This was an interesting book. It has good qualities and bad - and I can see how someone would not look favorably upon it. To me, the pros outweigh the cons.

Some of the characters are fluff and are resigned to being treated poorly while given no choice or explanation. They sit on the periphery while being an integral part of the cast. It is disconcerting. The hero is hailed for his vision and character but has no concept of cause and effect. It's possible to explain some of this away but no explanation was granted. I think if we took a little more time here we could have wove the overall lack of communication into the story. It's a consistent theme where no one knows where they stand with anyone else.

On the other side, the idea behind sense is pretty neat. And how this sense may manifest differently in the Nightblades. I thought the concept was unique. I may be amongst the few that enjoyed the battle scenes being scant on details. This is the way I think of battle - quick, dirty and over. It may have helped to add a one-liner to appease those who needed it, but I didn't. There are a few characters that are interesting and people

Spoiler

you think will survive three books do not. I found Moriko to be the most complete character and her mentor to be an interesting man. They have something to really cultivate with her.

I really liked this book. It was a slightly different fantasy world based more on Japan and the east than another generic western Europe world. I found the plot to be very good, and the characters were interesting, though they didn't feel very deep.

Completely unrelated: why does the author have 2 spaces between his first and last names?

I liked the Feudal Asian feel and sometimes I liked Ryuu, but that's probably as far as my enjoyment goes for this book.
I felt detached from the characters, which may be due to the unique writing and that this would have been better in 1st person pov. I thought the characters lacked motive, there wasn't much thinking behind their decisions and the plot was super slow. A lot of the action scenes are skipped over and there is very few of these scenes anyway, because of the telling, little showing. The writing was very repetitive, too.

I'm really glad I finally picked this book up, even though it was a little heavy at times. I liked all of the perspective characters and the magic system was interesting; can't wait to continue with this series.

DNF @ 15%. Writing was good and story seemed promising, but it just couldn't hold my attention.

"Our lives are like water, always flowing forward in the streams of time. When we encounter what is unexpected, our best choice is to flow around the obstacle."

I liked the story because it fused the ninja-like assassins with supernatural powers (here represented as senses).
I also really liked a dichotomy between the nightblades and dayblades as in the balance between the evil and good in the world - one cannot exist without the other and there should always be a balance. The same applies to human nature.

The author obviously decided to create a Japanese-inspired world, judging by the characters' names.
However, I did not like the overall execution. The writing was too simple for my taste and I spotted a few spelling mistakes.

The characters were interesting and likeable, but not fully developed, which is a pity because the author could have taken the advantage of the 3rd narrative POVs... but he didn't. The first chapter was also very confusing because it was the only one written in the 1st narrative but I think it should have been left out.

I disliked that the story took the coming of age direction with a love triangle at the end but most of all I disliked the overwhelmingly dark and pessimistic atmosphere... it simply left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't have any wish to continue the series.

2 stars - an interesting idea and premise, but bad execution.

Triggers:

Spoiler

- A young boy witnesses his mother being gang raped and killed in front of his eyes.
- A young girl is sold by her own father to the brothel so he could pay his debts.
- Some main characters are tortured and killed.

Fantastic read. I really enjoyed the military nature of the story and seeing Ryuu, Moriko, and Takako's development as they each fought their own personal demons.