It changed up the generally cloak and dagger ninja type action that Takeo has give us through out the beginning part of the series and gets down to what many of us are used to, the battles between large military armies with nations making allies and enemies every which way.

The final two books in the series starts out with every element that has slowly snowballed together from the books before. Take my word for it: start at the beginning.

Of course, the book isn't one to start with, either, since if you do, you miss out on Takeo and Kaede's relationship developing over the previous two books. It's a strange dichotomy, but it works remarkably well.īattle for Marumaya isn't a book to read by itself you'll need Scars of Victory on hand to finish this series quickly. Nothing stays still as Hearn takes us through to the events that will conclude the series, but there's still a gentle, susurrating pace here that lulls you into a false feeling of complacency. Her style continues to enchant, and her characters are intriguing. I feel like authors should know which characters will be central to their story from the beginning, and use them as POV characters from the start so they won't be introduced so suddenly later in the story. It was necessary to bring her in to tell all the angles of the story, but to bring her in so close to the end of the story feels clunky. Hearn brings in a new point-of-view character here, Shizuka, which felt odd to me. Given that the last book ended on a cliffhanger of an ending, none of this is a surprise. Their stakes have risen, and the plots against them are circling closer, as we enter the third act of the saga.

The plots are complex enough to keep a reader engaged, but the real focus of the books have been the two main characters and their relationship. Tales of the Otori has been about Takeo and Kaede, first and foremost.

Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn