A review by disneydaughter
Emperor of the Eight Islands by Lian Hearn

4.0

It seems like it's taken me a while to finish this (well, longer than usual), despite it being incredibly fast paced. It's described as being set in a "mythical medieval Japan" and as such, much of the story is tied up in complex family lineage, with many characters having similar names. I felt like I had to read carefully and often had to re-visit certain pages and the handy character list at the beginning of the book.

A difficult book to describe, but a "Japanese Game of Thrones" is probably the closest thing I can think of. It's written beautifully and the story is completely absorbing (once you settle into the flow).