I have to admit that I bought this series because the covers on the books looked beautiful and the description in the inner sleeve sounded intriguing. The story starts out decent enough, but it is simply written without a lot of detail that could make the story so much better. The characters are quite bland and neither they nor the plot has a lot of depth to it.

A big complaint I did have for this story is the lack of Japanese "flavor" the story has. I just didn't get a feel for the culture in which this tale was supposed to being taking place in. The author does a poor job in making the background of the world and the characters come to life. Granted, there are Japanese names and places in the book, but the writer should've incorporated some local dialect and phrases into the character's dialogues and thoughts because I feel this would have given it that little extra something. Especially since it's noted in the blurb about the author how he's studied the Japanese language... not using this knowledge seems a bit of a waste.

However, even though it's mediocre, it's interesting enough to compel me to read the next book in the series since I have it on hand. Hopefully the author will have grown some in his writing skills.

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