the earth is blue like an orange

Tales of the Otori is a very interesting book.. The author, Lian Hearn, decided to locate her story in a feudal imaginary land that is very similar to Japan. Tomasu, a fifteen-years-old boy, lives in a small village with his mother and his stepfather. He has two half-sisters. His life is tranquil until the day he comes back home after a vagrancy in the mountains and smells a strange odor of something burning. First, he thinks it’s the smell of the cooking. But then he starts to fear that a house caught fire. But when he arrives, the situation is worse: the whole village is burning. His step-father lays on the ground, dead. Tomasu hears horrible cries, and discovers that the village chief is being tortured by soldiers. Theses soldiers are from the Tohan clan. In fact, many clans live in this land: The Otori, the Tohan, the Sheishu,… The Tohan chief, Iida Sadamu, is a cruel man, who persecutes the Invisibles. The Invisibles are the people that adhere to a religion that teach them there is no castes, and that all the men are equals. This kind of though is not admitted by Iida, and he tortures the Innocents and destroys their villages. Tomasu’s village adheres to the Invisible belief. Because of this, the hamlet is being destroyed. Tomasu tries to escape, but three Tohan soldiers chase him. Suddenly, he hits a man who cropped out of the bush. He thinks this man is going to give him to the soldiers, but in fact the stranger protects him, kills one of the soldiers, hurt another and make the third run away. Tomasu goes with the stranger. He discovers that the stranger is Shigeru, a seigneur, just as Iida. However, Iida is his enemy. Shigeru rename him Takeo, because Tomasu is a typical Invisible name. In fact, he also rename him like this because his brother, Takeshi, died some years ago during the battle between the Tohan and the Otori. The Tohan won, and since this battle the inhabitants of the country suffer famine, fear,… Takeo understand that Shigeru wants him to help him to kill Iida and liberate the country from the Tohan domination. Takeo discovers he has strange powers. It’s an inheritance from the Tribe, a group of persons that keep and cultivate the powers that all men had in the past. How could he use theses powers to kill Iida, the responsible of the death of his family? Will his love for the beautiful Kaede be possible? Why does he looks so much like Shigeru?The first, second and third book, are really incredible: a mixing of action, love, feelings, magic,… narrated with a great talent. The style is beautiful, in an elevated language. Tales of the Otori is a marvelous book, and must be read. There is only one negative point: the fourth volume. The tone is different, the psychology of the characters dashed off. The behaviour of the characters is totally illogical according to their attitude in the books one, two and three. Lian Hearn claims she has done this fourth book (and will make a fifth one), because she had inspiration. She should have said that she earned a lot of money and that she would like to have some more!

photos from flickr

photo from flickr

Extending the topic of the Second World War, I also read a very interesting book about this topic. It’s called The Diary of Pelly D, from L.J.Adlington. The story takes place in the future, on a planet which name is Home from Home. The colons coming from the Earth founded five city, and decided to recommence a new life, wanting to abandon all the things that they disliked on the Earth: war, racism,… Pelly D. is a young beautiful spoilt and quite arrogant girl who lives in Number V, the fifth city. Her parents are rich and she has everything she wants. She also has her own court of admirers, and she is perfectly happy. She writes her diary on a notebook Moma Peg, a strange woman, gave her. But in Number I, an important clan called the Atsumisi Inheritance Clan, begins to be authoritarian. They pretend that they are three kinds of persons: the Atsumisi, the Mazzini and the Galrezi. The Atsumisi have a gene, the Mazzini too but it’s not active, and the Mazzini don’t have the gene in question. A severe drought affects Number I, and the overproud Atsumisi ask for workers for the irrigation project. Many people are conscripted, and must go to Number I. The Atsumisi make obligatory a genetic marking: everybody must have his DNA tested and receive an indelible stamp on the hand. Red for the Atsumisi, blue for the Mazzini and green for the Galrezi. Pelly D. doesn’t realize what is going on, and pretend to believe that everything is OK. But she discovers she is a Galrezi, and everything gets worse. The Galrezi are obliged to live in a kind of ghetto, and Pelly D. move with her mother and her sister, both Galrezi, to a small apartment. Her brother flees from the conscription, going to Ultramarine, the other continent of the planet Home from Home. Her father, who is Atsumisi, abandons like a coward his family, and continues trading with and the Atsumisi.
Pelly takes a long time to understand what’s going on, and when she realize, it’s too late, the extermination has begun.
Pelly’s diary ends when the police evacuate the ghetto, taking the Galrezi to a certain death.At the beginning, the diary is quite boring, because it tells the story of a pretentious teenager. But, little by little, the events lead us to the sinister end, without any reaction of the people who believed war and extermination could not exist on their planet. In fact, the author, L.J. Adlington, drew her inspiration from diary found in the Warsaw ghetto in the 50’. I recommend this original book that mixes science fiction and fight against the racism.

An article about this book