Review - Heaven's Net Is Wide
I finished reading Heaven's Net Is Wide, last night. I enjoyed it more than The Harsh Cry Of The Heron, though it wasn't all that much happier! I always liked the characters of Shigeru and Naomi, so it was quite interesting to read about when they were younger and when they first got together. There was interesting background for Shizuka, too, and Iida Sadamu. I'm not sure it added terribly much to their characters that I couldn't have extrapolated from reading the original trilogy and The Harsh Cry Of The Heron, but it was interesting and enjoyable anyway.
One thing I didn't like was that there were no surprises. Not even the illusion of a surprise. It wasn't just that, of course, it was history to the three books of the trilogy so it had to go a certain way. The narrative kept foreshadowing -- without subtlety -- what was to come. You know: "Little did he know but that dream was not to become a reality. In just another month, blahblahblah". I hate that when I'm reading, even if it's a prequel and I know roughly what's going to happen anyway. There's no point in it if you're going to tell the story in full in the narrative anyway, and foreshadowing can be done much more subtly. In fact, is done more subtly elsewhere in the book.
Still. That's just one of my pet peeves. I certainly don't regret reading the book, and I raced through it within twenty-four hours while doing a billion other things at the same time. I do think it's best appreciated if you've read the trilogy and then The Harsh Cry Of The Heron first.
One thing I didn't like was that there were no surprises. Not even the illusion of a surprise. It wasn't just that, of course, it was history to the three books of the trilogy so it had to go a certain way. The narrative kept foreshadowing -- without subtlety -- what was to come. You know: "Little did he know but that dream was not to become a reality. In just another month, blahblahblah". I hate that when I'm reading, even if it's a prequel and I know roughly what's going to happen anyway. There's no point in it if you're going to tell the story in full in the narrative anyway, and foreshadowing can be done much more subtly. In fact, is done more subtly elsewhere in the book.
Still. That's just one of my pet peeves. I certainly don't regret reading the book, and I raced through it within twenty-four hours while doing a billion other things at the same time. I do think it's best appreciated if you've read the trilogy and then The Harsh Cry Of The Heron first.