Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate, by Richard Parks
Posted on: March 8, 2015
Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate, by Richard Parks
published in 2014
where I got it: purchased new
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Historical fiction about a time and place I don’t know much about combined with mystery, ghosts, demons, and political intrigue? Sign me up. As much as I love my space opera and low fantasy, I grew up reading historical fiction, and historical works have a very special place in my heart. I’ve read and enjoyed a few of Richard Parks’ short stories, so I was curious to read one of his novels.
Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate by Richard Parks takes place in 11th century Japan. Yamada no Goji is a minor nobleman, lately welcomed at the palace compound, but since the loss of Princess Teiko, he has avoided crossing paths with the nobility. What was the secret she was willing to die for? Was someone blackmailing her? And the larger concern is the safety of her son, Emperor Takahito. The power of the Fujiwara clan is rising, how far will they go to ensure one of their own sits upon the throne?
(quick language lesson: Monogatari translates to story, tale, or narrative)
The opening chapters of To Break the Demon Gate are just beautiful. Characters send metaphor laden poetry back and forth to each other, and this art of courtly poetry was a real thing in the court of the Heian period. Inflection, rhythm, symbology, and how it all came together in a very short verse was just as important as the information carried therein. Many of the poems are explained, but I enjoyed trying to figure out the symbology before Yamada explained it to me. Colorful poetry aside, this was a very formal environment, with no room for public displays of affection. In these early chapters, it is implied that Yamada and Princess Teiko have a history, but exactly what that history is is never specified.
The novel takes a fantastical turn as Yamada is called upon to investigate the death of a young lady in waiting. How did the assassin get into her guarded room? Why was she, specifically, killed? Is the young Emperor in danger? When night falls, the capital city crawls with ghosts and demons. Many are harmless, and if you carry the right currency, some of these creatures can be convinced to speak with you. I enjoyed how Parks illustrated how the city comes alive at night, how the mortals hide behind locked doors, but how Yamada walks around with eyes wide open, fascinated and curious. There is a fantastic scene where Yamada converses with Seita, a hungry ghost who lingers at his old home, now a ruin. Seita had been human, but appears as a lantern with eyes and a mouth. When you get to the description of why he appears as a lantern, you’ll know why I adored that scene.
Unfortunately, as the novel progresses, the pacing falls to a laborious crawl. Yamada goes back and forth between Seita, Prince Kanamore, the mysterious Lady Snow and the iterant monk Kenji, asking questions, prying bits of information out of people, and putting puzzle pieces together. What started out as an enjoyable and well paced historical mystery quickly became a slog to read. There were a good hundred pages in there where I kept asking myself “why am i still reading this?” The pacing was horribly slow, I didn’t feel invested in Yamada’s quest for information, I didn’t care about the subplot involving Yamada’s father (because i didn’t have enough information on that either), and there was barely any more of that lovely poetry.
I kept reading because I liked the environment. I enjoyed how Parks injected the prose with culturally accurate words, including bushi, asobi, youkai, shoji, and the like. A sucker for historical dress and costumery, I could have read countless paragraphs about Lady Snow’s wardrobe, hairstyles, and accessories. To Break the Demon Gate is atmospheric, and includes some stunningly rendered scenes. That doesn’t change the fact that I never felt invested in these characters or what happened to them. At the end, we do find out some needed information, and I was like “oh, that makes sense”, but it was too little too late to make up for that boring middle.
From reading a few other reviews of this book online, I realize I’ve come into Richard Parks realm of works at the wrong end. Previous to To Break The Demon Gate, he wrote Demon Hunter, a collection of short stories about Yamada no Goji in which the man’s history is more fully explained. Readers of Demon Hunter are sure to enjoy To Break the Demon Gate more than I did, because they will have a better idea of what was going on. I was a little disappointed that no where on this book (front cover or back) was it mentioned that these are “more adventures of Yamada”, or “the Companion book to Demon Hunter”, or anything that would tell me that this wasn’t the first book in a series. I’ve certainly read the second or third book in a series first, but knowing there are earlier books changes how I think about jumping into the series in the middle. I’m more forgiving of not having any idea who these people are, for example. In this case, I really wish I’d read his earlier works first.
15 Responses to "Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate, by Richard Parks"
March 8, 2015 at 11:30 am
It was slow indeed. I like the way the plot was structured. It read like a series of short stories that grew one into the next.
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March 8, 2015 at 5:05 pm
the middle was just way. too. slow. for me. but that very first story? wow that was gorgeous.
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March 8, 2015 at 12:26 pm
First, I am so happy you wrote a review about this book. Every weekend I check out the new releases for the upcoming week to see if there is anything I missed and add to my TBR to look into more later. However, a few months back, my laptop’s hard-drive crashed and my TBR (that I had been compiling since college) was GONE 😦 This was one of those books.
But I remember this one very well now. I liked the ancient Japan setting, but I particularly remember how long and how many reviews I had skim through until I found out that it was actually kind of a sequel.
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March 8, 2015 at 5:04 pm
happy to have been of help to you!
All I can think of is that the previous stories were published with a different publisher, so this current publisher didn’t want to advertise something published elsewhere. Or, erm, I have no idea. But yeah, would have been REALLY nice to know that there was a body of work that came before.
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March 8, 2015 at 7:59 pm
Yeah, lets give them the benefit of the doubt and say that was the case. (I think someone goofed up)
I can’t imagine how you must have felt though. Read the whole book, feeling like something was missing, and then to find out – almost by chance – it was sequel.
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March 8, 2015 at 1:21 pm
I strongly suggest you try Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori, Book 1) by Lian Hearn. It’s also wonderfully written (no Haiku, though) and has some of the mystical/spiritual elements, plus a great story. Once I read it, I had to go one with the wonderful series.
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March 8, 2015 at 5:00 pm
I read Across the Nightingale Floor back when it first came out, and I remember enjoying the premise and the environment, but I guess I didn’t like it enough to continue with Hearn’s series.
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March 8, 2015 at 3:35 pm
I’m not familiar with Richard Parks or Lian Hearn, but will check them out. I’d highly recommend Steve Bein’s Fated Blades series that switches narratives back and forth between past and present day Japan. It’s a device I usually dislike, but he creates such compelling characters and storylines and I’ve devoured all the books in the series.
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March 8, 2015 at 5:02 pm
I’m not familiar with Steve Bein, so thanks for recommending him!! I like the idea of a story that switches from past to present, it would be interesting to see how the characters in different times have different views on things.
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March 9, 2015 at 2:11 am
You knew this would draw me out of the woodwork, right? I’m curious about Parks now, and the others people have mentioned in the comments. I can exceedingly picky with my gaijin-written Japan books, but always on the lookout for promising stuff.
In that spirit, you may enjoy Library Wars, which I believe is in translation, the Guin Saga, or Dragon Sword and Wind Child. Or maybe not. Hard to say.
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March 9, 2015 at 7:10 am
i had a feeling it might. 🙂
I’ve heard of Guin Saga, but don’t know who wrote it. who are the authors for all those titles you mentioned?
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March 10, 2015 at 12:23 am
Guin Saga: Kaoru Kurimoto (Vertical Press)
Dragon Sword and Wind Child: Noriko Ogiwara (Haikasoru)
Library Wars (Toshokan Senso): Hiro Arikawa – novel isn’t translated but either manga or anime appear to be.
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March 10, 2015 at 11:54 am
Had the same thing happen with an audiobook I checked out for a long trip, only to discover it was the 8th or 9th book in a series. Fortunately it was a mystery, so I could focus on the case without getting too lost by the characters.
If you want something else written about ancient Japan, you could try Katherine Paterson. She wrote 3 books set in Japan; they’re YA but well-written (I gobbled her up as a kid). Favorite one I recall was “The Master Puppetteer.
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the Little Red Reviewer 
March 8, 2015 at 8:41 am
That’s a shame, you would think there would be something on the cover to indicate this wasn’t the first in the series. Bit disappointing that. I’ve passed up some great looking books because they were in the middle of a series and I prefer to read from the beginning.
Lynn 😀
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March 8, 2015 at 5:05 pm
And we’d bought the book because it had such a strong cover. One of those “this looks cool!” impulse purchases.
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