I like samurais. If you've read my review of Seven Samurai, you might be able to figure that out. I'm interested in Japanese culture, though I'm not a fanatic for it. I've read Shogun and a few other works of historical fiction set in Japan. That all went out the window when I read Across the Nightingale Floor.

It matters nothing at all what you know about Japan. It matters nothing at all if you have an interest in Japanese culture or history. This book is just a damn fine read. It is part fantasy, part alternate history and all good story-telling. The characters are as well-rounded, intricate and believable as the setting.

The story, in its most basic form, is about a boy who escapes the destruction of his village. He is saved by a stranger, and slowly learns about his own mysterious past. Throughout the novel, we're introduced to magic, secret races, hidden agendas, revenge, redemption and love.

It is obvious, from the background and setting of the novel--though moreso from the Acknowledgements--that Lian Hearn (a pen-name) has researched Japan. She knows this setting intimately, and so, as the readers, we also do. The scenes are sketched with an artistry of words; never is there a deluge but there also never a drought. The text offers enough description for the reader to place the story, to make that visual painting of the mind, but it never dips into a navel-gazing attempt at false eloquence. There is enough on the page to see the heron in the river, to smell the cherry blossoms, to feel the cold clamminess of wet clothes, but never enough to make the reader suspect the writer might be in love with her own words.

These characters act with understandable passions. They can be as blind to reason as any of us when revenge and love come into play. They are heroic while still mundane--not in the sense of the prosaic but in the sense of the world around us. The main villain, while spending almost all the novel 'off-screen', as it were, is the closest that the novel comes to stereotypical. Perhaps Iida would have been more human, glimpsed at in more detail, but he does make an easy villain to hate. I did not think of this, of course, until I had already rocketed through the novel, finding it difficult to put down. On the second read was when I suspected the hollowness of Iida, and it did little to dampen my enjoyment. This slightest of faults, perhaps not even a fault for many, in no way diminishes the achievement of Takeo, Shigeru, Kenji and Kaede, not to mention the many other secondary and tertiary characters that breathed with a life no less vibrant than my own.

The plot, while I would not call it unique, is refreshing. It is with extreme dexterity that the author has woven concepts of Christian and Buddhist pacifism into a story of a warrior culture and a deadly assassin. Do not think, though, that this is a book rife with theology. Like all good story-tellers, Ms. Hearn has written a book of depth, that can be enjoyed for its surface story of love, revenge and deception, as well as for those thoughts and ideas that swim close enough to the surface to be glimpsed, but never break into the light.

This is also the first book of an intended series (it's called Book One: Tales of the Otori) that is completely self-contained. While the ending leaves room for further stories, it is not a cliff-hanger. You will not need to read through five to ten novels for the conclusion of the story. I would suspect that you will, after reading this book, be impatient for book two, but that would be for reasons of quality rather than a marketing ploy. If you are sick of series that continue on and on, even though much of the books seem to be padding, you will appreciate the care and talent that Ms. Hearn has taken to be concise and succinct without being terse.

I would not pause, for a moment, to recommend this book to a friend. If you appreciate subtle, well-written fantasy that does not rely on flashy magic, hackneyed conventions or recycling Tolkien's genius, this is a book you will definitely enjoy. For those who enjoyed book's like James Clavell's Shogun or Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi, this book will not fail to entertain. In fact, whether you like fantasy or not, Oriental culture or not, if you like good story-telling, you're going to like this book.

If not, send it to me. I wouldn't mind having an extra in case something happens to mine.