Reviews

Emperor of the Eight Islands by Lian Hearn

danimal_crackers's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I really wanted to like this book, but it took months to complete because it was such a slow slog. I found myself by the last 100 pages of this 249 book not caring what the ending was. Perhaps it is a set up for the later series, but something has to happen in the first book to hook me to read further.

biophile's review against another edition

3.0

Not as tidy and poetic as the Otori series, and a few too many names and allegiances to keep straight. It wasn't terrible, but also wasn't amazing and I'm not that excited to read #2. Much more of a bleak setting than Otori also.

cheems's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

czarnykot5's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

trombone_le_phasme's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

miaowsen's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

ohyayitstrey's review against another edition

1.0

The book starts and ends with scenes of rape. The characters all sound the same. There is very little in the way of descriptive language. It's simply not an engaging or interesting read.

mermaird's review against another edition

4.0

My full review can be read on my blog

slavicsongbird's review against another edition

3.0

I don't know how to describe what I think about this book. The story is really good but it's written without any depth whatsoever. Interesting events are just briefly described or even happen off-screen as it were. Why is more care given to descriptions of places than events at times? Because of that, one can't really connect to the characters at all, and cares much less about everything than would otherwise have been the case. A lot of books could do with some trimming and cutting, this one is one of the few which would benefit so so much by some expantion and, I cannot say this enough, depth. This could easily have been a 5-star story, no contest, but it's just not.

merisaurum's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0