Emperor of the Eight Islands

May 16, 2016
In this series opener, Hearn (Heaven's Net Is Wide) takes inspiration from Japanese classics to tell a tale of warring clans and unusual magic. There has been friction between the Kakizuki and Miboshi clans for years, and now it is all coming to a head. The emperor's life is failing and each clan supports a different son as his successor. Into these grand events steps the young man Kumayama no Kazumaru, once heir of his clan but now dispossessed by his uncle and left for dead in the Darkwood. He is rescued there by the mountain sorcerer, Shisoku, but also transformed by strange rituals. Now called Shikanoko, "the deer's child," and possessing a magical stag mask, he struggles to direct his fate. Shikanoko is captured, released, instructed, and controlled by a series of lords and wise men, coming ever closer to mastery of his forest power. Eventually, his own destiny becomes entwined with that of the empire. This fast-paced tale of dynastic change intriguingly sets up the remaining three books in the series.

February 15, 2016
Hearn's brand of Asian fantasy fiction is a genre unto itself; having completed her Tales of the Otori (Heaven's Net Is Wide, 2007, etc.), the pseudonymous Hearn begins her new series, The Tale of Shikanoko, by introducing the primary characters while setting up conflicts and relationships that will evolve in the three volumes to follow, all to be published this year. It is "a time of troubles and opportunities." As the weak emperor nears death, his two sons jockey for power, each with his own followers. The title character, who threads through the book connecting disparate stories and dynasties, begins life as Kazumaru, son of a vassal to Lord Kiyoyori, whose allegiance lies with the emperor's older son, the crown prince. Fatherless at 7, Kazumaru escapes a murderous uncle/guardian at 16 to land in a sorcerer's lair, where he receives a magical mask and is renamed Shikanoko, "the deer's child." He finds work with a mountain bandit whose companion is beautiful Lady Tora, with whom Shikanoko believes he had carnal relations under the sorcerer's spell. Meanwhile Lord Kiyoyori, a widower with one daughter, Hina, follows his father's command to unite the Kuromori and Matsutani dynasties by taking his younger brother's wife, Lady Tama, as his own, though neither he nor his brother desire the change. Although Tama bears Kiyoyori a son, he distrusts her loyalty, especially after foiling an assassination attempt by the mountain bandits thanks to his "wise man" Sesshin. Kiyoyori, who has fallen madly in love with Lady Tora, allows Shikanoko to study with Sesshin, but Tama banishes them in a fit of panicky anger when her son disappears. Shikanoko ends up under the control of the Prince-Abbot, the emperor's brother-in-law. When war breaks out after the emperor's death, the crown prince's young son, Yoshi, goes into hiding with Aki, his foster father's daughter. As Kiyoyori sadly recognizes in his world, children are pawns in the quest for power. The barrage of names and places can be hard to follow, but the fluid prose and morally ambiguous characters are magically seductive.

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March 15, 2016
Hearn, author of the Tales of the Otori saga, begins a new epic set in a mythical medieval Japan with the first of four books, which will all be released this year. After his father is killed on a hunt, young Kazumaru is left in the care of his uncle. Eventually, Sademasa begins to covet his nephew's inheritance, and when Kazumaru is 16, Sademasa arranges for him to die while hunting, as his father did. But Kazumaru is saved by the very stag they're stalking, then taken in by Shisoku, an old sorcerer, who renames him Shikanoko, declares him the deer's child, and gives him a mask infused with power. Shikanoko is soon swept up in political intrigue, falling first into the hands of a powerful noble and then under the command of a monk scheming to usurp the rightful heir to the emperor's throne. The plethora of characters and myriad betrayals crammed into this slim volume are a bit hard to keep track of, but overall Hearn's new series is off to an exciting and promising start.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)