Bundori: A Novel of Japan by Laura Joh Rowland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Oh man, this book was so hard to get through. Mostly because of its length and the way it was written, than out of dislike for the story.
I admit I have a love/hate situation going on with this series. On the one hand, I love all the historical details and how they’re woven into the story, the settings are realistic, Sano is (albeit slightly annoying to me in his personality) portrayed in a way believable to what and who he is supposed to be, and the crime/mystery aspect of the series is very well played and more or less interesting.
On the other hand, I (as I already stated) dislike Sano’s personality, don’t really care what becomes of the characters, find the repetitive descriptions dragging, and the sprinkled Japanese words reek of fanfic (and I’m not even talking about the titles of their jobs, which require a one paragraph explanation on what position it exactly is else no one [except those who know Japanese and their history] would know, because using the actual words in English like “retainer” and “captain” or whatever apparently takes it too far out of ‘the setting’).
I don’t think I’ll be continuing the series unless I’m very bored or very in need for a kick for some Feudal Japan. I know they’re not the longest books ever, but something about the writing style just makes them drag on forever. If the books were about half the length they are, I might have read on, but as they are… nope.
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