Ai Jiang
Titan Books
8 September 2026 (2010)
524
eBook - EPUB
Fantasy
ARC via NetGalley
Riveting and highly inventive Chinese-inspired science-fantasy of a royal family torn apart, painful betrayal and deadly secrets. Set on a drowning continent full of corruption and deception and strange technology this is a richly envisioned and powerful debut novel from the winner of the Bram Stoker® and Nebula Awards.
On Piāo, the floating empire of lotuses, Xīlián discovers the royal advisors’ ploy to overthrow her brother, Yún, the emperor, in the same way they had murdered their parents, by creating a deadly flood that will make Yún’s death seem as though an accident. She flees to the drowning continent of Opera, a place of high tech and near environmental collapse where companies vie to sell a chance at immortality. There Xīlián seeks out her exiled brother Làng to help in her efforts to disrupt the advisors’ plans and remove them from court.
Also residing on Opera is the outcast, No Face. Abandoned by the empire of Piāo, they plot to destroy those who tore their family apart. When Xīlián is caught and imprisoned and No Face discovers the shocking truth about their past, the two must work together to stop the advisors and unify their two lands or lose everyone they love to flood and revolution.
I struggled so, so much with this book. At first glance it looked like it would be right up my alley: fantasy, Asian mythology, Chinese opera and culture. All three would tick boxes for me, but the execution of the story didn't work for me at all despite the fascinating and promising premise. I struggled right from the start with the dual POV switching between first and second person. First was fine, but I couldn't get into the second-person POV at all. I could understand why the author chose to use it, but every time one of those chapters came up, I was pulled out of the story and my attention started to drift. The story was interesting, as was the mythology and history the author created for the world, but most of it was just reported through the Performances, and this drastically slowed the pacing of the tale, again losing my interest. In the end I stopped reading about two thirds into the story. For several nights I had been forcing myself to pick it up, as I do usually try to finish everything I read, especially if it is for review, but in the end I decided it was better to admit defeat than persist when it clearly wasn't working for me. I can only give this one 2.5 stars; however, just because it didn't work out for me doesn't mean other readers won't enjoy it.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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