Amazon.com Review
The debut novel of Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori series, Across the Nightingale Floor, is set in a feudal Japan on the edge of the imagination. The tale begins with young Takeo, a member of a subversive and persecuted religious group, who returns home to find his village in flames. He is saved, not by coincidence, by the swords of Lord Otori Shigeru and thrust into a world of warlords, feuding clans, and political scheming. As Lord Otori's ward, he discovers he is a member by birth of the shadowy "Tribe," a mysterious group of assassins with supernatural abilities.

Hearn sets his tale in an imaginary realm that is and isn't feudal Japan. This device serves the author well as he is able to play with familiar archetypes--samurai, Shogun, and ninja--without falling prey to the pitfalls of history. The novel fills a unique niche that is at once period piece and fantasy novel. Hearn unfolds the tale of Takeo and the conflicting forces around him in a deliberate manner that leads to a satisfying conclusion and sets the stage for the rest of the series. --Jeremy Pugh

The author's writing is very good, with breathtaking descriptions and a simple but beautiful language that draws you in. The world she creates, with its traditions, cities and people, is surprisingly real, and brings with it a sense of the East, with its mysticism and beauty. The characters are fleshed out very well, and we as readers easily identify with them. Takeo is a likable protagonist and his story is one we read with a sense of wonder and fear and anxiety, wanting to know what he thinks and does and chooses. Although the author uses themes that have been explored by other authors (the suddenly orphanaged boy in a quest for revenge), the author brings a fresh perspective to it. If you liked this story, I also recommend reading Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy and subsequent works.

But this first book in the series does have its problems where I am concerned. Some books have the particularity of almost losing themselves in details and side stories, whereas this one lacks some detail and back story that would have made it a far more enjoyable read. It is a short book, with fewer pages than most books in the fantasy genre, probably the reason why you end up missing some aspects of the story you would like to have read about.

The book starts too abruptly; by the second page Takeo is already confronted with the death of his family and the destruction of his village. We hardly have time to be introduced to the story and this boy before we're taken away from the idylic village of the Hidden to a desperate escape from the murderers. We never really get the feeling Takeo has grieved for his family, and since we hardly know his mother and sisters (consequence of too soon a jump into the action, the burning of his village that is the catalyst of the story), we never really get the feeling of loss, and we can't really identify with the character in his grief (which is hardly shown, anyway).

Another aspect I thought to be missing were little moments in those lost six months when Takeo was trained. I would have loved to have seen at least a few lines that would describe these six months, his training, the gradual change in his character as he got more in touch with his heritage and his talents. We realize he is someone with a deep aversion to death, legacy of his upbringing with the Hidden, but after six months he seems to be more open to the idea of killing (even if he starts by killing out of mercy, and not out of revenge or, worse still, cold blooded determination) and we never really see how this transition might have come about.

Exploring a few of these things would have added more pages to the book and perhaps some would argue that the story hardly needs anything more, being perfect as it is. I could agree, because despite these problems, the story grew on me and I ended it wanting more. But a little more back story, a few more incursions into the gradual change of one's character from scared child to hardened assassin-to-be, would have made me enjoy it even more.