An Interesting Beginning, But Nothing More Than That - A Review of Emperor of the Eight Islands

The Emperor of the Eight Islands by Lian Hearn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I have something of a weakness for world mythologies. Part of it is because of my mother: the first time I was hospitalised for dengue, one of the books she brought was an overview of Egyptian,Greek, and Roman mythology. This laid down the groundwork for my subsequent interest in both mythology and history, since it is impossible to really appreciate one without also learning the other. Most of it, however, really has to do with my fascination with stories - all kinds of stories, really, though I will admit a certain partiality to stories of wonder and magic. Mythology definitely fits that description.

Aside from the usual stories offered up by Western mythology and folklore, in my tweens and teens I quickly became very interested in Japanese mythology and folklore. Thanks to the steady stream of anime showing on local and cable television at the time, it was practically impossible not to want to know about the stories that formed the background for shows like Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Fushigi Yûgi, to name a few. Fortunately, I had the good luck to go to a university with an excellent library, and it was there that I found translations of books like the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the primary texts for Japanese mythology, as well as many other books related to folklore. As with all the mythologies and folkloric tales I’ve read, Japanese mythology and folklore is endlessly fascinating, and endlessly malleable as well. Since I was watching anime and reading manga at more or less the same time I was doing this deep dive into the background material for what I was watching and reading, I was seeing how the storytellers behind manga and anime were using that material for their own purposes.

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