This is the second book in a four volume fantasy epic, and I
think I made a big mistake by not reading the first one. I found this on the
‘new books’ shelf and went “Hmmm.. fantasy set in feudal Japan.. I’ll take
that!” But the author jumps right into the story with no bringing us up to
speed, which left me utterly baffled, even with the cast of characters in the
front of the book. Who were these people and why were they doing these things
to each other? Because of this, I never managed to care about the characters
and the story bored me- even though there were magical. There is some cool
stuff going on- half demon children born of one woman and five fathers, some
very intelligent horses, magical swords, a lot of magic, and a child emperor
hiding with a troop of performing monkeys (and probably having the best time of
his life). I liked the writing and the style; I just couldn’t connect. So, I
think this series is probably brilliant, but don’t even try to read this book
without reading the first one beforehand!
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This in no way affected my review.
Some series books can be that way, must read from beginning. In others though the author spends the first chapters of the third or so book telling us what we already know if we have been reading from book 1. That can be irritating.
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