Lisa Cotton

Four stars.

The first half I found an absolute chore to get through (and half of 1100 pages is a hell of a lot) but then it clicked, and I was engrossed.

I loved Mariko & Blackthorne, of course - and Blackthorne's steady transformation. And Toranaga, what a character! I enjoyed how deep and rich and clever the whole story was, and how vividly the world is painted - historically accurate or not, it's certainly beautiful. So many passages gave me the shivers, especially towards the end.

I did struggle to keep up with the politics though, particularly in the early chapters. But it was really worth persevering. Excellent climax & excellent ending. 

My awareness of African-American history is presumably far beneath that of the target audience for this book - I know enough to recognise a good few of the historical events it's satirising, but I'm sure there were references I simply don't have the background knowledge for. Still, from my position of ignorance, I really enjoyed it.

The plot is outrageous. A lot of reviews of this book use that word, and it's totally apt. The plot is ridiculous, but it carries, it works. There's also a lot of gold in there that's not social commentary. The end of the first chapter genuinely gave me shivers. There's a sentence at the start of chapter three that I smirked at the start of, laughed at the middle of, and then I felt my face fall in horror before the end.

But goodness me, it sure is cutting and funny, too. Christ, that opening line: “This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I've never stolen anything.” Woah! OK so we're addressing those stereotypes full on, then!

All in all: hilarious, and shocking, and humbling.

“You'se something tuh make uh man forgit tuh git old and forgit tuh die.”

Some stunning stuff in here. “Total Eclipse” in particular winded me.

3.5 stars. The achingly delicious language is what kept me going - I was frustrated throughout most of it. So much cliffhanger-style teasing of “The Terror” without relief until the very end. The ending was magnificent, mind you. Of all the different chronological perspectives to choose from, I admired the point in time where the book ended: the one point where there was any pleasure at all, doomed or not.