Possessing a Dead Body: After Qilin is killed, Zephyr possesses Lotus' brain-dead body to continue helping Ren. However, due to a number of factors, it wasn’t possible for me to expand on that bigger story for a long time, and now I’ve fully moved on as a creator. I know this is the worst news for a reader, and I’m really sorry to be delivering it. If it’s any small comfort, Hesina’s journey in DESCENDANT would have always ended the way that it did regardless of if I’d sold in a one book, two book, or three book deal. The art of the story would have trumped any contractual obligations, and I hope you’ll understand that I selfishly chose to be the “artist” for my debut. And I hope it’ll assuage your fears to know that I’ll dream more realistically from here on out :’)

Strike The Zither - Book Review - Cinelinx | Movies. Games Strike The Zither - Book Review - Cinelinx | Movies. Games

This is an epic tale!…The magical quality of the story is like the music of the zither—atmospheric and expressive…A story to delight and captivate.’ Weather Manipulation: Zephyr is able to affect the weather to an extent thanks to her latent divine powers. also, the character illustrations included in this are stunning! we need more art to be published in books, so heres hoping the sequel will have more! But even the universe is subject to unseen forces. The next night, a meteorite punched my mentor and his outhouse clean into the ground.I cannot emphasize how excited I was for this book. A YA genderbent adaption of the incredibly famous historical Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Hell yes, give me all of it. And of course, there’s also Kuri Huang’s gorgeous cover, which only stoked my excitement even more. So you can absolutely believe that the moment I got approved for this book on Netgalley, I put everything down to read it. Sadly, while I can’t say this was a perfect five-star read, there was a lot to love. Strike the Zither reimagines the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms in a way never seen before, with intense twists and turns that pay homage to its inspiration while being refreshingly different. A brilliant exploration of destiny and identity!’ Orphaned at a young age, Zephyr took control of her fate by becoming the best strategist of the land and serving under Xin Ren, a warlordess whose loyalty to the empress is double-edged—while Ren’s honour draws Zephyr to her cause, it also jeopardizes their survival in a war where one must betray or be betrayed. When Zephyr is forced to infiltrate an enemy camp to keep Ren’s followers from being slaughtered, she encounters the enigmatic Crow, an opposing strategist who is finally her match. But there are more enemies than one—and not all of them are human. There were two main things that bothered me as I read. Firstly, He treats the profession of ‘strategist’ like of a term in early 2010s dystopian YA novels where characters are sorted into groups based on a singular personality trait. There would be phrases like, ‘oh because X is a strategist, they must believe in Y’, or ‘they did this because they’re a strategist’, which felt extremely reductive of a personality. To justify decisions or actions because ‘they’re a strategist’ ignores the underlying motivations and past experiences that make a character interesting!

Strike the Zither - Macmillan Strike the Zither - Macmillan

The story is planned to continue into another volume, so there's not much of a sense of overall messages or takeaways. There's more a sense of providing food for thought and exploring themes and issues people have grappled with for millennia. Themes like loyalty, mortality, friendship, betrayal, honor, acting for the greater good, and more. Thanks for the confidence, Lotus. I already have—three, in fact. Plan one (ditch the commoners) might be off the table, but there’s plan two (cut down trees and pray for rain), and plan three (send a trustworthy general to the bridge at the mountain’s base to hold off Miasma). A reimagining of the Chinese military epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in which a strategist must help her warlordess to victory against the rival kingdoms to the north and the south while overcoming her fate as written by the gods. As a series opener, all the elements of a riveting historical tale are present — intricate plots, unexpected twists, expansive kingdoms and interpersonal conflict...He has rendered a triumph of political fantasy, delivering a subversive, historical story that dares to ask its characters the hard questions...He’s thrilling plot and zippy characters carry the fire that burns throughout the book...Strike the Zither will transport you to another time, another realm. The end of the book is ripe with suspense, leaving you with that old, tortuous anticipation left by the final screenshot of a television episode: “To be Continued…”’ Overall, I don’t think I’m the quite right audience for this book, and I can’t say for certain yet whether or not I will be reading the sequel. Strike the Zither ends on a cliffhanger of sorts that does pique my interest in how the story will progress in the next volume, but I don’

Race or ethnicity aren't mentioned in a fantasy world based on a work of Chinese historical fiction. Lots of strong representations of women in positions of power and authority in government, military, and social contexts. I follow the familiar music, over lakes of pink clouds. But the pink fades, and the dream becomes a nightmare of a memory. The story opens with Zephyr ‘betraying’ her lord Xin Ren (who takes the role of Liu Bei, kind of) to one of the enemy warlords Miasma in a desperate last-ditch attempt to give Ren and her people time to recuperate their losses. I love how maturely He handles the military aspect of this story. After, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is set partially during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, one of China’s bloodiest periods of infighting and conquest. And Strike the Zither is no different. He is unafraid to shy away from the bloodshed and some of the more gore-y warcrimes various people commit in the name of their rulers.

Strike the Zither by Joan He Book Review | Strike the Zither by Joan He

Joan He will stun readers with her latest book. Richly layered and highly creative, Strike the Zither offers a world brimming with war, love, and unforgettable characters. A truly magnificent book.’—June Hur, bestselling author of The Red PalaceAlso, I found the romance, if you can even call it that, to be quite unrealistic. Zephyr never really liked Crow, until she one day did? I never understood where the attraction came from, especially since he poisoned her and didn’t seem to like her all that much either. I didn’t understand their connection at all. Like many kids of the Chinese diaspora, I was told stories about these larger-than-life figures growing up, but it wasn’t until college that I really read and analyzed the text in full. As I thought more deeply about the enduring legacy of the story, I came up with a “what if” question that I ultimately decided to explore through my midpoint twist (from which my stories tend to spring). If you’re familiar with how certain characters of Three Kingdoms are worshiped to this day in Chinese society, then you’ll see how Strike the Zither is my textual response to that worship.