A review by secre
Emperor of the Eight Islands by Lian Hearn
3.0
I'm in two minds about this one. On the one hand it is beautifully written with some wonderful turns of phrase. Throughout the entire novel, you could see how carefully crafted each line and paragraph was and it was really quite a pleasure to read. On the other hand, whilst some characters are carefully crafted and built, there were so many others that it became difficult to keep track of who was who and what was going on at times. This was even more noticeable because many of the names were undeniably similar and individuals might go multiple chapters without a reference, only to be brought up again briefly without warning. The multiple perspectives made this all the more irritating as sometimes it took me several pages just to re-orient myself as to whose perspective I was reading.
The narrative itself is quite strong and I certainly grew attached to many of the characters. Hearn is excellent at keeping you in the dark, never quite sure of what has happened to a character until the moment you possibly hear from them again. I enjoyed the way so many of the characters interlinked in unexpected ways, and how the story lines of each interlinked in so many different ways. There were definitely some issues with how well rounded some of the characters were, but the fact that the author isn't too shy about the death rate of characters meant that there was no shortage of tension.
I suspect my biggest complaint about this book is that it doesn't end, it just stops. This shouldn't be multiple books... it should be one single book, because this isn't a finished novel. It's a novel cut in half and that just annoys me. Either get a decent editor or release a gigantic single volume. Don't make me buy a sequel that shouldn't be a sequel. It's a pet peeve of mine but it drives me damn barmy!
The narrative itself is quite strong and I certainly grew attached to many of the characters. Hearn is excellent at keeping you in the dark, never quite sure of what has happened to a character until the moment you possibly hear from them again. I enjoyed the way so many of the characters interlinked in unexpected ways, and how the story lines of each interlinked in so many different ways. There were definitely some issues with how well rounded some of the characters were, but the fact that the author isn't too shy about the death rate of characters meant that there was no shortage of tension.
I suspect my biggest complaint about this book is that it doesn't end, it just stops. This shouldn't be multiple books... it should be one single book, because this isn't a finished novel. It's a novel cut in half and that just annoys me. Either get a decent editor or release a gigantic single volume. Don't make me buy a sequel that shouldn't be a sequel. It's a pet peeve of mine but it drives me damn barmy!