![]() ![]() This isn’t a novel for children - I would say at least mid-teens on. Love at first sight is usually a convenient and pat way out of getting two characters together, but by the time she and Takeo meet, it is only natural that these two bruised individuals, old beyond their years, should fall for one another. By decree of Iida she becomes Otori’s intended bride and the ward of his true love: like Takeo, who is the object of so many different interests, friendly and otherwise, her world is torn by conflicting loyalties and she is on the receiving end of much attention from people all with their own agendas. She also has an unfortunate reputation as a black widow: men connected with her tend to die. Parallel to Takeo’s story is the story of fifteen-year-old Lady Kaede, the daughter of a noble family subservient to Iida who has spent her entire life as a hostage and a marriage pawn. There can be no going back, only forwards. By the end of the book, the death of Iida is about the only element that still satisfies the expected formula. We can guess from the title that eventually he will cross that floor to seek out Iida, and indeed he does - but what he finds when he gets there, and the circumstances of his doing it, are quite different from what he and we were expecting. Otori installs such a floor in his own apartments so that Takeo can practice walking across it. Iida has installed a nightingale floor in his apartments - a wooden floor constructed so that it cannot be walked across quietly. The plot is proceeding nicely towards a logical conclusion, until she takes some matter that arises naturally from the story so far and feeds it back in, thus sending the plot in a completely new direction towards another apparently obvious conclusion, until … and so on. These and other complications all arise at exactly the right times to bugger things up for everyone. Meanwhile Iida doesn’t know Takeo is Tribe, but he strongly suspects he is the Hidden boy who fled the village that fateful day. The Tribe learn of Takeo’s existence, and they want him back. Otori must gamble everything on Takeo assassinating Iida before Iida assassinates him, and Takeo is only too willing to oblige - but suddenly it’s not that simple. Politics are in the air, and Otori can’t get out of a marriage arranged by Iida even though he knows he is walking into the lion’s den. ![]() His uncles run the Otori clan, not him, and they are in cahoots with Iida. ![]() Otori can give his protection to Takeo –the boy is eventually adopted as his son - but he is essentially powerless in the scheme of things. Hearn gets around the formula by throwing plot-driven obstacles at every one of its elements. Eventually, of course, Takeo will return to confront Iida. By now it’s page 8 and the fun is only just beginning. Takeo, the sole survivor, flees and is rescued by the noble Lord Otori Shigeru. The Hidden are oft reviled and persecuted, and on page 3 Takeo’s village is wiped out and his family murdered by the evil land-grabbing Lord Iida Sadamu. They tend to stay out of politics and are generally left alone.Īll this is news to Takeo because his father turned his back on the Tribe and joined the Hidden, a weakly Christian-like pacifist sect of bamboo-huggers. Because of these skills, the Tribe are greatly in demand among the feudal lords as assassins and bodyguards. Sixteen-year-old Takeo is descended from the Tribe, a collection of families with hereditary super-ninja skills - preternatural senses and strength and agility, the ability to appear to be somewhere or someone else, and even to become effectively invisible by making it so that others just don’t notice you. Hearn follows the convention with which some readers might be familiar of taking a boy with an unusual heritage, then having him re-discover it and face his destiny. Across the Nightingale Floor, by Lian Hearn ![]()
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