Posted on

Author Spotlight: Lian Hearn

In his Japanese warrior trilogy, The Tales of the Otori, Lian Hearn dives into a gripping account of deep love, gritty warfare, mystical powers and hardened betrayal.  And he does so with the poetic prose of master writers.

The thing that I have come to appreciate the most about his writing is that the depictions of the ancient tales are woven around a latticework of what most readily appears to the western reader as a very identifiable and believable historicity that may very well have existed in the hand-me-down legends that pass through the virtual gateways of Japanese myth.  Seeing how these myths, then, play out in a western authorship, makes his books take on that very mysticism on which he bases his themes.  And that certainly goes for his style as well.

Just as in his characters’ level of patience and poise, he writes in a way that sells his scene with obvious, painstaking precision.

To say that he wrote a “trilogy,” though, isn’t quite true.  The trilogy exists and is certainly worth the read.  But he has also gone in and written a prequel and a sequel that gives a two-fold capstone to the series.

The first in the trilogy is called Across the Nightingale Floor, and talks about the young master who, unbeknownst to him, is the last in a long line of mystical tribesmen.  He’s trained at an art which he will later use to shroud his real powers — all the while honing them to become invisible, move with phantom-like fluidity and scale impossible climbs.

My review will end with this book, but I discuss more in the video.  And I don’t want to give the rest away, but you can feel free to find out more about his other books at these links:

Across the Nightingale Floor

Grass For His Pillow

Brilliance of the Moon

The video review is below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu5oXU-VzIM]

[Wanna Help?  One way you can help is to sign up for blog updates.  You can also share this video (which can be found on my channel), my photography website and this blog.  Email at least ten of your email contacts who might enjoy it.  Help spread the word so others can enjoy my travels!  If you have any questions, just email me at: cyle@cyleodonnell.com. You can also follow me on facebook, sign up to receive my tweets on Twitter, and see my latest pins on Pinterest!]

Posted on

Introducing the Author Spotlight:

Here on my blog, I have started to get some feedback as to the recommendations for what I do in those “down times” of travel.  So when I find myself on a 13-hour plane ride, and nothing out the window creates enough of a canvas on which to paint my wandering thoughts, I generally turn to books (or audio books on the trusty iPod).  So, in the effort of promoting great reads, I will be introducing a new section to the blog: Weekly Author Spotlights.  I will be reading, discussing and posting videos about the books I have read throughout my travels.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP7bOMTNFsI]

Okay, so by this point you’ve probably realized that I have made good on my promise to use more video in my blog.  But I don’t want to overdo it.  So in an effort to ease the video onslaught of late, I have been actively editing lots of text blogs and photos to bring back in.  But there’s lots more going on than just that.  Read below:

Other important updates:  After months of filming for the upcoming film, Travel Geek: Documentary Taiwan, I have finally been able to set aside some time to get the much needed edits done to the the Philippines gallery of photos.  So it might be the end of the week before I am able to get this album published, but it should be up at least by the end of the week.

And speaking of the Philippines; I have edited the first of my journals from this latest trip and will be following this post with the first of what will likely turn out to be about ten pages of amazing reflection from Southeast Asia’s black sheep.  So thanks for sticking with me throughout all the years of posting, and up next is my latest journals from the Philippines.  I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted any actual travel journals.  But I have been working on releasing (not one, but) TWO books which should be out soon.  I have been editing heaps of video.  And I have also been compounding more filming on top of that.  So I have been a busy boy.

The gallery of photography from the Philippines will be hosted at cyleodonnell.com.  You can reach the page directly by clicking HERE.  And new Travel Geek short films are coming out all the time.  Just subscribe to my Youtube Channel to receive all the new shorts that I post.

Also, I am getting new subscribers all the time, so I know that some of you have been talking about the page.  THANK YOU!  I really appreciate the support.  But if you could do me one more favor, I’d really appreciate it.  Please email one or more of my email updates to at least ten friends in your email contacts list and ask them to subscribe.  Anyone that you think would be interested in reading about the updates that I post here, they should sign up for a subscription too.  It’s free, and I love getting feedback on what else I should be putting up here on the blog.

[Wanna Help?  One way you can help is to please share this video (which can be found on my channel), my photography website and this blog.  Email at least ten of your email contacts who might enjoy it.  Help spread the word so others can enjoy my travels!  If you have any questions, just email me at: cyle@cyleodonnell.com. You can also follow me on facebook, sign up to receive my tweets on Twitter, and see my latest pins on Pinterest!]