Tales of the Otori (Lian Hearn)

Tales of the Otori is a trilogy written by Lian Hearn, a pseudonym for Australian author, Gillian Rubenstein. It's a fantasy series, set in a mythical medieval Japan, where warlords feud for control of the land, and the Tribe, secretive people with extraordinary physical powers, hire themselves out as assassins and spies.

Tales of the Otori tells the story of Takeo and Kaede, a young man and woman who must fight for their future. There's a great deal of death in these books, and I found the propensity people have for killing themselves rather off-putting. The writing style is what I think of as Japanese - rich with description, but very spare and simple, especiially the dialogue and the emotional life of the characters. In fact, I didn't feel that I got very close to the characters, which was drawback. Their lives were so intensely dramatic that they didn't feel particularly real.

However, Hearn's descriptions are intensely beautiful, and she has created a beautiful world in Tales of the Otori. They veer between three and four out of five stars.