The Harsh Cry of the Heron

I had to write this review so people didn't get the wrong idea about the book based on what so many people have written about the ending. I'm glad I read the book before reading the reviews here and I'm not going to write too much about the ending but if you've already read the other reviews it is probably spoiled anyway. I enjoyed The Harsh Cry of the Heron more than the trilogy. The characters seem more realistic. They're not heroes. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps this is what turns people off or why they say the ending falls flat. It seems as if it could be a story from history, rather than fantasy. Yes, if you're after your Happily Ever After, then you might be disappointed. I can understand where people are coming from. The ending is neither tragic nor happy. It just is. Sort of like life. I thought it was a beautiful and thought-provoking tale.

Ms. Hearn teased and tantalized us but this was definitely the best book of the bunch. I'm including Heaven's Net Is Wide in the equation too. I can't say I wanted it to go down like it did but then again I'm reading her story not mine and I wasn't disappointed in the least. I had no complaints. Highly recommend this book as well as the entire series.

I much enjoyed the first three Tales of the Otori books, and number four did not disappoint. The author presents the historical picture very effectively, while weaving a tale of epic proportions. Few authors so well command the skill of showing the right balance of fairness and unfairness, justice and injustice happening to the central characters. If you read the first three books, you must get this one, and if you did not, but have an interest in feudal Japan, get all four.

The Last Tale of the Otori was highly anticipated for good reason. This last book was a little harder to get rolling into, even after freshly re-reading the other three in their entirity. Nontheless, the book did eventually find it's captivating rythym and started all of the twists and turns you desired from the previous three. However, just as others have said, as much as I needed an ending, and as much as I came to except the prophecy's fruition, I feel Hearn indeed seem to either just end it abruptly or ran out of predetermined space. Ends with just as many unanswered questions as when it began, albeit new ones and no cliffhangers, yet unanswered nontheless. Still worth completing the journey for. . . definitley!

The present and fourth book of the series is as captivating as the three books that came before. The fifth book, the prequel, is already on my mind and will be savored and enjoyed when it finally arrives. But back to the present, the story that has been unraveled to us thus far in all four books has a wonderful mixture of historical fact and fiction. As someone who has read quite a bit about Japanese historical fact because of his professional calling, it occurred to me while reading the present book (as well as the previous three) that the story keeps reminding me of actual places, events and personalities in Japanese history. Although absolutely none of the events and persons described in the book have obviously been written in order to adhere to those facts (describing historical figures' personalities, for example, is of course impossible and can only be attempted by reading letters and other primary sources), the story's structure makes the whole in general seem believable, if not even plausible. Strange how the story makes me think more than once that this might be what actually could have happened in the life of some personage in Japan's history. But then the reality of history awakens my slumbering fantasy when I read and think about the topsy turvy shifting of historical periods within the story, the fact that christianity wasn't already present in Japan when the first missionaries arrived and many more fictions. The author has marvelously created a fantasy world in which historical fact is distorted in such a way that the informed reader is continually tossed between fact and fiction, thinking and wondering which facts might have been used for which pieces of the story and to see how these facts have been interwoven with eachother, torn asunder to fit the fantasy, to form the red thread that runs through it. Speaking for myself, I don't mind being tossed between reality and fantasy like this at all. Author, keep up the good work!! After reading the present book all that is left for us fans is, except waiting for the fifth book, also to wait for more sequels or prequels and even spin-offs to appear, but most of all, for the movie to come out!