Heaven's Net is Wide - Tales of the Otori Prequel

Spine sunned.

The world of the Otori has entranced readers since the first book in the Trilogy, Across the Nightingale Floor, was published in 2002. Now Lian Hearn again takes us back to the beginning; to a land that might be feudal Japan or may be another place altogether in the astonishingly beautiful prequel, Heaven's Net Is Wide. Lord Shigeru, heir to the Otori clan, faces hostility from the shrewdly ambitious Iida family in the East and base treachery at home from his own uncles. His noble education and training as a warrior have prepared him for leadership and combat, but fate and Shigeru's youthful determination bring the Three Countries to war, and he must endure terrible and tragic defeat at the battle of Yaegahara and its brutal consequences. Masking his hunger for vengeance, Shigeru bides his time, apparently weakened and deranged with grief and loss, and waits patiently for the moment when he will act to win back the Middle Country and be with the woman he loves, his faithful ally, the Lady Maruyama. The warlord Iida Sadamu is not the only one who desires his death and his life is under constant threat. But Shigeru has friends among the assassins of the Tribe, friends who will not only protect him but will reveal the existence of a boy in a remote mountain village a boy who is of the secret sect known as the Hidden, a boy who might prove to be the unexpected move that opens up the whole game. So begin the Tales of the Otori.