Tales of the Otori, Book One: Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn

In his black-walled fortress at Inuyama, the warlord Iida Sadamu surveys his famous nightingale floor. Constructed with exquisite skill, it sings at the tread of each human foot. No assassin can cross it unheard.

The youth Takeo has been brought up in a remote mountain village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people who have taught him only the ways of peace. But unbeknownst to him, his father was a celebrated assassin and a member of the Tribe, an ancient network of families with extraordinary, preternatural skills. When Takeo's village is pillaged, he is rescued and adopted by the mysterious Lord Otori Shigeru. Under the tutelage of Shigeru, he learns that he too possesses the skills of the Tribe. And, with this knowledge, he embarks on a journey that will lead him across the famed nightingale floor—and to his own unimaginable destiny...

An international bestseller, Across the Nightingale Floor is the first book in the Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn.

Stitchley's Rating:
I really enjoyed this book.  I thought there was just enough ambiguity in how the skills of Takeo and others of the Tribe were described that it was believable as existing in this world and not being a story from some supernatural universe. The story, while a little predictable in the end, made enough turns along the way that it was enjoyable and a few points along the way I wasn't even sure that it was going to have the ending that I was certain had to be coming.  Even when it came I was very upset with the way the book ended and immediately started reading the next in the series.

Experiment 429's Rating: THUMBS UP

Instances of Swearing:

• Shit: 1
• Bastard: 1

There is little swearing but there are a couple scenes in the book that are suggestive.