Across the Nightingale Floor

Tales of the Otori, Book One

By: Lian Hearn

Narrated by: Kevin Gray, Aiko Nakasone

Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

A tour-de-force novel set in ancient Japan filled with passion, fantasy, and feuding warlords. The first volume in the highly anticipated Tales of the Otori trilogy.

Sixteen-year-old Takeo's village has been massacred by an evil warlord, and he is about to be slain by the men who murdered his parents and neighbors. At the last moment, his life is saved by a nobleman, who claims the boy as his kin and begins his education.

But nothing is as it seems. Takeo discovers that he has rare powers that are useful to those around him. As he grows into manhood, he must decide where his loyalties lie: with his noble master and adoptive father; with the Hidden, a secret, spiritual sect whose beliefs are forbidden; or with the Tribe, the assassins and spies who consider him one of their own.

A story of treachery, political intrigue, and the intensity of first love, set in a world ruled by formal ritual and codes of honor, Across the Nighingale Floor crosses genres, generations, and genders to captivate fans of all ages.

Don't miss the rest of the Tales of the Otori series.

©2002 Lian Hearn (P)2003 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"The novel fills a unique niche that is at once period piece and fantasy novel." (Amazon.com)

Across the Nightingale Floor

This is an extremely engaging story, with an interweaving of history, adventure, culture, and fantasy. I'm thoroghly hooked on this trilogy and am looking forward to listening to the next part.

Waitng for the movie

Author Hearn creates a magical world every bit as beautiful, terrible and engossing as those of the best of the Chinese fantasy-action films. This production is almost visual, with suberb narrators. I took a chance on an unknown work and was captivated. I had forgotten how fantasy can seem so much like history: "One Hundred Years of Solitude" comes to mind.

a young adult book

I really like some accents in the narrators. I took this book because I loved Brian Nishii's voice in Barry Eisler's first book. The accent was not well represented in the next book that Nishii tried of Eisler's series. The same seems to be true here. This first book is the strongest in the series and the narrators are at their best in this book. The formality in the story telling is likable to me. Overall it is a likable fairy tale and not at all hard to enjoy. The series wears thin though and the need to go on with a series is suppose to be strong. The reviews seem to indicate this experience is shared.

Predictable storyline - Excellent Reading

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The first book as a stand-alone is actually quite good, but in later books the predictability becomes painfully obvious.

What was most disappointing about Lian Hearn’s story?

The entire series is too predictable, there are little to no surprises.

What about Kevin Gray and Aiko Nakasone ’s performance did you like?

The pacing and pronunciation were pleasing to the ear.

Fantastic!!

I had to sit in my driveway to finish listening to this book!! I can't wait for the next book!!

Best book ever!

I can't express how good this story is. Every word pulls you in further. I felt like I was there.

Wonderful series of books

I especially liked this series of books. The details about ancient Japan intrigued me. I fell in love the with characters. This is a must listen - it's addictive.

Feudal Japan with some magic mixed in

I wish I could give this a 3.5 star rating, as 3 stars seems too low, yet 4 stars is more than I want to give it. The story was unique and well paced, but don't expect a lot of sword swinging action or ninja duels. Instead, there is more of a mystical facet to the story, with many of the characters possessing "powers". This being said, the story line uses this mechanism well.

What dropped the rating a bit was the performance. Both narrators had good intonation and clarity, but the pace of the female reader was slow. So slow, that after the normal speed of the male reader, the female part seemed interminable.

I can recommend this book, but be warned about some of the narration. Other than that, it was pretty good.

A disconserting story

To hard to imagine that a seventeen year old boy raised by an adopted parent to show compassion and respect would, if not by choice , allow himself to be pulled into a group that sells there abilites to both good and evil clients.
It is hard for me to comprehend, even in an imaginary world, that so much could be done by someone so young.

good

I liked this. It was slow at first, and I zoned out a little, but it turned out to be better than I expected. It will be worth hearing again. Try it.