Product Description

Lord Shigeru, heir to the Otori clan, faces hostility from the shrewdly ambitious Iida family in the East and base treachery at home from his uncles. His noble education and training as a warrior have prepared him for leadership and combat, but fate and Shigeru's youthful determination bring the Three Countries to war, and he must endure terrible and tragic defeat at thebattle of Yaegahara... and its brutal consequences.

Heaven's Net is Wide is the first and last Tale, which both closes the circle and introduces new readers to the strange and beautiful world of the Otori. It is an epic historical fantasy of revenge and betrayal, honour and loyalty, beauty and passion and the overwhelming power of love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9475 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Sunday Telegraph
'It was pure pleasure.'

Myshelf
'How I do love it when people think outside the box, and writing a fantasy series which is not exactly a fantasy...'

Guardian
'Lian Hearn has written a saga that will continue to give pleasure to many'

Customer Reviews

Prepare to be blown away - Amazing start/finish to an awesome series!!
Absolutely awesome start/end of the best series of books i've ever read. there is no higher praise.
Feudal japanese set tales of samurai, geisha, swords, blood, treachery, intrigue, and love. The complex, entertaining and beautiful history of the otori is finally finished with Heaven's Net is Wide - the last in the series and a prequel to the other books.
This book is in third person like the recent and equally awesome Harsh Cry of the Heron, and unlike the original trilogy told from Otori Takeo's perspective.
This is the story of Shigeru, Takeo's adoptive father/uncle and reveals the much wondered about events prior to the first book - the legendary battles and the real story of Shigeru's brother and tribe knowledge. all the character's that get little time in the trilogy are explored and personalised in this volume.
It is awesomely written, moody and evocative, tranquil, yet gruesome in equal measure. It serves as an awesome way into the series and can be read first (as Hearn must now intend) as the book leads on to within 6 pages of the start of Across the Nightingale Floor. Alternatively it can be read last - like i read it - revealing the legendary events the other books are based on. there are one or two instances where it's prequel nature is apparent - sentences like - (name) who would go on to become suchandsuch in the near future. these originally made me think a first time reader should start with the trilogy but upon research i found that these types of sentences appear throughout the series. i now think it is a great place to start as Hearn now intends and should be on your reading list soon.

incredible, atmospheric and complex.
involving and entertaining - a book to treasure -
there are so few this good. 10/10

Mixed feelings
This is a strangely disappointing book.. For those who have been following the fortunes of the Otori clan it will be a must buy. Yet at the same time it is curiously unsatisfying. Whilst it fills in some details of history that pre-date "Across the Nightingale Floor" it adds little to our understanding of the motivation of the main characters in the later books as this was already clear. The strangely compressed ending, when Hearn appears to be in a rush to get Shigeru across to Mino, killing off Takeshi and Komori (who puts in a late and unconvincing reappearance) in the process seems to be driven more by the need to end the book and link it back into "Nightingale" than by clearly worked out narrative structure. That said, Hearn displays all her old skills in evoking the world of a semi-mythical medieval Japan. Particularly interesting is how she uses the possibility of Nestorian Christianity having reached Japan in the 9th Century as the basis of the Hidden, as indicated by the name of one of her Hidden characters. In the end I am glad I read it (if only out of a sense of completing the set), but I am not sure that it has added anything to my understanding or appreciation of the previous books in the series.

The beginning
I really loved this book, and i thought the way the book continues into the start of the original trilogy clever and satisfying.Having just finished it, I feel the need to start the first trilogy again, just to how well it flows on.
my only critisism would be that Hearn seems to write better in first person, as the writing at points was 'shigeru did this' and shigeru did that', so you don't feel as much in the action as in the first 4.
But don't let that put you off because this book is just as good as the previous ones, and if you're new to the trilogy, it can be read first.