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Tiger Lily #1
Tiger Lily
Lily isn't supposed to hunt game in the Daimyo's woods. She's just the cook's daughter. It isn't her place to talk to nobility. And she definitely isn't supposed to sing the forbidden old, Jindo religion songs.
But Lily was born in the year of the Tiger, and can't ever be like other village girls. In the woods snaring rabbits one day, she finds instead the Daimyo's son, Ashikaga, wounded, in the gooseberry brush. When the Pretender Emperor's men arrive to kill Ashikaga, Lily, desperate, sings a forbidden Jindo song.
The song wakes a powerful spirit – as well as Ashikaga's interest. The prickly lord has hidden secrets of his own and a burning desire to prove himself to his father. He will stop at nothing to defeat his father's greatest enemy.
All Lily wants to do is take care of her sisters. But the Pretender-Emperor's forces are drawing near, and now the Daimyo's son knows she communes with Jindo gods. She wants to trust Ashikaga when he swears he will not tell her secret, but he is a noble – and Lily only a peasant. Lily's heart is leading her down a dangerous path. She may have to defy her father, Ashikaga, and even the spirits themselves in order to defeat the Pretender-Emperor's magic and keep safe all that she loves.
But Lily was born in the year of the Tiger, and can't ever be like other village girls. In the woods snaring rabbits one day, she finds instead the Daimyo's son, Ashikaga, wounded, in the gooseberry brush. When the Pretender Emperor's men arrive to kill Ashikaga, Lily, desperate, sings a forbidden Jindo song.
The song wakes a powerful spirit – as well as Ashikaga's interest. The prickly lord has hidden secrets of his own and a burning desire to prove himself to his father. He will stop at nothing to defeat his father's greatest enemy.
All Lily wants to do is take care of her sisters. But the Pretender-Emperor's forces are drawing near, and now the Daimyo's son knows she communes with Jindo gods. She wants to trust Ashikaga when he swears he will not tell her secret, but he is a noble – and Lily only a peasant. Lily's heart is leading her down a dangerous path. She may have to defy her father, Ashikaga, and even the spirits themselves in order to defeat the Pretender-Emperor's magic and keep safe all that she loves.
277 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 26, 2012
19 people are currently reading
459 people want to read
About the author
K. Bird Lincoln
18 books93 followers(Over on Story Graph Now as I got fed up with Goodreads) or my review blog kblincoln.Wordpress.com)
K. Bird Lincoln is an ESL professional, breast cancer survivor, and writer living on the windswept Minnesota Prairie with family and a huge addiction to frou-frou coffee. Also dark chocolate-- without which, the world is a howling void. Originally from Cleveland, she has spent more years living on the edges of the Pacific Ocean than in the Midwest. Her speculative short stories are published in various online & paper publications such as Strange Horizons. Her medieval Japanese fantasy series, Tiger Lily, is available from Amazon. World Weaver Press released Dream Eater, the first novel in an exciting, multi-cultural Urban Fantasy trilogy set in Portland and Japan, in 2017 and is now complete with the epic conclusion, Last Dream of Her Mortal Soul. She also writes tasty speculative and YA fiction reviews under the name K. Bird Lincoln on Amazon and Goodreads.
About Dream Eater:
"DREAM EATER brings much-needed freshness to the urban fantasy genre with its inspired use of Japanese culture and mythology and its fully-realized setting of Portland, Oregon. I'm eager to follow Koi on more adventures!"
- Beth Cato, author of The Clockwork Dagger and Breath of Earth
“Dream Eater is my kind of urban fantasy, fast, engaging, and diverse. Myths from several different cultures come into play, each one distinctly and lovingly drawn. The tensions between them are as real and as fractious as what we face in the real world. A timely book that happens to be a rollicking read. Dream Eater has it all: mythological and social diversity, strong characters, and a tender romance. I can’t wait for the next one.”
--Keith Yatsuhashi, author of Kojiki and Kokoro
About Tiger Lily:
"Absolutely a page turner!...The content was more mystical than I expected and lent an exciting, unpredictable dimension to the plot."
-- Reader Marie Okamoto on Goodreads
"A beautifully-written genderbending tale of rebellious girls, shifting disguises, and forbidden magic, set against the vivid backdrop of ancient Japan."
--Tina Connolly, author of Ironskin
K. Bird Lincoln is an ESL professional, breast cancer survivor, and writer living on the windswept Minnesota Prairie with family and a huge addiction to frou-frou coffee. Also dark chocolate-- without which, the world is a howling void. Originally from Cleveland, she has spent more years living on the edges of the Pacific Ocean than in the Midwest. Her speculative short stories are published in various online & paper publications such as Strange Horizons. Her medieval Japanese fantasy series, Tiger Lily, is available from Amazon. World Weaver Press released Dream Eater, the first novel in an exciting, multi-cultural Urban Fantasy trilogy set in Portland and Japan, in 2017 and is now complete with the epic conclusion, Last Dream of Her Mortal Soul. She also writes tasty speculative and YA fiction reviews under the name K. Bird Lincoln on Amazon and Goodreads.
About Dream Eater:
"DREAM EATER brings much-needed freshness to the urban fantasy genre with its inspired use of Japanese culture and mythology and its fully-realized setting of Portland, Oregon. I'm eager to follow Koi on more adventures!"
- Beth Cato, author of The Clockwork Dagger and Breath of Earth
“Dream Eater is my kind of urban fantasy, fast, engaging, and diverse. Myths from several different cultures come into play, each one distinctly and lovingly drawn. The tensions between them are as real and as fractious as what we face in the real world. A timely book that happens to be a rollicking read. Dream Eater has it all: mythological and social diversity, strong characters, and a tender romance. I can’t wait for the next one.”
--Keith Yatsuhashi, author of Kojiki and Kokoro
About Tiger Lily:
"Absolutely a page turner!...The content was more mystical than I expected and lent an exciting, unpredictable dimension to the plot."
-- Reader Marie Okamoto on Goodreads
"A beautifully-written genderbending tale of rebellious girls, shifting disguises, and forbidden magic, set against the vivid backdrop of ancient Japan."
--Tina Connolly, author of Ironskin
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
February 20, 2018
Full review now posted!
There aren’t enough Asian-inspired fantasies out there. It seems like the vast majority of fantasy novels still somehow manage to feel medieval European in setting and tone, so it’s always refreshing to find a work of fantasy that bucks that trend. So when I heard about this book, and that it was inspired by feudal Japan and Shintoism, I was more than a little intrigued and excited. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me. At all.
I had problems with this book. It was less than 300 pages long, and yet I struggled for weeks to get through it. However, there is much to be praised here. I’m going to start my review with what I appreciated about the book.
First of all, the writing is incredibly polished. I can’t remember finding a single typo, which is an accomplishment even for a traditionally published novel. For a book that is self-published, this level of polish is incredibly praiseworthy. Also, as I stated earlier, there aren’t enough Asian-inspired fantasies out there. I appreciated the obvious research that Lincoln put into the crafting of this novel. The culture, the setting, the religious tension of the chosen time period, and the mythos were all very deftly handled and represented. I loved the idea of the birth years and the animals attached to said years influencing a person’s character so strongly, and people being irrevocably linked to their birth year animal by those in their community. Finally, I really liked the magic element of the novel being linked to song. As a musician, anytime I come across a book that including music as a central theme I’m happy.
Now, onto my problems with the book. Well, honestly most of my problems centered around a single entity: Lily-of-the-valley, our protagonist. Lily is one of the worst main characters I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading, and she is the main reason it took me so long to read this book. She is woeful, and whiny, and just stumbles through life feeling sorry for herself. Is her life hard? Yes. But her total lack of self-respect and self-confidence was just painful to read. I hate when a character’s thoughts always seem to center around thoughts like “woe is me, I’m just a lowly peasant girl and am worthless and no one likes me and I’m always ruining everything and woe is me…” and that is seriously Lily’s thought process throughout the entire book. She is the personification of Eeyore from Winnie-the-Pooh, but without the charm. She is self-flagellating, seems to make no effort to improve her own view of herself. I have never seen a main character in a fantasy novel that did less. Seriously, everything happens to her; she hardly does anything. Even with the Jinto magic, she just opens her mouth and lets the kami pour out magic through her. It felt to me like all of the aspects of YA heroines that I hate were thrown in a blender to make Lily. I couldn’t stand her. And Lily wasn’t the only frustrating character; almost every single character in the book felt two-dimensional as well as childish and obnoxious. The characterization is what destroyed my enjoyment of the novel.
There was a gender-bending element to the book that was interesting and will appeal to many readers, but I had a hard time getting past my loathing of Lily and irritation at the other characters to care about much else in the book. I could still enjoy the setting and the culture, but anything involving the characters lost its impact due to my aggravation with and lack of empathy for the characters. Also, the romantic element annoyed me instead of gripped me, because both parties were kind of awful and the chemistry felt forced. There’s also a word I hope to never hear or read again: lordling. It was so overused that I was clenching my teeth whenever it was used by about the midway point of the book. Ugh. I hate that word so much now.
If you’re looking for an Asian-inspired fantasy that straddles the line between YA and adult, relies heavily on birth year animals as a central plot point, and has a gender-bending character, I’d like to recommend the Eon/Eona duology by Allison Goodman. I sincerely enjoyed those books, and that was more what I was hoping to find in Tiger Lily. Also, Tiger Lily is the first in a series, but I will not be continuing the story.
There are obviously people out there who enjoyed this book far more than I did, because Tiger Lily is a finalist in this year’s SPFBO. While this book was not for me, they are elements that would (and obviously have) work just fine for other readers. I sincerely wish Lincoln the best of luck in the competition. She obviously has tremendous work ethic to have put out something so well researched and finely polished on her own, and I applaud her for it.
Original review can be found at Booknest.
There aren’t enough Asian-inspired fantasies out there. It seems like the vast majority of fantasy novels still somehow manage to feel medieval European in setting and tone, so it’s always refreshing to find a work of fantasy that bucks that trend. So when I heard about this book, and that it was inspired by feudal Japan and Shintoism, I was more than a little intrigued and excited. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me. At all.
I had problems with this book. It was less than 300 pages long, and yet I struggled for weeks to get through it. However, there is much to be praised here. I’m going to start my review with what I appreciated about the book.
First of all, the writing is incredibly polished. I can’t remember finding a single typo, which is an accomplishment even for a traditionally published novel. For a book that is self-published, this level of polish is incredibly praiseworthy. Also, as I stated earlier, there aren’t enough Asian-inspired fantasies out there. I appreciated the obvious research that Lincoln put into the crafting of this novel. The culture, the setting, the religious tension of the chosen time period, and the mythos were all very deftly handled and represented. I loved the idea of the birth years and the animals attached to said years influencing a person’s character so strongly, and people being irrevocably linked to their birth year animal by those in their community. Finally, I really liked the magic element of the novel being linked to song. As a musician, anytime I come across a book that including music as a central theme I’m happy.
Now, onto my problems with the book. Well, honestly most of my problems centered around a single entity: Lily-of-the-valley, our protagonist. Lily is one of the worst main characters I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading, and she is the main reason it took me so long to read this book. She is woeful, and whiny, and just stumbles through life feeling sorry for herself. Is her life hard? Yes. But her total lack of self-respect and self-confidence was just painful to read. I hate when a character’s thoughts always seem to center around thoughts like “woe is me, I’m just a lowly peasant girl and am worthless and no one likes me and I’m always ruining everything and woe is me…” and that is seriously Lily’s thought process throughout the entire book. She is the personification of Eeyore from Winnie-the-Pooh, but without the charm. She is self-flagellating, seems to make no effort to improve her own view of herself. I have never seen a main character in a fantasy novel that did less. Seriously, everything happens to her; she hardly does anything. Even with the Jinto magic, she just opens her mouth and lets the kami pour out magic through her. It felt to me like all of the aspects of YA heroines that I hate were thrown in a blender to make Lily. I couldn’t stand her. And Lily wasn’t the only frustrating character; almost every single character in the book felt two-dimensional as well as childish and obnoxious. The characterization is what destroyed my enjoyment of the novel.
There was a gender-bending element to the book that was interesting and will appeal to many readers, but I had a hard time getting past my loathing of Lily and irritation at the other characters to care about much else in the book. I could still enjoy the setting and the culture, but anything involving the characters lost its impact due to my aggravation with and lack of empathy for the characters. Also, the romantic element annoyed me instead of gripped me, because both parties were kind of awful and the chemistry felt forced. There’s also a word I hope to never hear or read again: lordling. It was so overused that I was clenching my teeth whenever it was used by about the midway point of the book. Ugh. I hate that word so much now.
If you’re looking for an Asian-inspired fantasy that straddles the line between YA and adult, relies heavily on birth year animals as a central plot point, and has a gender-bending character, I’d like to recommend the Eon/Eona duology by Allison Goodman. I sincerely enjoyed those books, and that was more what I was hoping to find in Tiger Lily. Also, Tiger Lily is the first in a series, but I will not be continuing the story.
There are obviously people out there who enjoyed this book far more than I did, because Tiger Lily is a finalist in this year’s SPFBO. While this book was not for me, they are elements that would (and obviously have) work just fine for other readers. I sincerely wish Lincoln the best of luck in the competition. She obviously has tremendous work ethic to have put out something so well researched and finely polished on her own, and I applaud her for it.
Original review can be found at Booknest.
January 24, 2018
I read this as it's one of the #SPFBO finalists, and I appear to be having a bit of a mixed reaction to the other finalists so far...
This book should have been the sort of story I love, as it's based in 13th C Eastern culture in a time where people are born within animal-themed years and this affects their personalities. We follow Tiger Lily who was born in the year of the Tiger, and so she's wilful and different, defying many of the expectations of women at the time and also considered unlucky by some. She's the sort of character I love to root for, but unfortunately she never really caught my attention in a positive way, and instead I found her hard to connect with and someone I disliked for her choices at times.
During the course of the story, we see warfare and meet the lord of the house. Lily quickly gets mixed up in something much bigger than she imagined when her forbidden songs manage to stir up old magic and help save the Lordling from his fate.
One of the majorly interesting bits of this book is that there's a distinct gender-bend at one point and so this story definitely surprised me a bit. However, although I think this isn't something I often see in books, and I think it did keep the surprise factor, I felt like it wasn't handled as effectively as it could have been, and there were some moments where I felt there may be a lack of empathy for people in a situation like this main character would be. I can't really say more without spoiling, but suffice to say I was a little more uncomfortable with the way things were revealed and played out, than by the idea of it. I wish it had just been handled with a little more intensity and emotion so that we, the reader, felt like we could understand the motivations and empathise a bit more.
The magic of this is definitely interesting too with the songs being a source of power and calling to Kami spirits. There's a lot of Eastern influence which can be seen in the story, and I liked that, but I still felt that this book just left me a little cold by the end becuase it never fully drew me into the lives of the characters.
Overall, I think its an okay read and likeable at times, but it just felt a bit confused in areas too. 2.5*s from me or for SPFBO purposes 5/10*s.
This book should have been the sort of story I love, as it's based in 13th C Eastern culture in a time where people are born within animal-themed years and this affects their personalities. We follow Tiger Lily who was born in the year of the Tiger, and so she's wilful and different, defying many of the expectations of women at the time and also considered unlucky by some. She's the sort of character I love to root for, but unfortunately she never really caught my attention in a positive way, and instead I found her hard to connect with and someone I disliked for her choices at times.
During the course of the story, we see warfare and meet the lord of the house. Lily quickly gets mixed up in something much bigger than she imagined when her forbidden songs manage to stir up old magic and help save the Lordling from his fate.
One of the majorly interesting bits of this book is that there's a distinct gender-bend at one point and so this story definitely surprised me a bit. However, although I think this isn't something I often see in books, and I think it did keep the surprise factor, I felt like it wasn't handled as effectively as it could have been, and there were some moments where I felt there may be a lack of empathy for people in a situation like this main character would be. I can't really say more without spoiling, but suffice to say I was a little more uncomfortable with the way things were revealed and played out, than by the idea of it. I wish it had just been handled with a little more intensity and emotion so that we, the reader, felt like we could understand the motivations and empathise a bit more.
The magic of this is definitely interesting too with the songs being a source of power and calling to Kami spirits. There's a lot of Eastern influence which can be seen in the story, and I liked that, but I still felt that this book just left me a little cold by the end becuase it never fully drew me into the lives of the characters.
Overall, I think its an okay read and likeable at times, but it just felt a bit confused in areas too. 2.5*s from me or for SPFBO purposes 5/10*s.
August 1, 2018
Move over FitzChivalry Farseer, you have a successor. Tiger Lily is an individual who is filled with as much self-loathing as you are.
Ya, ya - the book is decently researched and it is set during the pre-shogunate era. But make no mistake, this is no Shogun. In fact, this is the exact opposite. This book has one of the most horrible main characters possible. I stopped reading Robin Hobb because I am not into torture porn. And I will not be reading any further Tiger Lily books for the same reason.
Ya, ya - the book is decently researched and it is set during the pre-shogunate era. But make no mistake, this is no Shogun. In fact, this is the exact opposite. This book has one of the most horrible main characters possible. I stopped reading Robin Hobb because I am not into torture porn. And I will not be reading any further Tiger Lily books for the same reason.
February 7, 2018
This book is the finalist for Qwillery's grouping!
Plot:
Lily was born in the year of the Tiger, and it's negatively affected her throughout her life. In this world, the year you're born into has a huge effect on your personality. People more or less follow the personality types of their birth years - with Tigers being quick to anger, passionate, and outspoken. These aren't good traits for a woman in this time period (13th century) and often times girls born in the year of the Tiger are given away. Lily's father decides to keep her, and she's ended up the social outcast of society.
She loves hunting in the woods, and one day finds a wounded lord in the forest who's about to die. There are enemies all around them and they have to get him back to the village before the enemy soldiers find them.
But, the enemy samurai do find them and all looks lost until Lily starts to sing the old Jindo songs her mother taught her. Jindoism has been outlawed by the emperor, with Buddhism being the only allowed religion in Japan. Singing these songs could be a death sentence for her, but she has no choice.
The Jindo songs summon the Kami, or spirits of this world. The Whispering Brook, the spirit her mother often worshipped, comes to her aide in the woods and helps her and the lord defeat the enemy samurai.
After returning the Lord, Ashikigara, to the village she's summoned back to the Great House to spend the night with the Lord - he's ill after being injured in the woods and wouldn't calm down until Lily arrived.
The village is attacked again by the pretender-emperors men, and Lily gets recruited by the lord to help defend against them - even though she doesn't want anything to do with that and just wants to go home.
Final Score: 7/10
Characters:
Lily is the main character of the story, and like her birth years animal suggests - she's feisty and willful. Even after her father tells her repeatedly not to go into the woods without his permission she does it anyway, time and time again getting into trouble. She speaks out of turn a lot even around nobles and is the ugly duckling of the village. She has twin sisters and a little brother - one of the sisters is nice to her but her sister, Flower, is continuously unkind. She's 17, but most girls in her village who have hit 16 have already gotten married or begun an apprenticeship - she's done neither because nobody would take her on for either role. Despite her willfulness and disobedient nature she has an inner desire to do well but doesn't seem to be able to help herself sometimes.
The love interest and romance in this story was very different, in the blurb I read for the book it said it was a gender-bending romance, and I would say that this is a legit LGBT romance.
Final Score: 7/10
World Building:
I really loved the atmosphere in this book, I've never read a book set in ancient Japan before and since most of the battles and action took place in the woods it made for a very mysterious and fantasy like backdrop. The woods are thick and Lily can only see flashes of color moving through the misty forest as enemy samurai are coming in for the attack.
Jindoism has been outlawed in favor of Buddhism, and the pretender emperor is trying to change that - being a Jindoist himself. Jindoists believe in the spirits, or Kami, of nature - with everything even rocks having spirits of some kind. Singing the ancient songs can summon the kami and those strong enough can channel their power.
The village setting is small, most people are poor and living in huts with hunger being commonplace, especially in the Spring. The Headman will come down to the village on orders from the Great House to recruit people to work in the rice paddies when needed.
Samurais are totally a thing which was neat, I've never read a fantasy story with samurais in it before.
Yurei are spirits that are left behind from people who were particularly passionate about something, one of them visits her while she's at the Great House tending to the lord after his injuries.
Final Score: 8/10
Pacing/Prose/Tone:
The pace was pretty steady up until the end where it picks up a bit. This wasn't a book with a ton of action at the beginning but theres' more of it towards the end. I got through it pretty quickly, but it's also a short book.
The tone was hard to pinpoint, there's blood and violence and Lily loses some people she cares about, but wasn't 'dark'. It was more mysterious and fantastical to be honest - with all the spirits and the old songs it felt almost fairy tale like.
The writing was well done, it was simple and straight forward but also pretty at points - the songs and poems gave it a lyrical feel at points. I didn't catch and spelling or grammar errors either.
Pacing final score: 8/10
Writing Final Score: 8/10
Originality:
This was something very different, I haven't read anything quite like it before. It had a mythological and mysterious feel to it, it had a very unique setting and time period, the religion isn't something I've encountered in fantasy before either. Not to mention the romance twist making it an LGBT friendly book. All in all this was very original.
Final Score: 10/10
Audience
For people who like Japanese setting with samurais
For people who like LGBT romance
For people who like female pov
For people who are looking for female authors
For people who enjoy mysterious and fantastical settings
For people who like shorter and faster paced books
Final Score: 48/60 or 8/10
Plot:
Lily was born in the year of the Tiger, and it's negatively affected her throughout her life. In this world, the year you're born into has a huge effect on your personality. People more or less follow the personality types of their birth years - with Tigers being quick to anger, passionate, and outspoken. These aren't good traits for a woman in this time period (13th century) and often times girls born in the year of the Tiger are given away. Lily's father decides to keep her, and she's ended up the social outcast of society.
She loves hunting in the woods, and one day finds a wounded lord in the forest who's about to die. There are enemies all around them and they have to get him back to the village before the enemy soldiers find them.
But, the enemy samurai do find them and all looks lost until Lily starts to sing the old Jindo songs her mother taught her. Jindoism has been outlawed by the emperor, with Buddhism being the only allowed religion in Japan. Singing these songs could be a death sentence for her, but she has no choice.
The Jindo songs summon the Kami, or spirits of this world. The Whispering Brook, the spirit her mother often worshipped, comes to her aide in the woods and helps her and the lord defeat the enemy samurai.
After returning the Lord, Ashikigara, to the village she's summoned back to the Great House to spend the night with the Lord - he's ill after being injured in the woods and wouldn't calm down until Lily arrived.
The village is attacked again by the pretender-emperors men, and Lily gets recruited by the lord to help defend against them - even though she doesn't want anything to do with that and just wants to go home.
Final Score: 7/10
Characters:
Lily is the main character of the story, and like her birth years animal suggests - she's feisty and willful. Even after her father tells her repeatedly not to go into the woods without his permission she does it anyway, time and time again getting into trouble. She speaks out of turn a lot even around nobles and is the ugly duckling of the village. She has twin sisters and a little brother - one of the sisters is nice to her but her sister, Flower, is continuously unkind. She's 17, but most girls in her village who have hit 16 have already gotten married or begun an apprenticeship - she's done neither because nobody would take her on for either role. Despite her willfulness and disobedient nature she has an inner desire to do well but doesn't seem to be able to help herself sometimes.
The love interest and romance in this story was very different, in the blurb I read for the book it said it was a gender-bending romance, and I would say that this is a legit LGBT romance.
Final Score: 7/10
World Building:
I really loved the atmosphere in this book, I've never read a book set in ancient Japan before and since most of the battles and action took place in the woods it made for a very mysterious and fantasy like backdrop. The woods are thick and Lily can only see flashes of color moving through the misty forest as enemy samurai are coming in for the attack.
Jindoism has been outlawed in favor of Buddhism, and the pretender emperor is trying to change that - being a Jindoist himself. Jindoists believe in the spirits, or Kami, of nature - with everything even rocks having spirits of some kind. Singing the ancient songs can summon the kami and those strong enough can channel their power.
The village setting is small, most people are poor and living in huts with hunger being commonplace, especially in the Spring. The Headman will come down to the village on orders from the Great House to recruit people to work in the rice paddies when needed.
Samurais are totally a thing which was neat, I've never read a fantasy story with samurais in it before.
Yurei are spirits that are left behind from people who were particularly passionate about something, one of them visits her while she's at the Great House tending to the lord after his injuries.
Final Score: 8/10
Pacing/Prose/Tone:
The pace was pretty steady up until the end where it picks up a bit. This wasn't a book with a ton of action at the beginning but theres' more of it towards the end. I got through it pretty quickly, but it's also a short book.
The tone was hard to pinpoint, there's blood and violence and Lily loses some people she cares about, but wasn't 'dark'. It was more mysterious and fantastical to be honest - with all the spirits and the old songs it felt almost fairy tale like.
The writing was well done, it was simple and straight forward but also pretty at points - the songs and poems gave it a lyrical feel at points. I didn't catch and spelling or grammar errors either.
Pacing final score: 8/10
Writing Final Score: 8/10
Originality:
This was something very different, I haven't read anything quite like it before. It had a mythological and mysterious feel to it, it had a very unique setting and time period, the religion isn't something I've encountered in fantasy before either. Not to mention the romance twist making it an LGBT friendly book. All in all this was very original.
Final Score: 10/10
Audience
For people who like Japanese setting with samurais
For people who like LGBT romance
For people who like female pov
For people who are looking for female authors
For people who enjoy mysterious and fantastical settings
For people who like shorter and faster paced books
Final Score: 48/60 or 8/10
Read
January 12, 2018I've not read this book yet, but it's one of ten finalists in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off 2017.
So there's that!
Review here:
http://qwillery.blogspot.co.uk/2017/1...
More about the SPFBO here:
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.co.uk...
List of finalists here:
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.co.uk...
So there's that!
Review here:
http://qwillery.blogspot.co.uk/2017/1...
More about the SPFBO here:
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.co.uk...
List of finalists here:
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.co.uk...
January 3, 2018
Tiger Lilly has just entered SPFBO 2017 finals as the Qwillery contender. As soon as it happened I bought the copy and started reading it. And then started reading two other books and few short stories. Somehow I just couldn’t get into it.
It’s not a bad book – it’s very clean, polished and well researched. Prose is good, characters are diverse, setting is quite unique for fantasy genre. And yet getting through it was a struggle for me.
Our protagonist – Lily who was born in the year of the Tiger is a cook’s daughter. While snaring rabbits she finds wounded nobleman’s Daimyo son - Ashikaga. Soon shape-shifters come to finish him. And when everything seems lost desperate Lily sings a forbidden Jindo song. The song wakes a powerful spirit – as well as Ashikaga's interest. The prickly lord has hidden secrets of his own and a burning desire to prove himself to his father.
Lilly is strong and resilient character who grows throughout the story. It’s easy to like her, although her naiveté is irritating at times. Ashikaga is painted well and has more than one surprise for a reader. Lilly and Ashikaga dynamics were fine, although some of their contradictory actions and misunderstandings felt frustrating. In the face of the fundamental differences in their beliefs and social status, the ending felt a bit meek.
The story is well-written for the most part and well researched. Lincoln’s descriptions are colorful, poetic and rich. Her action scenes are sometimes overshadowed with descriptions and it’s my main issue with the book. The author enjoys descriptions. She does them well, by the way. Many people will find them wonderful. Sadly, for me they were tiring and uninspiring. Oftentimes they simply overshadowed action and progress of the plot. As a result I didn’t feel motivated to continue and read one book and three short stories while trying to finish this one. If it wasn't part of my self-imposed SPFBO reading chalenge, I would, probably, DNF it.
Good news is I can see why this subtle story may appeal to many readers. If you’re fascinated by Japan culture, you should be satisfied with this particular retelling of it. It’s not inflated, it’s done with love and care. It just isn’t for me.
TL;DR - subjectively - 2 stars, but then two stars would be unfair for such polished work. I'm pretty sure it'll be at least 4 stars for many readers, so let's meet at 3 stars.
It’s not a bad book – it’s very clean, polished and well researched. Prose is good, characters are diverse, setting is quite unique for fantasy genre. And yet getting through it was a struggle for me.
Our protagonist – Lily who was born in the year of the Tiger is a cook’s daughter. While snaring rabbits she finds wounded nobleman’s Daimyo son - Ashikaga. Soon shape-shifters come to finish him. And when everything seems lost desperate Lily sings a forbidden Jindo song. The song wakes a powerful spirit – as well as Ashikaga's interest. The prickly lord has hidden secrets of his own and a burning desire to prove himself to his father.
Lilly is strong and resilient character who grows throughout the story. It’s easy to like her, although her naiveté is irritating at times. Ashikaga is painted well and has more than one surprise for a reader. Lilly and Ashikaga dynamics were fine, although some of their contradictory actions and misunderstandings felt frustrating. In the face of the fundamental differences in their beliefs and social status, the ending felt a bit meek.
The story is well-written for the most part and well researched. Lincoln’s descriptions are colorful, poetic and rich. Her action scenes are sometimes overshadowed with descriptions and it’s my main issue with the book. The author enjoys descriptions. She does them well, by the way. Many people will find them wonderful. Sadly, for me they were tiring and uninspiring. Oftentimes they simply overshadowed action and progress of the plot. As a result I didn’t feel motivated to continue and read one book and three short stories while trying to finish this one. If it wasn't part of my self-imposed SPFBO reading chalenge, I would, probably, DNF it.
Good news is I can see why this subtle story may appeal to many readers. If you’re fascinated by Japan culture, you should be satisfied with this particular retelling of it. It’s not inflated, it’s done with love and care. It just isn’t for me.
TL;DR - subjectively - 2 stars, but then two stars would be unfair for such polished work. I'm pretty sure it'll be at least 4 stars for many readers, so let's meet at 3 stars.
February 18, 2018
Tiger Lily was full of ups and downs for me. On one hand I loved the setting and concept of kami (spirits) at war with humanity due to religious persecution, and I thought the gender issues were very well handled. On the other hand the main character, Lily, was so damned frustrating!
The book is written in first person and so we ride along in the head of Lily-of-the-Valley, a young lady born in the year of the Tiger. It's important to note that birth animal effects the person's personality in this alt history world. Tiger girls are head strong and rebellious and possibly lucky or unlucky. And apparently most Tiger girls are killed when born for the simple crime of being born in the wrong year... I think. I'm not clear on that last part as it was brushed over pretty quick. So Lily is head strong, except when she's meek. She's rebellious, except when she's pliable. And she's lucky, except when she's not. And we hear it all going on in her head all the time. The way she flip flops from one decision to the next, her turmoil over whether the prince likes her or is just mocking her, the sheer and utter confusion she feels over pretty much everything. In some ways this works quite well; there's a fairly traumatic scene roughly 50% of the way through and Lily's pain and subtle distance are handled within her inner narrative very well. In other ways I found myself putting down the book and going to make a cup of tea out of frustration.
Here's what this book boils down to for me. Yes there are gender issues, yes there is the backdrop of a supernatural war, yes there is traumatic experiences. But the book is about a girl suffering from anxiety in the Ashikaga (?) period of Japan. You can see it in the way she constantly questions her decisions and actions. You can see it in the way she alternates between praising herself and crushing herself for what she considers her own stupidity. You can see it in the way she blames herself for things that are entirely beyond her control. But the constant tirade of mental anguish was overdone to the point where I often considered putting down the book out of annoyance. Well, that and the author's odd obsession with describing the smell of people's breath.
I loved the setting and the concept of the kami and their being pushed out by the spread of Buddhism. I thought the magic of song was a pretty cool one, though I'd have liked some more variation; different songs for different situations. I thought some of the issues the book brings up are handled very well and the story was enjoyable for the most part. But I truly struggled with the inner monologues of the main character. So I'm giving Tiger Lily 3 out of 5.
The book is written in first person and so we ride along in the head of Lily-of-the-Valley, a young lady born in the year of the Tiger. It's important to note that birth animal effects the person's personality in this alt history world. Tiger girls are head strong and rebellious and possibly lucky or unlucky. And apparently most Tiger girls are killed when born for the simple crime of being born in the wrong year... I think. I'm not clear on that last part as it was brushed over pretty quick. So Lily is head strong, except when she's meek. She's rebellious, except when she's pliable. And she's lucky, except when she's not. And we hear it all going on in her head all the time. The way she flip flops from one decision to the next, her turmoil over whether the prince likes her or is just mocking her, the sheer and utter confusion she feels over pretty much everything. In some ways this works quite well; there's a fairly traumatic scene roughly 50% of the way through and Lily's pain and subtle distance are handled within her inner narrative very well. In other ways I found myself putting down the book and going to make a cup of tea out of frustration.
Here's what this book boils down to for me. Yes there are gender issues, yes there is the backdrop of a supernatural war, yes there is traumatic experiences. But the book is about a girl suffering from anxiety in the Ashikaga (?) period of Japan. You can see it in the way she constantly questions her decisions and actions. You can see it in the way she alternates between praising herself and crushing herself for what she considers her own stupidity. You can see it in the way she blames herself for things that are entirely beyond her control. But the constant tirade of mental anguish was overdone to the point where I often considered putting down the book out of annoyance. Well, that and the author's odd obsession with describing the smell of people's breath.
I loved the setting and the concept of the kami and their being pushed out by the spread of Buddhism. I thought the magic of song was a pretty cool one, though I'd have liked some more variation; different songs for different situations. I thought some of the issues the book brings up are handled very well and the story was enjoyable for the most part. But I truly struggled with the inner monologues of the main character. So I'm giving Tiger Lily 3 out of 5.
February 5, 2018
2,5*
This one wasn't bad, but it also ddidn't blow me away.
I liked the prose, but I didn't much like the main characters - at all. While I could at least sometimes feel with Tiger Lily her "Lordling" annyoed me at the best of times. So not really caring about either of them took away a lot of the story for me. I liked how Lily wasn't how she was supposed to be - meek and shy and doing what she's told, but I couldn't really understand a lot of her decisions, and her emotions often felt a bit "off" to me.
The small ove story also really didn't work for me, and not just because I don't like romance in my fantasy - but because the way they both treated each other didn't feel "loving" in any way. If someone talked to me that way, I sure as hell wouldn't give them a second thought, no matter if a Lord and therefore higher up in station than me, or not. Especially for Lily who is supposed to be strong and feisty and not just going with what is expected.
The Songs and the Kami magic - it added a bit of Asian floavour, but it wasn't something that felt "new" to me at all. I confess I skipped the songs after the first few times - but as it was only the same few lines repeated over and over, I didn't miss anything.
At some points the plot didn't make much sense to me - but it was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end anyway.
All in all once more a book I don't regret having spent the time reading on, but also not one I would miss, had I read something else instead.
This one wasn't bad, but it also ddidn't blow me away.
I liked the prose, but I didn't much like the main characters - at all. While I could at least sometimes feel with Tiger Lily her "Lordling" annyoed me at the best of times. So not really caring about either of them took away a lot of the story for me. I liked how Lily wasn't how she was supposed to be - meek and shy and doing what she's told, but I couldn't really understand a lot of her decisions, and her emotions often felt a bit "off" to me.
The small ove story also really didn't work for me, and not just because I don't like romance in my fantasy - but because the way they both treated each other didn't feel "loving" in any way. If someone talked to me that way, I sure as hell wouldn't give them a second thought, no matter if a Lord and therefore higher up in station than me, or not. Especially for Lily who is supposed to be strong and feisty and not just going with what is expected.
The Songs and the Kami magic - it added a bit of Asian floavour, but it wasn't something that felt "new" to me at all. I confess I skipped the songs after the first few times - but as it was only the same few lines repeated over and over, I didn't miss anything.
At some points the plot didn't make much sense to me - but it was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end anyway.
All in all once more a book I don't regret having spent the time reading on, but also not one I would miss, had I read something else instead.
July 14, 2012
Wow, I have no idea where to start with this review. Since I was approached by the author for me to review her book, and that rarely happens to me, I believe I should give it a nice long, reflective review that this story deserves.
If it’s not clear by now from the summary, this story is a historical fantasy set in Japan. Isn’t that awesome? There just aren’t enough books that explore the potential this rich world has. Admittedly, I am not all that familiar with the Muromachi period – the Heian and Meiji periods are where my knowledge most lies as it’s what was covered mostly in my department for my major – but everything seems very solid. Her wealth of research shows and she takes careful measures to portray things respectfully and delicately.
The author’s interpretation and reimagining of Ashikaga Yoshinori was quite interesting. I think another historical figure, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, better paralleled the sort of power struggles and partner interests the character in this book undergoes, but that’s just me talking. I actually liked what she did here, adding in her own touches, while setting it against a backdrop of war against Buddhist beliefs and practices and her Shinto equivalent – Jindo – which is outlawed and spurned. During this time Buddhism is very prominent and has taken over Shinto as the dominant religion of choice but people were free to practice whatever religion they chose and weren’t persecuted for it (something which takes place in the book) and the author makes it clear that she did this for fictional purposes. I always like it when an author is upfront about what liberties she took with certain aspects of history or culture, and I thought what she did here for the story made for an excellent subplot of underlying tension.
I don’t think a commoner would address the son of a powerful daimyou, or a prince in line for the throne, simply by suffixing sama after their name. They are too high in rank/status for that and would rather address them by their position but this is a relatively minor thing. Something that might throw off people is that the main character’s name, Lily, and a few others are in straight English, while others are in Japanese, but after a while you get used to it and it doesn’t become so distracting.
I really liked Lily. She’s such a strong resilient character who is also chained down by her guilt, society restrictions, and her insecurity. Lily is not afraid to speak up when she feels something is important to her but yet she is realistic in that she doesn’t break all the etiquette rules from someone of her position. She is soft, meek, and quiet in the beginning but grows stronger in gradual waves throughout the course of the book.
If it’s not clear by now, this is a lgbt romance. Yet, it’s done so well, you can’t help but commend the bold decision the author chose to make. I was totally rooting for the two characters and their chemistry just sizzled on the pages. It’s a gradual process that includes a lot of self-worth, identity, and letting go of one’s fear and hesitancy of rejection.
Even though this is a self-published book it’s very clean, polished, and full of quality. There are no quirky and incorrect formatting problems here. The plot is tight and there is no filler to fatten up the page count. Her prose has wonderfully correct grammar and whatever errors they are it’s almost insignificant. I really loved the descriptions here, they are so vivid and beautiful, and you will have no problem imagining what’s transpiring in the story. I love the neat touch the author puts on including some traditional Japanese imagery into her prose. She also spices it up with a lot of Japanese words specific to the language which may confuse readers at first but I thought it helped enhance the flavor of the book. A glossary at the end may have been helpful for others though.
The only problems I could nitpick about the story is that for some of the action scenes, while there are lovely descriptions which do a great job of setting up the scene, they tend to overshadow what is actually taking place, dampening some of excitement and tension. I would have wanted a bit more internal character thoughts from Lily so we really get a sense of how she’s feeling, but don’t worry this doesn’t hinder the reading experience at all. Another problem I had was of Flower, Lily’s sister. I don’t think we really get into the true reasoning behind the animosity she carries for her. Unless this is explained somewhere and I missed it but it feels like she’s antagonistic to her sister for no true reason. Another very small thing I want to point out is that it’s a torii gate, not tori.
This is a really excellent story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you liked Ash by Malinda Lo, or wanted to find books of a similar feel to it than this is definitely something you'd like. Plus it’s got Japanese characters! Is that not a win or what?! What are you waiting for! It won’t hurt to give this a try!
If it’s not clear by now from the summary, this story is a historical fantasy set in Japan. Isn’t that awesome? There just aren’t enough books that explore the potential this rich world has. Admittedly, I am not all that familiar with the Muromachi period – the Heian and Meiji periods are where my knowledge most lies as it’s what was covered mostly in my department for my major – but everything seems very solid. Her wealth of research shows and she takes careful measures to portray things respectfully and delicately.
The author’s interpretation and reimagining of Ashikaga Yoshinori was quite interesting. I think another historical figure, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, better paralleled the sort of power struggles and partner interests the character in this book undergoes, but that’s just me talking. I actually liked what she did here, adding in her own touches, while setting it against a backdrop of war against Buddhist beliefs and practices and her Shinto equivalent – Jindo – which is outlawed and spurned. During this time Buddhism is very prominent and has taken over Shinto as the dominant religion of choice but people were free to practice whatever religion they chose and weren’t persecuted for it (something which takes place in the book) and the author makes it clear that she did this for fictional purposes. I always like it when an author is upfront about what liberties she took with certain aspects of history or culture, and I thought what she did here for the story made for an excellent subplot of underlying tension.
I don’t think a commoner would address the son of a powerful daimyou, or a prince in line for the throne, simply by suffixing sama after their name. They are too high in rank/status for that and would rather address them by their position but this is a relatively minor thing. Something that might throw off people is that the main character’s name, Lily, and a few others are in straight English, while others are in Japanese, but after a while you get used to it and it doesn’t become so distracting.
I really liked Lily. She’s such a strong resilient character who is also chained down by her guilt, society restrictions, and her insecurity. Lily is not afraid to speak up when she feels something is important to her but yet she is realistic in that she doesn’t break all the etiquette rules from someone of her position. She is soft, meek, and quiet in the beginning but grows stronger in gradual waves throughout the course of the book.
If it’s not clear by now, this is a lgbt romance. Yet, it’s done so well, you can’t help but commend the bold decision the author chose to make. I was totally rooting for the two characters and their chemistry just sizzled on the pages. It’s a gradual process that includes a lot of self-worth, identity, and letting go of one’s fear and hesitancy of rejection.
Even though this is a self-published book it’s very clean, polished, and full of quality. There are no quirky and incorrect formatting problems here. The plot is tight and there is no filler to fatten up the page count. Her prose has wonderfully correct grammar and whatever errors they are it’s almost insignificant. I really loved the descriptions here, they are so vivid and beautiful, and you will have no problem imagining what’s transpiring in the story. I love the neat touch the author puts on including some traditional Japanese imagery into her prose. She also spices it up with a lot of Japanese words specific to the language which may confuse readers at first but I thought it helped enhance the flavor of the book. A glossary at the end may have been helpful for others though.
The only problems I could nitpick about the story is that for some of the action scenes, while there are lovely descriptions which do a great job of setting up the scene, they tend to overshadow what is actually taking place, dampening some of excitement and tension. I would have wanted a bit more internal character thoughts from Lily so we really get a sense of how she’s feeling, but don’t worry this doesn’t hinder the reading experience at all. Another problem I had was of Flower, Lily’s sister. I don’t think we really get into the true reasoning behind the animosity she carries for her. Unless this is explained somewhere and I missed it but it feels like she’s antagonistic to her sister for no true reason. Another very small thing I want to point out is that it’s a torii gate, not tori.
This is a really excellent story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you liked Ash by Malinda Lo, or wanted to find books of a similar feel to it than this is definitely something you'd like. Plus it’s got Japanese characters! Is that not a win or what?! What are you waiting for! It won’t hurt to give this a try!
July 9, 2012
Absolutely a page turner! The writing could have been a bit more polished, but fine for a summer read. The content was more mystical than I expected and lent an exciting, unpredictable dimension to the plot.
July 14, 2018
First of all, I thank the author for the ARC that was kindly given to me almost 2 years ago. Better late than never!
Secondly, after reading all of the reviews that pretty much hated this book because they disliked the main character, I can understand why. Lily wastes half of the story either feeling sorry for herself even though her middle class life as a cook's daughter/laughing stock of the village isn't *that* bad.
However, her constant whining/crying/self-loathing isn't nearly as bad as the detestable protagonist of the widely acclaimed book series "The Paper Magician". At least when Lily isn't hating herself and instead shows the belligerent Tiger courage to counter the authority of Lordling Ashikaga, she's quite amusing. Ceony on the other hand constantly gets herself in danger (pretty much every book) even though she is barely an unlicensed apprentice and gloating over her teacher who might not even feel attracted to her anyways.
In feudal Japan, Lily occasionally skips her duties planting the rice fields to wander in the forest and sings forbidden religious songs that were taught by her mother Dawn that vanished without a trace several years ago. One day, she stumbles upon the Lord's middle son named Yoshinori Ashikaga who has been wounded by a surprise attack by a rogue separatist army commanded by Price Norinaga who serves Go-Daigo, the Emperor's cousin that ultimately wishes to oust the government for an unknown reason.
Defenseless and scared, she sings a kami song that renders the magic of the enemy army useless and saves the lordling's life (who just happens to realize she did it using a forbidden religious song). The book then becomes a mixture between a forbidden nobleman/peasant romance and a story about the injust battle of fighting an ancient holistic religion in favor of appeasing foreign nations.
In a way, it reminded me a lot of Studio Ghibli's megahit film "The Princess Mononoke". Foreign forces are destabilizing a bustling medieval Japan, and the spiritual world that lives among them is suffering as a result. Meanwhile, good natured people from different walks of life are tossed into this political vs nature turmoil and love seems to blossom in the middle of it all.
Now, the writing can be both great and frustrating at the same time. The book moves very quickly and I give the author kudos because I seldom set it aside (which is good because it allows me to read more books). The overall story is good and I really felt like I had been transported to ancient Japan with vegetable soup and the smell of permission flowers among the insects that rummaged this Honshu village.
If anything, I just felt like Lily wasn't the strongest protagonist. I don't mind at all that she can't wield a sword. I sometimes get tired of the uber super strong female lead character that wields a 200 pound sword yet she's dainty. In this sense, Lily's fear of being murdered by heavily trained samurai felt real. It's the excessive focus on her self-loathing that became tiring after a while, and the fact that major wounds seemed to heal in a matter of minutes, lost the allure.
Ashikaga was returned to his palace delirious and riddled in fever, but suddenly he's like a spring chicken, ready to continue fighting the enemy forces the very next morning. Huh? As a matter of fact, the entire book occurs in a matter of just 4 days. Yes, I am serious. Lordling Ashikaga never paid any attention to Lily, except for the scant occasion he spotted her stealing vegetables from his family's garden. And in just a few hours, instalove occurs and he suddenly feels sufficiently comfortable leaving his heavily guarded palace while he's still badly injured to reveal to her his most deeply guarded secret. Worse, both characters suffer from pretty bad wounds during the course of the story, but they seem to be pushed to the sidelines in just 1 day. The battle against the rogue army has taken place in 2 years. I just felt like there was no rush to hyper jump light speed the story so quickly. The forbidden romance could have blossomed during a longer amount of time and it would have never really affected the story.
As for the characters, I simply loved Ashikaga's right hand trusty samurai, Uesugi. I love the honorable silent warrior type characters, and he is the epitome. He doesn't fully trust Lily, but he puts up with her because of his loyalty to Ashikaga. Quite frankly, if he had been the POV character of the story, this book would have been totally awesome.
Now, is the book worth reading?
I think that if you enter the story expecting a lot of rambling and get used to the fact that Lily falls on her butt or face pretty much once every 5 pages, and then starts crying at least once per chapter, you can try to mentally block that bad aspect of the book and enjoy the many good merits.
I think the story ends up in a nice place and will read the sequel sometime, just out of curiosity. I just hope that Lily's character starts to build a backbone by then.
I give this book 3 1/2 stars, mainly because Uesugi is such an awesome supporting character.
Secondly, after reading all of the reviews that pretty much hated this book because they disliked the main character, I can understand why. Lily wastes half of the story either feeling sorry for herself even though her middle class life as a cook's daughter/laughing stock of the village isn't *that* bad.
However, her constant whining/crying/self-loathing isn't nearly as bad as the detestable protagonist of the widely acclaimed book series "The Paper Magician". At least when Lily isn't hating herself and instead shows the belligerent Tiger courage to counter the authority of Lordling Ashikaga, she's quite amusing. Ceony on the other hand constantly gets herself in danger (pretty much every book) even though she is barely an unlicensed apprentice and gloating over her teacher who might not even feel attracted to her anyways.
In feudal Japan, Lily occasionally skips her duties planting the rice fields to wander in the forest and sings forbidden religious songs that were taught by her mother Dawn that vanished without a trace several years ago. One day, she stumbles upon the Lord's middle son named Yoshinori Ashikaga who has been wounded by a surprise attack by a rogue separatist army commanded by Price Norinaga who serves Go-Daigo, the Emperor's cousin that ultimately wishes to oust the government for an unknown reason.
Defenseless and scared, she sings a kami song that renders the magic of the enemy army useless and saves the lordling's life (who just happens to realize she did it using a forbidden religious song). The book then becomes a mixture between a forbidden nobleman/peasant romance and a story about the injust battle of fighting an ancient holistic religion in favor of appeasing foreign nations.
In a way, it reminded me a lot of Studio Ghibli's megahit film "The Princess Mononoke". Foreign forces are destabilizing a bustling medieval Japan, and the spiritual world that lives among them is suffering as a result. Meanwhile, good natured people from different walks of life are tossed into this political vs nature turmoil and love seems to blossom in the middle of it all.
Now, the writing can be both great and frustrating at the same time. The book moves very quickly and I give the author kudos because I seldom set it aside (which is good because it allows me to read more books). The overall story is good and I really felt like I had been transported to ancient Japan with vegetable soup and the smell of permission flowers among the insects that rummaged this Honshu village.
If anything, I just felt like Lily wasn't the strongest protagonist. I don't mind at all that she can't wield a sword. I sometimes get tired of the uber super strong female lead character that wields a 200 pound sword yet she's dainty. In this sense, Lily's fear of being murdered by heavily trained samurai felt real. It's the excessive focus on her self-loathing that became tiring after a while, and the fact that major wounds seemed to heal in a matter of minutes, lost the allure.
Ashikaga was returned to his palace delirious and riddled in fever, but suddenly he's like a spring chicken, ready to continue fighting the enemy forces the very next morning. Huh? As a matter of fact, the entire book occurs in a matter of just 4 days. Yes, I am serious. Lordling Ashikaga never paid any attention to Lily, except for the scant occasion he spotted her stealing vegetables from his family's garden. And in just a few hours, instalove occurs and he suddenly feels sufficiently comfortable leaving his heavily guarded palace while he's still badly injured to reveal to her his most deeply guarded secret. Worse, both characters suffer from pretty bad wounds during the course of the story, but they seem to be pushed to the sidelines in just 1 day. The battle against the rogue army has taken place in 2 years. I just felt like there was no rush to hyper jump light speed the story so quickly. The forbidden romance could have blossomed during a longer amount of time and it would have never really affected the story.
As for the characters, I simply loved Ashikaga's right hand trusty samurai, Uesugi. I love the honorable silent warrior type characters, and he is the epitome. He doesn't fully trust Lily, but he puts up with her because of his loyalty to Ashikaga. Quite frankly, if he had been the POV character of the story, this book would have been totally awesome.
Now, is the book worth reading?
I think that if you enter the story expecting a lot of rambling and get used to the fact that Lily falls on her butt or face pretty much once every 5 pages, and then starts crying at least once per chapter, you can try to mentally block that bad aspect of the book and enjoy the many good merits.
I think the story ends up in a nice place and will read the sequel sometime, just out of curiosity. I just hope that Lily's character starts to build a backbone by then.
I give this book 3 1/2 stars, mainly because Uesugi is such an awesome supporting character.
January 1, 2019
Lily is a young woman living in a somewhat traditional Asian setting, but she's often in trouble for not behaving, she often goes into the woods where she shouldn't to forage for food to share with her siblings as they never seem to have enough. Even though she's mistreated for her behavior, everyone around her acts as if it is to be assumed because she was born under the Tiger sign, which is unlucky for a girl as it imparts such undesirable traits.
One of these days while she is out in the forest, there are signs of enemy warriors - from a false emperor - but a kami appears and forces a song from her throat, so she keeps her mouth shut in desperation to hide it. When a young lord from her village shows up, and struggles to fight the magically aided enemies alone, Lily cant help opening her mouth, only to discover the song aids the young lord. She recognizes that these are the songs of her mother, who disappeared either in exile or execution for her faith. She carries on in a conflicted situation through the remainder of the book, now entangled with helping the young lord, while also trying to keep herself and her siblings safe as the false emperor becomes ever more bold against their village.
From a plot perspective this has some very similar elements that may appeal to readers of The Bear and the Nightingale - Lily is the only one who sees and believes the power of the Kami, Jindo has been outlawed by the growing Buddhist religion leaving the shrines in great disrepair. There are also similar strong themes of the fine line of being a woman in this setting, Lily is not delicate or timid enough often times, even when she does the only helpful or good thing it is often the wrong thing because of her gender or social class. However, she's also not the strong character her Tiger sign would indicate I think, she tends to be more reckless and irrational than confident or independent in her actions.
Over all, I found the quality of the writing to be excellent, the setting interesting yet maybe a little lacking the depth that could have been built on since the kami aren't really developed or interacted with. I would say this was very character driven and I just simply unfortunately didn't connect with the characters so thats my big falter here, however no denying it has something to it, so I'm very certain there are readers who will.
TW: rape
One of these days while she is out in the forest, there are signs of enemy warriors - from a false emperor - but a kami appears and forces a song from her throat, so she keeps her mouth shut in desperation to hide it. When a young lord from her village shows up, and struggles to fight the magically aided enemies alone, Lily cant help opening her mouth, only to discover the song aids the young lord. She recognizes that these are the songs of her mother, who disappeared either in exile or execution for her faith. She carries on in a conflicted situation through the remainder of the book, now entangled with helping the young lord, while also trying to keep herself and her siblings safe as the false emperor becomes ever more bold against their village.
From a plot perspective this has some very similar elements that may appeal to readers of The Bear and the Nightingale - Lily is the only one who sees and believes the power of the Kami, Jindo has been outlawed by the growing Buddhist religion leaving the shrines in great disrepair. There are also similar strong themes of the fine line of being a woman in this setting, Lily is not delicate or timid enough often times, even when she does the only helpful or good thing it is often the wrong thing because of her gender or social class. However, she's also not the strong character her Tiger sign would indicate I think, she tends to be more reckless and irrational than confident or independent in her actions.
Over all, I found the quality of the writing to be excellent, the setting interesting yet maybe a little lacking the depth that could have been built on since the kami aren't really developed or interacted with. I would say this was very character driven and I just simply unfortunately didn't connect with the characters so thats my big falter here, however no denying it has something to it, so I'm very certain there are readers who will.
TW: rape
April 28, 2018
Read the review over at Fantasy Book Critic (along with 3 other mini-reviews)
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Tiger Lily is the most unique book amongst all the ten finalists. The author had remarked upon this fact when her book won a place in the finals and I wholeheartedly agree with her. From its settings to its characters, to its prose Tiger Lily sets itself apart from its contemporaries by giving us accurate descriptions and then some.
Tiger Lily is set in a world which is inspired by Japanese history and world. The author has written this story so wonderfully that one cannot help but be drawn into the story. However the one main drawback of the story is that our main character is very indecisive and anxious, to the point that she seems whiny and more than a tad annoying. Perhaps the author wanted to showcase the constraints the society placed on Lily for not conforming and for being born in the wrong year. If that was the intent, then the author succeeded in her goal wildly. The problem is that while Lily is very distraught, the readers will not enjoy her indecision and constant mental struggle.
To a large degree this book will be very polarizing for the readers. The readers who love it will love it for the gorgeous prose, the incredibly detailed world settings and the unique story, for those who didn’t enjoy it, they might blame the tepid plot pace, the indecisive protagonist and lack of action in the book. As for me while this was a unique read, it was one that didn’t set my internal senses tingling. I appreciated the effort put into the story and will be checking out the author’s other works for sure because have no doubt, K. Bird Lincoln is a very talented wordsmith. Don’t let this book’s pitfalls deter you from exploring the author’s other works (why hello urban fantasy set in Portland, you are just what I would like to read).
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Tiger Lily is the most unique book amongst all the ten finalists. The author had remarked upon this fact when her book won a place in the finals and I wholeheartedly agree with her. From its settings to its characters, to its prose Tiger Lily sets itself apart from its contemporaries by giving us accurate descriptions and then some.
Tiger Lily is set in a world which is inspired by Japanese history and world. The author has written this story so wonderfully that one cannot help but be drawn into the story. However the one main drawback of the story is that our main character is very indecisive and anxious, to the point that she seems whiny and more than a tad annoying. Perhaps the author wanted to showcase the constraints the society placed on Lily for not conforming and for being born in the wrong year. If that was the intent, then the author succeeded in her goal wildly. The problem is that while Lily is very distraught, the readers will not enjoy her indecision and constant mental struggle.
To a large degree this book will be very polarizing for the readers. The readers who love it will love it for the gorgeous prose, the incredibly detailed world settings and the unique story, for those who didn’t enjoy it, they might blame the tepid plot pace, the indecisive protagonist and lack of action in the book. As for me while this was a unique read, it was one that didn’t set my internal senses tingling. I appreciated the effort put into the story and will be checking out the author’s other works for sure because have no doubt, K. Bird Lincoln is a very talented wordsmith. Don’t let this book’s pitfalls deter you from exploring the author’s other works (why hello urban fantasy set in Portland, you are just what I would like to read).
January 15, 2018
I am hoping to do an interview with the author sometime in the near future but a quick and dirty.
I would rate this somewhere around a 3.5 if Goodreads had half stars. The book finishes off really strong but the first 50% was a bit slow for me.
The story is set in feudal Japan and has a Single POV character named Lilly who was unfortunately born in the year of the Tiger. This is a good thing for male babies but considered a great curse for a girl baby. Lilly has that large, awkward, ugly duckling kind of vibe and is shunned because she is a year of the Tiger girl.
The story really begins when she finds the son of the Damyo wounded in the woods and protects him from the men of the pretender emperor using forbidden Jindo magic. Here she gets wrapped up in the intrigue of court life while always feeling out of place as a simple peasant girl in the rigidly stratified society of feudal Japan. The first half of the book is mostly her getting to know the lordling, Ashikaga, and finding her way around her new powers.
About halfway through the world building portion of the book takes a back seat to the action but since it is a single POV book with no narrator we will still always see the confusing emotions of Lilly.
I enjoyed the book but admit that its style frustrated me a bit. Lilly is our protagonist and she has access to powerful magic but if you’re looking for a character who will truly come into her own this isn’t the novel for you. If you want a more nuanced book where the character will always have to make hard choices and who always fees like she is out of her element then you will enjoy the book. I admit that it says a little something about myself that I wanted her to become a powerful sorceress haha.
I would rate this somewhere around a 3.5 if Goodreads had half stars. The book finishes off really strong but the first 50% was a bit slow for me.
The story is set in feudal Japan and has a Single POV character named Lilly who was unfortunately born in the year of the Tiger. This is a good thing for male babies but considered a great curse for a girl baby. Lilly has that large, awkward, ugly duckling kind of vibe and is shunned because she is a year of the Tiger girl.
The story really begins when she finds the son of the Damyo wounded in the woods and protects him from the men of the pretender emperor using forbidden Jindo magic. Here she gets wrapped up in the intrigue of court life while always feeling out of place as a simple peasant girl in the rigidly stratified society of feudal Japan. The first half of the book is mostly her getting to know the lordling, Ashikaga, and finding her way around her new powers.
About halfway through the world building portion of the book takes a back seat to the action but since it is a single POV book with no narrator we will still always see the confusing emotions of Lilly.
I enjoyed the book but admit that its style frustrated me a bit. Lilly is our protagonist and she has access to powerful magic but if you’re looking for a character who will truly come into her own this isn’t the novel for you. If you want a more nuanced book where the character will always have to make hard choices and who always fees like she is out of her element then you will enjoy the book. I admit that it says a little something about myself that I wanted her to become a powerful sorceress haha.
January 27, 2018
Those born in this region are said to take on characteristics of the animal that marks the year of their birth. Tiger Lily, as one may guess, was born in the year of the tiger (like myself, in fact.) She is unlucky and low born, however this is all set to change when she comes across the highborn son and saves his life.
The tone of the novel emulates the setting, which helps the reader get into the story. While this usually works well (as it does for the majority of the book), at times it shudders the reading to a halt as you pause over a clumsy sentence. The book is short and yet packs into it a decent tale that isn't predictable, and does some interesting things with magic. It also does interesting things with gender, which didn't really do anything for me - it didn't feel like it was done in a calculated or clever way - more like it was shoved in to shock, or go HA, bet you didn't see THAT coming! (Edited to add: my interpretation only, I hope others loved this reveal.)
While we're supposed to like Tiger Lily, she was a little too self-loathing and drudgey, to me, (though perhaps this is just something that's currently shown in a few too many YA on my personal reading list.) I would have liked to see Tiger Lily have a few more facets to her reactions and choices in the book - she's due to wonder about things, after all.
This book is labelled as historical fiction, and some parts are interesting. Others are perhaps a little clumsy, as is up to the reader's interpretation of what they may already know or understand about the culture/location, as if often a tricky line to walk when writing of a culture not your own. Still, most of the book is quite lovely.
The tone of the novel emulates the setting, which helps the reader get into the story. While this usually works well (as it does for the majority of the book), at times it shudders the reading to a halt as you pause over a clumsy sentence. The book is short and yet packs into it a decent tale that isn't predictable, and does some interesting things with magic. It also does interesting things with gender, which didn't really do anything for me - it didn't feel like it was done in a calculated or clever way - more like it was shoved in to shock, or go HA, bet you didn't see THAT coming! (Edited to add: my interpretation only, I hope others loved this reveal.)
While we're supposed to like Tiger Lily, she was a little too self-loathing and drudgey, to me, (though perhaps this is just something that's currently shown in a few too many YA on my personal reading list.) I would have liked to see Tiger Lily have a few more facets to her reactions and choices in the book - she's due to wonder about things, after all.
This book is labelled as historical fiction, and some parts are interesting. Others are perhaps a little clumsy, as is up to the reader's interpretation of what they may already know or understand about the culture/location, as if often a tricky line to walk when writing of a culture not your own. Still, most of the book is quite lovely.
November 26, 2012
Typically, I wait for the "dust to settle" a bit longer before attempting to write a review on a book. It's been a long while since I wrote anything about what I just read directly after finishing it. It's also been awhile since a book frustrated, and surprised, me as much as this one has. I will mention again that this review contains spoilers, which I typically try to avoid while reviewing.
First, I have to say that I absolutely loved this book up until about 54% through it. (This review is for the Kindle edition.) The prose is detailed, lush, lyrical. It had a quietly fluid, gently flowing feel to it that only further contributed to the setting of a more or less peaceful village set in feudal Japan. I liked the build-up, starting in the village with Lily and slowly working its way up to the ongoings with the kami, and eventually that of the Great House. The attraction between Ashikaga and Lily builds in a believable way, rather than that "love at first sight" intensity found in so many novels lately. I will also say that I think that first 60-some% of the book was written quite well, and better than the latter portion. The latter part, particularly the scenes involving the mountain, nearly seemed written by another person. Parts were a little rushed, or rough, and in my opinion just didn't "go" with the rest of the story at all. The more obvious misuse of "then" and "than" (flip-flopped for a better part of the last third of the story) factored in enough to also compound upon the "rushed/rough" feel of it.
I didn't see the big surprise coming that was revealed nearly at the halfway point at all. The shock of it made me stop reading for awhile, and actually made me consider whether or not I wanted to continue reading. What shocked me even further than the reveal of Ashikaga's true gender was my reaction to it. As an open-minded woman who has loved both genders, I didn't understand at first what exactly had me so rattled. After some sorting, I think it was more the fact that I, too, had considered Ashikaga only as male, and perhaps having such a hard time bending my mind around the fact that he was indeed, not, made me sympathize with Lily all the more. Maybe that was intentional on the author's part, or only a happy accident, I'm not certain.
What is certain is that the last half of the book continually had the "magic" that seemed present during the first half slipping further and further away. By the end of the novel, I was so frustrated with both Lily and Ashikaga's contradictory actions and misunderstandings that it all but had me pulling my hair out. For all that strife, all that "Tiger stubbornness" and unwillingness to bend to the other, all that inability to see the other as they truly were and what they valued, the sudden and slightly uncharacteristic "make-up" left me a little empty and a bit burned out. And then just as suddenly, it ends. All that turmoil that leads up to, "Oh, we have all these fundamental differences in beliefs that we hold as a large part of our most internal core, but hey, yeah, we can definitely make this relationship suddenly work, no matter everything else we've worried about this entire time over being the same sex, let alone the often-mentioned difference in status!", and then, The End. Maybe it's that the tale didn't end like I had wanted, let alone how I foresaw, and with everything still "fresh" I'm essentially throwing my own tantrum over that. Or maybe it's that it could have been better done. Maybe it's even that I kept catching myself wondering, what would everyone do once it became clear Ashikaga wasn't seeming to age past that of a young man? Eventually wouldn't his secret come to light?
Despite all of that, the story was well-written for the most part, and intriguing enough that I have looked into the author's other works, though I can't say with certainty I would recommend this novel. There is a short story "Exposure at Dejima" in the Healing Waves anthology that follows up on the pair that I will be looking into. Despite the frustrations mentioned, I am curious to see what may have become of them, and if perhaps my question of eventual discovery might be answered after all.
First, I have to say that I absolutely loved this book up until about 54% through it. (This review is for the Kindle edition.) The prose is detailed, lush, lyrical. It had a quietly fluid, gently flowing feel to it that only further contributed to the setting of a more or less peaceful village set in feudal Japan. I liked the build-up, starting in the village with Lily and slowly working its way up to the ongoings with the kami, and eventually that of the Great House. The attraction between Ashikaga and Lily builds in a believable way, rather than that "love at first sight" intensity found in so many novels lately. I will also say that I think that first 60-some% of the book was written quite well, and better than the latter portion. The latter part, particularly the scenes involving the mountain, nearly seemed written by another person. Parts were a little rushed, or rough, and in my opinion just didn't "go" with the rest of the story at all. The more obvious misuse of "then" and "than" (flip-flopped for a better part of the last third of the story) factored in enough to also compound upon the "rushed/rough" feel of it.
I didn't see the big surprise coming that was revealed nearly at the halfway point at all. The shock of it made me stop reading for awhile, and actually made me consider whether or not I wanted to continue reading. What shocked me even further than the reveal of Ashikaga's true gender was my reaction to it. As an open-minded woman who has loved both genders, I didn't understand at first what exactly had me so rattled. After some sorting, I think it was more the fact that I, too, had considered Ashikaga only as male, and perhaps having such a hard time bending my mind around the fact that he was indeed, not, made me sympathize with Lily all the more. Maybe that was intentional on the author's part, or only a happy accident, I'm not certain.
What is certain is that the last half of the book continually had the "magic" that seemed present during the first half slipping further and further away. By the end of the novel, I was so frustrated with both Lily and Ashikaga's contradictory actions and misunderstandings that it all but had me pulling my hair out. For all that strife, all that "Tiger stubbornness" and unwillingness to bend to the other, all that inability to see the other as they truly were and what they valued, the sudden and slightly uncharacteristic "make-up" left me a little empty and a bit burned out. And then just as suddenly, it ends. All that turmoil that leads up to, "Oh, we have all these fundamental differences in beliefs that we hold as a large part of our most internal core, but hey, yeah, we can definitely make this relationship suddenly work, no matter everything else we've worried about this entire time over being the same sex, let alone the often-mentioned difference in status!", and then, The End. Maybe it's that the tale didn't end like I had wanted, let alone how I foresaw, and with everything still "fresh" I'm essentially throwing my own tantrum over that. Or maybe it's that it could have been better done. Maybe it's even that I kept catching myself wondering, what would everyone do once it became clear Ashikaga wasn't seeming to age past that of a young man? Eventually wouldn't his secret come to light?
Despite all of that, the story was well-written for the most part, and intriguing enough that I have looked into the author's other works, though I can't say with certainty I would recommend this novel. There is a short story "Exposure at Dejima" in the Healing Waves anthology that follows up on the pair that I will be looking into. Despite the frustrations mentioned, I am curious to see what may have become of them, and if perhaps my question of eventual discovery might be answered after all.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 29, 2017
Ashikaga, Ashikaga, Ashikaga....(chant continues)
Stunning in so many ways. The writing, for a start - Lincoln is amazing at multisensory descriptions that really put you in the setting. Although she does have a weird fondness for food comparisons...
The pace was ABSOLUTELY SPOT ON I was so impressed with that aspect. It was fast enough to hook me (since I usually read about 9 books at a time, to make me put all the rest on hold is the highest of compliments) without being overwhelmingly fast and confusing.
And the way she managed to convey characters thoughts and feelings while restricted to first -person was brilliant; the fact that she did so without making Lily seem unnaturally perceptive even more so.
And did I mention that I LOVE ASHIKAGA SO MUCH? Just that adorable mix of pigheadedness and vulnerability, the confidence that he'll get by on sheer undiluted gumption. Damn brilliant character.
Stunning in so many ways. The writing, for a start - Lincoln is amazing at multisensory descriptions that really put you in the setting. Although she does have a weird fondness for food comparisons...
The pace was ABSOLUTELY SPOT ON I was so impressed with that aspect. It was fast enough to hook me (since I usually read about 9 books at a time, to make me put all the rest on hold is the highest of compliments) without being overwhelmingly fast and confusing.
And the way she managed to convey characters thoughts and feelings while restricted to first -person was brilliant; the fact that she did so without making Lily seem unnaturally perceptive even more so.
And did I mention that I LOVE ASHIKAGA SO MUCH? Just that adorable mix of pigheadedness and vulnerability, the confidence that he'll get by on sheer undiluted gumption. Damn brilliant character.
October 10, 2018
I've owned this book for around a year. I finally read it. It was paced fine, and it pulled at my heartstrings a lot. The setting - in historical Japan - was interesting. That was what I liked.
But...
The ending didn't leave me very satisfied - it was rather inconclusive in several areas.
I didn't love Ashikaga, to be perfectly honest. He irritated me, a lot, and we didn't get to know him at all. I didn't like his attitude towards Lily, and I overall just did not like him.
I did like Lily, but didn't love her either.
And the last ten percent or so of the book I definitely didn't love. They just...confused me.
Basically, this book didn't really work for me. I would not recommend it. 2 stars.
But...
The ending didn't leave me very satisfied - it was rather inconclusive in several areas.
I didn't love Ashikaga, to be perfectly honest. He irritated me, a lot, and we didn't get to know him at all. I didn't like his attitude towards Lily, and I overall just did not like him.
I did like Lily, but didn't love her either.
And the last ten percent or so of the book I definitely didn't love. They just...confused me.
Basically, this book didn't really work for me. I would not recommend it. 2 stars.
January 3, 2018
Actual rating: 4.5 stars.
This was a great way to start out the reading year. The setting is 1300's Japan, which was fascinating. I felt completely immersed in the harsh realities of peasants living in feudal Japan, especially of our main character, Tiger Lily, who was born in the year of the Tiger. I had no idea this was so rare; not the fact that girls were born during that year, but that very few of them were allowed to live. I felt like I was struggling along with her as she endured so many hardships, and yet kept going. The writing was beautiful, and I can't wait to read more books by this author.
This was a great way to start out the reading year. The setting is 1300's Japan, which was fascinating. I felt completely immersed in the harsh realities of peasants living in feudal Japan, especially of our main character, Tiger Lily, who was born in the year of the Tiger. I had no idea this was so rare; not the fact that girls were born during that year, but that very few of them were allowed to live. I felt like I was struggling along with her as she endured so many hardships, and yet kept going. The writing was beautiful, and I can't wait to read more books by this author.
May 6, 2017
Wonderful descriptions...
Along with an interesting historical piece with overtones of magic songs and warriors who can change into anals, Lincoln offers wonderful descriptions. I was enchanted by her comparisons of every day emotional and physical feelings to the taste and feel if common foods and elements. The awareness of Tiger Lily grows throughout the story as she is called to make tough decisions and to risk her life and future as she chooses life.
Along with an interesting historical piece with overtones of magic songs and warriors who can change into anals, Lincoln offers wonderful descriptions. I was enchanted by her comparisons of every day emotional and physical feelings to the taste and feel if common foods and elements. The awareness of Tiger Lily grows throughout the story as she is called to make tough decisions and to risk her life and future as she chooses life.
July 2, 2020
Lily was born in feudal Japan in the Year of the Tiger, her year of birth making her believe she is destined to be wilful and to live outside the social norms. Indeed, rather than follow her duties as peasant in the rice paddies, she is often running away from her responsibilities. Before her mother disappeared, she raised Lily in the traditional worship of the Kami. Unfortunately for Lily the worship of the Kami has been suppressed by the Emperor and her local daimyo in favour of Buddhism. When she encounters the daimyo’s son being attacked by soldiers of the pretender Emperor (a claimant to the throne who still supports the old religion), she calls upon her mother's teachings toaid the son and is drawn into the conflict.
I enjoyed this novel. The feudal Japan setting and the use of Shinto as the basis for the fantasy/magical elements provided a refreshing change from much of what I tend to read. Added to this was the small scale feel to much of the novel. Although set within a backdrop of an ongoing battle between the traditional and new ways that had potential for a larger-scale epic conflict, the novel is concentrated on a much more personal story centred around Lily and the daimyo’s son. This small-scale personal perspective is reinforced by the first person narrative and, despite references to the larger conflict, much of the action is only ever small scale skirmishes around Lilly’s local village, with the bigger scale action saved until towards the end.
It does mean that even for a short book it can feel like not a lot happens until the later stages of the book, which depending on your personal tastes may be good or bad.
My only (small) grumble was when a couple of more English sounding terms were used, which seemed jarring when so much was done elsewhere to keep you within the Japanese setting.
I enjoyed this novel. The feudal Japan setting and the use of Shinto as the basis for the fantasy/magical elements provided a refreshing change from much of what I tend to read. Added to this was the small scale feel to much of the novel. Although set within a backdrop of an ongoing battle between the traditional and new ways that had potential for a larger-scale epic conflict, the novel is concentrated on a much more personal story centred around Lily and the daimyo’s son. This small-scale personal perspective is reinforced by the first person narrative and, despite references to the larger conflict, much of the action is only ever small scale skirmishes around Lilly’s local village, with the bigger scale action saved until towards the end.
It does mean that even for a short book it can feel like not a lot happens until the later stages of the book, which depending on your personal tastes may be good or bad.
My only (small) grumble was when a couple of more English sounding terms were used, which seemed jarring when so much was done elsewhere to keep you within the Japanese setting.
March 2, 2022
lily,
An interesting and fresh take on Asian mystism, war and romance. A well thought out story, Not. Happy ever after ending.
An interesting and fresh take on Asian mystism, war and romance. A well thought out story, Not. Happy ever after ending.
November 10, 2022
I know I’ve gotten horribly behind on my book reviews. Why? Because life happens. Not sure how else to put it considering the life I lead—mother of a busy 10-year-old and all the associated activities, family, etc. that goes along with that, and my day job as a clinic supervisor in a hospital. So yeah, no going any further there.
Instead, let’s move on to the first of hopefully multiple reviews for things I’ve read in the last year or so. I’m back up to one I read back in March of this year—Tiger Lily by K. Bird Lincoln. This is a fantasy novel with a historical bent to it. Lily, born in the year of the Tiger, just can’t keep herself out of trouble. From following the old ways to her entanglements with the Daimyo’s son, Ashikaga, she continually does the wrong thing, even when it leads to good things in the end.
First, I loved the book being an Asian fantasy novel. It felt well researched and respectfully handled. The level of detail impressed me, all the while feeling effortless. While there are a growing number of fantasy novels set with non-white/non-Eurocentric characters and cultures out there, finding ones that show a good understanding of the chosen culture while being respectful seems to be a bit more challenging to find. Personally, I think Lincoln has done well in this regard.
I also loved the gender twist incorporated into the story. Not going to say too much because I don’t want to ruin the surprise. I will say the twist felt pretty well written to me and, while not entirely a shocking surprise, it also wasn’t telegraphed way ahead of time like I’ve seen done before.
Finally, I really appreciated the ending. It all felt like the story was building to a good, yet predictable, ending. And it did. But not quite. There are a few pieces that added a little special something I hadn’t fully expected in the end.
On to the things I wasn’t so fond of. The biggest aspect of this novel I didn’t appreciate as much was the relationship between Lily and Ashikaga. Now, I get it, this novel was set in feudal Japan and that means there are many trappings that go along with this kind of relationship. Yet, I struggled with the push-pull of their relationship, with the almost abusive dynamics that occasionally cropped up, and the awkwardness of it. And, before you say it—yes, I get the relationship was meant to be awkward. This felt disproportionately so to me.
Another piece I struggled with was that gender twist. While I loved the inclusion of it and all, I also felt rather let down by it in the end. I know this is only book 1 of a series, but I felt like it should have gone somewhere further than it did. It wasn’t quite mentioned and forgotten about as I’ve seen elsewhere, but it wasn’t that far from either. I hope Lincoln builds upon it further in the rest of the series.
Finally, I also had a hard time with Lily as a character. She spends what feels like an inordinate amount of time bemoaning her fate, belaboring her sense of shame over what she’s done and not done, and seems to stay mired in inaction for so much of the book. Again, I get things like honor and shame are vastly different concepts in eastern cultures, so I understand the need to play this up further to make the book feel authentic. Yet I felt beat over the head with it at multiple points throughout the book. It seemed like it could have been dialed back a little to make Lilly a little more likeable and engaging while preserving the eastern culture around honor and shame.
I enjoyed the book and appreciated the immersive Japanese culture. And there were some things I struggled with more. In the end I settled on a solid 3 stars. Good, not great, but could be way worse, too.
Instead, let’s move on to the first of hopefully multiple reviews for things I’ve read in the last year or so. I’m back up to one I read back in March of this year—Tiger Lily by K. Bird Lincoln. This is a fantasy novel with a historical bent to it. Lily, born in the year of the Tiger, just can’t keep herself out of trouble. From following the old ways to her entanglements with the Daimyo’s son, Ashikaga, she continually does the wrong thing, even when it leads to good things in the end.
First, I loved the book being an Asian fantasy novel. It felt well researched and respectfully handled. The level of detail impressed me, all the while feeling effortless. While there are a growing number of fantasy novels set with non-white/non-Eurocentric characters and cultures out there, finding ones that show a good understanding of the chosen culture while being respectful seems to be a bit more challenging to find. Personally, I think Lincoln has done well in this regard.
I also loved the gender twist incorporated into the story. Not going to say too much because I don’t want to ruin the surprise. I will say the twist felt pretty well written to me and, while not entirely a shocking surprise, it also wasn’t telegraphed way ahead of time like I’ve seen done before.
Finally, I really appreciated the ending. It all felt like the story was building to a good, yet predictable, ending. And it did. But not quite. There are a few pieces that added a little special something I hadn’t fully expected in the end.
On to the things I wasn’t so fond of. The biggest aspect of this novel I didn’t appreciate as much was the relationship between Lily and Ashikaga. Now, I get it, this novel was set in feudal Japan and that means there are many trappings that go along with this kind of relationship. Yet, I struggled with the push-pull of their relationship, with the almost abusive dynamics that occasionally cropped up, and the awkwardness of it. And, before you say it—yes, I get the relationship was meant to be awkward. This felt disproportionately so to me.
Another piece I struggled with was that gender twist. While I loved the inclusion of it and all, I also felt rather let down by it in the end. I know this is only book 1 of a series, but I felt like it should have gone somewhere further than it did. It wasn’t quite mentioned and forgotten about as I’ve seen elsewhere, but it wasn’t that far from either. I hope Lincoln builds upon it further in the rest of the series.
Finally, I also had a hard time with Lily as a character. She spends what feels like an inordinate amount of time bemoaning her fate, belaboring her sense of shame over what she’s done and not done, and seems to stay mired in inaction for so much of the book. Again, I get things like honor and shame are vastly different concepts in eastern cultures, so I understand the need to play this up further to make the book feel authentic. Yet I felt beat over the head with it at multiple points throughout the book. It seemed like it could have been dialed back a little to make Lilly a little more likeable and engaging while preserving the eastern culture around honor and shame.
I enjoyed the book and appreciated the immersive Japanese culture. And there were some things I struggled with more. In the end I settled on a solid 3 stars. Good, not great, but could be way worse, too.
August 8, 2012
Tiger Lily, by K. Bird Lincoln, is the story of a young adult woman, Lily of the Valley, set in a culture much like ancient Japan. The culture is similar enough to Japan’s to fool all but the astute non-native, but the author does give a caveat up front.
Lily of the Valley was born in the year of the tiger, to a father who is the chef for the local nobility, and a mother who was a Jinto priestess. The practice of Jinto has been outlawed in favor of Bhudism, and Lily’s mother mysteriously disappeared many years ago.
Lily is left behind as the woman of the house, cooking and cleaning for her father and three siblings, that is, whenever she is not called to work in the rice paddy. But Lily is rebellious and free-spirited. This causes her to disappear into the wilderness at times.
The setting is one of civil war, with different warlords trying to consolidate power and gain favor with the Emperor. The battles comes to Lily’s village in the form of Jinto-weilding fox warriors. Lily inherited (or learned) some of the Jinto ways from her mother, and manages to accidentally prevent the local prince from being killed. This causes her to come into the prince’s favor, and that relationship drives the rest of the story.
Overall, this is an enjoyable and entertaining tale that I read in ebook form over the course of a couple of weeks. Considerable planning and thought went into the creation of the milieu, and that shows. Although this is specifically the tale of one conflict in the civil war, and the relationship of Lily with the prince, the world leaves countless opportunities for further exploration and story-telling.
On the positive side, Lincoln has created a compelling cast of characters, and Lily perhaps gains more sympathy from the readers than she has for herself. This keeps the pages turning. On the negative side, several situations and characters with enormous potential were left on the table and not used at all. That the author left these details unexplored screams for a sequel, if only to make use of material that seems arbitrary in this book. A well-executed sequel has the potential to tie these ends together.
Lincoln’s style is colorful and enjoyable. Her action scenes flow without getting bogged with minutia. Her descriptions are poetry, where minutia matters and is handled well. The characters all have personality, nothing cardboard about them. The story itself is larger than can be told in a single volume, but the portion of the story Lincoln chose to tell does fit nicely into the size volume she selected–not under-told, nor over-told. The refreshing change from typical European culture fantasy made the book that much more enjoyable.
Lily of the Valley was born in the year of the tiger, to a father who is the chef for the local nobility, and a mother who was a Jinto priestess. The practice of Jinto has been outlawed in favor of Bhudism, and Lily’s mother mysteriously disappeared many years ago.
Lily is left behind as the woman of the house, cooking and cleaning for her father and three siblings, that is, whenever she is not called to work in the rice paddy. But Lily is rebellious and free-spirited. This causes her to disappear into the wilderness at times.
The setting is one of civil war, with different warlords trying to consolidate power and gain favor with the Emperor. The battles comes to Lily’s village in the form of Jinto-weilding fox warriors. Lily inherited (or learned) some of the Jinto ways from her mother, and manages to accidentally prevent the local prince from being killed. This causes her to come into the prince’s favor, and that relationship drives the rest of the story.
Overall, this is an enjoyable and entertaining tale that I read in ebook form over the course of a couple of weeks. Considerable planning and thought went into the creation of the milieu, and that shows. Although this is specifically the tale of one conflict in the civil war, and the relationship of Lily with the prince, the world leaves countless opportunities for further exploration and story-telling.
On the positive side, Lincoln has created a compelling cast of characters, and Lily perhaps gains more sympathy from the readers than she has for herself. This keeps the pages turning. On the negative side, several situations and characters with enormous potential were left on the table and not used at all. That the author left these details unexplored screams for a sequel, if only to make use of material that seems arbitrary in this book. A well-executed sequel has the potential to tie these ends together.
Lincoln’s style is colorful and enjoyable. Her action scenes flow without getting bogged with minutia. Her descriptions are poetry, where minutia matters and is handled well. The characters all have personality, nothing cardboard about them. The story itself is larger than can be told in a single volume, but the portion of the story Lincoln chose to tell does fit nicely into the size volume she selected–not under-told, nor over-told. The refreshing change from typical European culture fantasy made the book that much more enjoyable.
October 15, 2015
I enjoyed this book set in a somewhat fantastical medieval Japan. The main character, Lily, is a peasant girl born in the year of the Tiger - strong, stubborn, and not very marriageable (which really doesn't concern her too much). Her mother, before disappearing, followed the old Jindo ways, which Lily observes out of custom, even though they are now forbidden. And Lily's observance of said ways ends up setting a whole bunch of things in motion when the Daimyo's son finds her singing Jindo songs (songs which also just so happen to affect some dangerous fox magic that is threatening him).
I thought the author did a great job of setting the story in Japan - a sprinkling of Japanese words when translation just wouldn't be as strong, calling upon Japanese fairy tales about foxes, the description of clothes and planting rice and tatami mats and the Great House and Jindo shrines, and her use of metaphors (for example, comparing slow speech to trying to talk after eating mochi). As someone who has read and loved many a tale of the presence and power of goddesses and gods in mostly European traditions, I also really loved the depiction of experiencing the power of Japanese kami (the sense of the cold river, the heavy stones, the firey mountain) - a thrilling ride, as it were.
I appreciated the realistic depiction of Lily's understanding of the world (it was true to that of a young peasant woman who had never been in the Great House and had never had any romantic interest in anyone and so just does not get what is happening now), and how different the life of the nobles were by contrast. In addition, this book celebrates women in non-traditional roles, some of them quite unexpected, which I really enjoyed.
The plot line of the story has two main themes, IMHO. It is both about war (with some of the tragedies that come of war, though nothing explicit) and about two young people drawn together. While sometimes the development of the romance felt a bit slow and frustrating to me, it was also true to who the characters were and the time frame the story was set in. Plus, each character had secrets which led to a compelling tension as their relationship drew closer. I found myself wanting to know what happened with them next.
I thought the author did a great job of setting the story in Japan - a sprinkling of Japanese words when translation just wouldn't be as strong, calling upon Japanese fairy tales about foxes, the description of clothes and planting rice and tatami mats and the Great House and Jindo shrines, and her use of metaphors (for example, comparing slow speech to trying to talk after eating mochi). As someone who has read and loved many a tale of the presence and power of goddesses and gods in mostly European traditions, I also really loved the depiction of experiencing the power of Japanese kami (the sense of the cold river, the heavy stones, the firey mountain) - a thrilling ride, as it were.
I appreciated the realistic depiction of Lily's understanding of the world (it was true to that of a young peasant woman who had never been in the Great House and had never had any romantic interest in anyone and so just does not get what is happening now), and how different the life of the nobles were by contrast. In addition, this book celebrates women in non-traditional roles, some of them quite unexpected, which I really enjoyed.
The plot line of the story has two main themes, IMHO. It is both about war (with some of the tragedies that come of war, though nothing explicit) and about two young people drawn together. While sometimes the development of the romance felt a bit slow and frustrating to me, it was also true to who the characters were and the time frame the story was set in. Plus, each character had secrets which led to a compelling tension as their relationship drew closer. I found myself wanting to know what happened with them next.
October 28, 2013
This book isn’t one that I normally read in that the pace is a bit slow. The story, the pace and just the feel of the book was slower than many of the books I’ve been reading lately. Rather than action and adventure at the turn of every page, Lincoln took to the time for the reader to get to know the characters and their lives. A big part of this novel was the lifestyle of the characters; the differences between Lily and Prince Ashikaga.
While it may seem slow for many people, there was plenty of action or heart-racing moments. The story and the plot was fascinating and different. I thoroughly enjoyed reading a story set in historical Japan times (since a lot of novels I read seem to be western focused). The fantasy portion of this story was also very well done. It fit with the story as well as the location and time frame.
I really enjoyed seeing the relationship between Lily and Prince Ashikaga grow and evolve and develop. The plot twist halfway through the story blew me away. I did not see it coming and it definitely put a whole new outlook on the relationship. The story ended with a powerful and intriguing confrontation, one I also did not expect to see but was glad to. The book ended with many things unanswered and I’m glad to hear that the author is considering writing a sequel.
While this story did take me longer than usual to read, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it and can’t wait to read what happens with Lily and Ashikaga next.
While it may seem slow for many people, there was plenty of action or heart-racing moments. The story and the plot was fascinating and different. I thoroughly enjoyed reading a story set in historical Japan times (since a lot of novels I read seem to be western focused). The fantasy portion of this story was also very well done. It fit with the story as well as the location and time frame.
I really enjoyed seeing the relationship between Lily and Prince Ashikaga grow and evolve and develop. The plot twist halfway through the story blew me away. I did not see it coming and it definitely put a whole new outlook on the relationship. The story ended with a powerful and intriguing confrontation, one I also did not expect to see but was glad to. The book ended with many things unanswered and I’m glad to hear that the author is considering writing a sequel.
While this story did take me longer than usual to read, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it and can’t wait to read what happens with Lily and Ashikaga next.
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January 31, 2013Lily is a peasant, unfortunate girl born in the year of the Tiger set to live out life as the village spinster for her bad luck. But it might not be so bad when she is in the right place at the wrong time and able to save her young lord. That is only the start of her problems when the fox spirits attract and only her forbidden Jindo songs can help. Her secret is only one of many that leads her life on a new adventure.
This was a fun historical read. Medieval Japan was an interesting setting for a novel. I found it fun and unique to read a new setting. It felt like a very realistic portrayal that got you into the story even if you don’t know much about medieval Japan. This love story was a bit awkward.- Lily always thought she’d be a spinster, so she is not really looking to fall in love, but then there was all this awkwardness because he was the lord and she was a peasant. I didn’t get all of how that worked and once the plot twist was thrown in, I was very confused.
It turned into not really my type of book after the twist, but otherwise was a good read. For parents, I would recommend reading it first in case it goes against your values (it didn’t bother me, and I didn’t mind the plot twist, but it is not something I would readily pick up to read)
This was a fun historical read. Medieval Japan was an interesting setting for a novel. I found it fun and unique to read a new setting. It felt like a very realistic portrayal that got you into the story even if you don’t know much about medieval Japan. This love story was a bit awkward.- Lily always thought she’d be a spinster, so she is not really looking to fall in love, but then there was all this awkwardness because he was the lord and she was a peasant. I didn’t get all of how that worked and once the plot twist was thrown in, I was very confused.
It turned into not really my type of book after the twist, but otherwise was a good read. For parents, I would recommend reading it first in case it goes against your values (it didn’t bother me, and I didn’t mind the plot twist, but it is not something I would readily pick up to read)
September 30, 2012
Enoyable - the main character's combination of stubbornness and her desire to be a "dutiful daughter", the gender-bending romance, the fantasy world magickal rules. The thing that made this just a like for me is that the reviews praised it as being a good picture of mideval Japan but as I read it, I knew the clash between Buddhism and Shintoism hadn't been quite so parallel as the mideval clash between Christianity and paganism as it was made to be seen in the book. It bothered me quite a bit. I guess I should've not been so put off by historical inaccuracy in a fantasy novel, but still. That's my personal quirk. Also I'm not a big romance fan... but I did enjoy the intricacies of the relationship between the main protaganist and her love interest. There was enough magick and adventure and action that the romance didn't sour me on the plot but I like more intricate stories with more fully fleshed out side characters. Overall enjoyable. I read it cause I was looking in the Kindle lending library for something to read for free and I was attracted to the mideval Japan theme. Not my favorite ever, but not bad.
September 13, 2012
I found this to be a wonderful coming of age story of a peasant girl in emperial Japan. I stayed frustrated with her naivete, more to the cautious side than the accepting and gullible type. However, she was a very sheltered girl of fifteen or sixteen (who should have been married, but was seen as unmarriable) so not such a girl by moden standards. However, she becomes involves in the region's lord's business and an ally of one of the lord's sons. Lily was far out of her depth when she got involved in the business of the great house.
The story was wonderful, though, in that it provides a clear view of the life of a peasant in a culture so far removed from my own. Lily had a lot to learn, but realized that even though she was a bit of an outcast in her village, she had a great deal to offer. This was so hard for her to accept after living in fear of punishment by village elders. Lily's courage and lack of understanding cause her to make some foolish choices. However, her loyalty while questioned throughout the story proves to help save the day.
The story was wonderful, though, in that it provides a clear view of the life of a peasant in a culture so far removed from my own. Lily had a lot to learn, but realized that even though she was a bit of an outcast in her village, she had a great deal to offer. This was so hard for her to accept after living in fear of punishment by village elders. Lily's courage and lack of understanding cause her to make some foolish choices. However, her loyalty while questioned throughout the story proves to help save the day.
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