Across the Nightingale Floor

Tales of the Otori, Book One

Set in an ancient world of warring clans, birthright, and ancient powers we start our first story of the Otori clan – Across the Nightingale Floor. Whether you look at this story as a brilliant fantasy or a skilled presentation of storytelling in multiple points-of-view, it’s a book not to be missed. Set in an alternate feudal Japan, we are introduced to a people of fierce pride, honor, and hidden skills. The sword is still the greatest weapon and the mainland is mainly stories told by the scarce few who have actually seen it. The emperor is still deferred to, but he is a distant figure on a distant throne, far from the lives of our characters.
The Three Nations have been in upheaval for half a generation now, ever since the battle of Yamagata which secured the strength of the Tohan and pushed the Otori back to a minuscule remainder of their land. To the west lie the Seishuu, the Maruyama, and the Shirakawa who have so far stayed out of the bloodier struggles, but now they feel pressure from the Tohan to cooperate or be quashed as their neighbors have.

Otori Shigeru has been left alive but striped of his position as ruler of the clan, instead he travels the land studying and improving farming methods and food storage. At least, that is what his resentful uncles and enemies have been led to believe – that the once powerful and beloved Otori Shigeru has been reduced to nothing but a simple farmer. Will he be able to prove that the love and loyalty of his people and knowledge outside of a standard ruler (you must all obey me) is the true key to success?
The Hidden, persecuted, hunted down and adamantly anti-violence to their deaths. Wanting nothing more than to be left to their quiet lives and simple beliefs, these people are slowly but surely being eradicated by the Tohan. Tomasu spent his life in one of their quiet villages until Iida Sadamu, lord of the Tohan, burned it and his family to the ground. With this one violent act, his destiny spirals out of his hands as his true history and future potential exceed anything quiet and gentle Tomasu could ever have expected… and his new life as Otori Takeo will most literally fill books.
The Tribe: families with a blood line spawning from the mystic history of the island and possessing abilities bordering on magic and impossibility. Isolated from the rest of the clans of the three nations as are the Hidden, they instead use their skills to churn and use the ruling classes to their advantage – performing assassinations here, working as mercenaries there, and always in an elaborate web everywhere. Muto Kenji slips in and out like an omnipotent wraith, helping to lead Takeo towards his future, proving that sometimes blood is held above loyalty, no matter what one’s heart might want.
Heart is also a strong motivating factor in this story, or more rightly love. Be it love hidden and stretched across the years with the powerful and graceful Lady Maruyama Naomi, or new lust kindled by former political hostage young Lady Shirakawa Kaede, the women of the realm are not ones to be crossed. Prepare to fall into a fast moving world of loyalty, love, and power, then prepare to scramble for the next in the series: Grass For His Pillow.