Heaven's Net Is Wide is a prequel to the Tales of the Otori series based in a mythical, medieval Japanese world and tells the story of Lord Otori Shigeru.

This book was recommended and leant to me by my friend, Melissa. The hardcover version that I read is visually beautiful and I don't want to return it so I can stare at it on the shelf forever.

Initially, I was quite daunted by the 640 pages of a genre that I'm not familiar with but I quickly became emersed in the Otori world. The characters are quickly introduced but you also get a deep insight in to the many characters and their motivations.

The book explores various tribes and clans and the creeds they live by which can so easily lead to an evaluation of your own values and beliefs.

I really enjoyed the book. It didn't quite make it to my 4 star rated books but I am very much looking forward to reading the rest of the series. ( )

This was a mixed bag for me, having read the main trilogy. It is an extended backstory to the situation which the characters find themselves in at the start of "Across the Nightingale Floor". There are a few foreshadowing moments if the reader can recall events in the trilogy such as when Naomi mentions that she never learned to swim and doesn't like boats. And it was nice to spend more time with Shigeru, one of my favourite characters in the other books, though his relationship with women, his wife in particular, tarnished him somewhat.

But at 578 pages, the book dragged in several places. The pacing was also odd, with some detailed sections covering a few days and then years being skipped over. Yet the pivotal battlefield sequence which has such devastating consequences for Shigeru's life, family, friends and whole country, is dealt with very sketchily and summarily.

Ultimately, although there were some nice sections, the writing was decent and it was a chance to learn more about the survivors previously encountered, I didn't feel it really added anything. So I would only award this 3 stars. ( )

I probably liked this book better than all the previous publications. (Published last, it is still a full prequel of the events that follow the next generation.)

This has tragic aspects because we just can't get away from it while we spend our time in a Shogunate-ish Japan full of thugs, nastiness, and inequality.

But fortunately, the main characters make up for that. The underlying love story inherent here later becomes the backdrop of so many shocking and sad reveals in the later books so I'm on the fence about recommending this book #0 before #1-4.

The effect of reading #1-4 and then jumping back to this prequel is quite nice. As in, damn, that was a ton of tragedy and this new (but old) history isn't QUITE as dark and at least we get to point at all the previously hidden events in the other novels and go... "Wow, isn't wonderful?" or "This adds so much more dimension."

I can't say for anyone else on this point. But for me, it made this novel my favorite of all five. :) Maybe it's because I've been invested and the payoff is just right and maybe the author's skills are even better in this later book. Who knows?

All I know is that I loved it. :) ( )

No. It was like reading a bad fanfiction the author somehow managed to write of their own work.

Takes the reader to a mythical place similar to feudal Japan and follows the life of a man learning life's lessons and trying to find a way to seek revenge for treachery while disquising his true plans. First book (prequel) in a series. ( )