local bookstores or in the Barnes & Noble at the Grove). The detail to which the author immerses you into the Japanese culture is astounding, and it wove in just enough fantasy to keep me hooked. I'm sad that the characters I became attached to are only to serve as backstory for the rest of the series, but am also excited to see where the story goes from here.Hearn really captures the emotional struggle that each class level in feudal Japan had to endure, from high-ranking men to women of the pleasure houses. The buildups to major events were exciting, and the shocking plot twists were hard to see coming (I especially loved the events leading to the death of one character, so. epic.). I know that as soon as I can find the rest of the series I will gobble them up.
—Xander Jeanneret

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