Tales of the Otori

[darkrosetiger]

Has anyone read these? I like the idea of a fantasy in a non-European setting, so I picked up the first one, but I'm wondering whether I'm going to want to throw it across the room, like I did with the Chung Kuo series.

Comments

[oyceter]

I think I just skimmed a page or two and decided not to read it...

[wordsofastory]

I read the first one and didn't like it, mostly because of bad writing.

[havocthecat]

No, but let us know if they're any good? I get tired of Generic European Fantasy Settings. Boring.

[sarafinapekkala]

I read them a few years ago; I don't think they were too bad on the appropriation/exotification front, though I don't know much about Japan and probably missed a lot because of that. The main character is from a Christian community, which kind of made me :/, but IIRC it ended up being fairly organic wrt the plot.

I still don't really recommend them, though; my main complaint is that the series was far, far more boring than a series about a bisexual ninja/assassin with superpowers in feudal Japan ought to be.

[aquaeri]

I read an extract in a newspaper when the first one came out and found the writing so dreadful I decided to give the series the Big Miss.