Ben

I'm starting to realize that I really enjoy first-person character driven stories. I totally acknowledge that it can sometimes feel as though nothing really happened in such stories. But for me, there's something really compelling about hearing the inner thoughts of a character experiencing the world they inhabit. A world that is often quite different from my own. In this case, what is the experience of an ostracized fourth-in-line heir to the Elf Empire to feel and do when he inherits the throne he never imagined he'd sit on?

This is not hard fantasy involving a complex magic system and a centuries old war between two great empires. This is the story of a somewhat lonely and scared boy trying to reckon with the new path of life he's been sent down. While the former is interesting, the latter is so much more accessible and relatable with themes everyone can understand. My biggest gripe with the book is that there is a fair bit of name dropping. Totally normal for fantasy, but it doesn't always feel like it's for the world-building, rather it feels like it's simply for the sake of name-dropping.

Kinda liked how Simmons started the beginning, she built a dystopian world that at least feels somewhat plausible. But then, it just veered off into your standard YA romance with all the young dumb love decisions made therein. Sometimes YA romance is what you want, but it def wasn't what I thought I was getting into.

This is a very “literature” type book and frankly it bored me to death. I'm surprised I finished it to be honest. We don't ever quite get to know the characters, there's no compelling plotline. I can see why people might like this book from an artistic perspective, but as someone who just reads for entertainment this was a real snoozer.

I'm really conflicted on this book. On one hand there is an engaging and perpetually unfolding narrative of political intrigue. How does one Japanese Feudal Lord respond to and make use of a European? How does he gain hold of more power? How does the European adapt to an unknown culture?

Yet, on the other hand Clavell plays fast and loose with the realities of Japanese history and culture. From an anthropological perspective, he's essentializing Japanese culture to be nothing more than the dichotomy between honor and shame. There's always more to culture than one “core” element, but we never see that here. Because of that I can't call this “historical fiction.” This is more of a “non-fantastical fantasy” book if that makes any sense.