Heaven's Net is Wide
by Lian Hearn
HeavenŐs Net is Wide is a first and last tale. The last in a sequence of novels, Tales of the Otori, it ends at the beginning of the first in the series, Across the Nightingale Floor. In so doing, it both acts as an introduction to the books for new readers and an invitation to read them again. All the elements that made the series such a success are here: powerful, evocative writing; strong emotions: love, hatred, revenge, betrayal; different belief systems; a beautifully wrought and realized world that is, and is not, medieval Japan, with a slight wash of magic over it all.
The novel begins with characters who are are familiar, yet unfamiliar. We know them as mature adults; now they are young. Characters who will become all important - Takeo and Kaede - are children here, their presence merely established, their roles hardly hinted at. Elements of the 'laterŐ stories: TakeoŐs origins, the source of the on-going and bloody conflict, the roles of the different parties, are finally accounted for and there is a pleasing symmetry in how it all clicks into place. The reader is led irresistibly back to the first novel: a very clever idea.