I respect her canniness in refusing to be typecast and her success in resisting the idle prying that comes with success. My sympathy is strongly with her on all counts. My interest in her Japanese saga became personal as I discovered its nature, since I too have written imaginary history (set in central Europe), have been caught in the strangling noose of genre authorship, and have refused to accept condescending notions of genre quality. Its owner has only fairly recently come out of the pen-name closet and admitted to also being Gillian Rubinstein, a well-known children's writer in Australia. He must make his own destiny.The name Lian Hearn is derived both from the heron and from Lafcadio Hearn, the first western literary writer to live and write in Japan. Conflicted by split loyalties and tormented by his own divided nature, Takeo realises he must find his own way through this world of intrigue and violence, beauty and passion.

In addition he has supernatural hearing and skills as an artist, and both Shigeru and the Tribe want to use these skills for their own purposes.

They sell their services as assassins and spies to the Warlords. Unknown to Takeo, his real father was a celebrated assassin and a member of the Tribe, an ancient network of families with extraordinary skills, including night vision, invisibility, creating a second self when fighting, and many methods of assassination. A marriage is arranged with Shigeru, ostensibly to bring the Otori into alliance, but really to mask his murder. Fifteen year-old Kaede, a hostage of the Noguchi, allies of the Iida, has acquired the reputation of bringing death to any man who desires her. However his uncles, the lords of the clan, would prefer to see him dead, and so would his greatest enemy, Iida. Defeated ten years before by the Dairyo, many of the Otori still want revenge and look to Shigeru, the rightful heir, to lead them.

When his family fall victim to religious persecution at the hands of Lord Iida of the Dairyo clan, he is rescued and adopted by the warrior, Shigeru, of the Otori clan. A land of incomparable beauty torn by civil war An ancient tradition undermined by spies and assassins A society of rigid castes and codes subverted by love Takeo is raised among the Hidden, whose beliefs forbid them to kill.

Tales of the otori review