Asian Archives - Noblebright https://noblebright.org/category/book-reviews/asian/ Fantasy to Believe In Wed, 16 Jan 2019 18:55:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://noblebright.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/cropped-Noblebright-2-32x32.png Asian Archives - Noblebright https://noblebright.org/category/book-reviews/asian/ 32 32 Thirteen Orphans – Jane Lindskold https://noblebright.org/thirteen-orphans-jane-lindskold/ https://noblebright.org/thirteen-orphans-jane-lindskold/#respond Thu, 11 Oct 2018 15:06:46 +0000 http://www.noblebright.org/?p=720 Thirteen Orphans – by Jane Lindskold As evocative and moving as Charles de Lint’s Newford books, with the youthful protagonists and exciting action of Mercedes Lackey’s fantasies, Thirteen Orphans makes our world today as excitingly strange and unfamiliar as any fantasy realm . . .and grants readers a glimpse of a fantasy world founded by ancient Chinese […]

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Thirteen Orphans – by Jane Lindskold

As evocative and moving as Charles de Lint’s Newford books, with the youthful protagonists and exciting action of Mercedes Lackey’s fantasies, Thirteen Orphans makes our world today as excitingly strange and unfamiliar as any fantasy realm . . .and grants readers a glimpse of a fantasy world founded by ancient Chinese lore and magic.

As far as college freshman Brenda Morris knows, there is only one Earth and magic exists only in fairy tales.

Brenda is wrong.

A father-daughter weekend turns into a nightmare when Brenda’s father is magically attacked before her eyes. Brenda soon learns that her ancestors once lived in world of smoke and shadows, of magic and secrets.

When that world’s Emperor was overthrown, the Thirteen Orphans fled to our earth and hid their magic system in the game of mah-jong. Each Orphan represents an animal from the Chinese Zodiac. Brenda’s father is the Rat. And her polished, former child-star aunt, Pearl―that eminent lady is the Tiger.

Only a handful of Orphans remain to stand against their enemies. The Tiger, the Rooster, the Dog, the Rabbit . . . and Brenda Morris. Not quite the Rat, but not quite human either.

Years ago, in the Land Born of Smoke and Sacrifice, a China-like alternate reality, the winners in a war exiled the losers into our reality. The exiles—the young emperor and his twelve advisors, each personifying an animal in the Chinese zodiac—went first to China, but most eventually arrived in the United States, where their oddities were less apparent, and settled down, blending in but not forgetting.

But now, something is attacking the 21st-century descendants of those exiles. The ones attacked are not dead, but have had memories stolen, and it is evident to those who knew them that they are not the same people they once were. Gaheris Morris, the Rat, is one of those attacked. His 19-year-old daughter, Brenda, joins forces with the other exiles as the Tiger—Pearl, an elderly half-Jewish former actress—calls them together to defend themselves.

Their battles play out among the shopping malls and suburban streets of San Jose, California, with weapons ranging from swords to thrown spell papers. Brenda, who had known nothing about her father’s heritage, receives a crash course on magic and history. If she is going to restore her father’s memories and protect her new friends, she will have to grow into the role of the Rat, and she’ll have to do it fast.

The urban fantasy Thirteen Orphans, by Jane Lindskold, is slow moving and much too talky. Aside from that, there’s a lot to like.

The cast is intelligent, diverse, and well-drawn, with both Brenda and Pearl formidable women. The book is filled with details that ground the story in modern America, San Jose in particular, and the Chinese culture-based magic, like divination using personalized mah-jong sets, was appealing. (Lindskold has gotten some flak, I believe, for cultural appropriation. I can’t say whether or not that’s justified. I just know I found it a nice change from the seemingly ubiquitous medieval European-based fantasies.)

But most of all I liked that the Orphans acted like rational adults, banding together and working as a team, something that doesn’t seem to happen often in modern fantasy. (Yes, I know, conflict is necessary for dramatic tension, but some writers throw in so many personality quirks and conflicts that I want to shake their characters and say, “Grow up!”)

Even their opponents, once revealed, are mostly honorable people dealing as best they can with a bad situation. That made for a more complex and satisfying conclusion than banishing yet another one-dimensional evil villain would have.

Thirteen Orphans is the first in a trilogy. I haven’t read the others yet, but the second book, Nine Gates, is waiting in my To Be Read pile.

Audience: Adults down through mid-teens. No sex or bad language. Some violence but no gore.

This book review is by Barbara Howe, who is writing the Reforging series, a high fantasy epic involving a team of witches and wizards struggling to repair an ancient magic intended to protect their homeland, but now strangling them in its iron grip.

Barbara lives in Wellington, New Zealand, and when she’s not writing, she works as a software developer in the film industry, and lives in a house overflowing with books, games, and jigsaw puzzles, and blogs about books at http://barbarahowewriter.com/wordpress/.

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]]> https://noblebright.org/thirteen-orphans-jane-lindskold/feed/ 0 Memories of Ash – Intisar Khanani https://noblebright.org/memories-of-ash-intisar-khanani/ https://noblebright.org/memories-of-ash-intisar-khanani/#respond Tue, 13 Jun 2017 20:02:00 +0000 http://www.noblebright.org/?p=416 Memories of Ash by Intisar Khanani In the year since she cast her sunbolt, Hitomi has recovered only a handful of memories. But the truths of the past have a tendency to come calling, and an isolated mountain fastness can offer only so much shelter. When the High Council of Mages summons Brigit Stormwind to […]

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Memories of Ash by Intisar Khanani

In the year since she cast her sunbolt, Hitomi has recovered only a handful of memories. But the truths of the past have a tendency to come calling, and an isolated mountain fastness can offer only so much shelter. When the High Council of Mages summons Brigit Stormwind to stand trial for treason, Hitomi knows her mentor won’t return—not with Arch Mage Blackflame behind the charges.

Armed only with her magic and her wits, Hitomi vows to free her mentor from unjust imprisonment. She must traverse spell-cursed lands and barren deserts, facing powerful ancient enchantments and navigating bitter enmities, as she races to reach the High Council. There, she reunites with old friends, planning a rescue equal parts magic and trickery.

If she succeeds, Hitomi will be hunted the rest of her life. If she fails, she’ll face the ultimate punishment: enslavement to the High Council, her magic slowly drained until she dies.

Memories of Ash is the highly anticipated sequel to Sunbolt, Book 1 of The Sunbolt Chronicles.

This is the novel-length sequel to the novella Sunbolt that I enjoyed so much a few months ago. Sunbolt is on the longer end for a novella, so if you’re not normally a fan of shorter works, please don’t skip it! I believe this was planned to be novella-length as well, but grew into a novel. Not a bit of the extra length is extraneous fluff, either – this is rich and glorious and exceptionally fun noblebright fantasy. I was a bit worried that one of my favorite characters was gone for good, but we meet some old friends as well as new friends and allies to counter old enemies and new dangers. Intisar Khanani is one of my new favorite authors, and when the third book in this series comes out, I will probably get them all in paperback.

This book review originally appeared on C. J. Brightley’s blog.

 

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]]> https://noblebright.org/memories-of-ash-intisar-khanani/feed/ 0 Sunbolt – Intisar Khanani https://noblebright.org/sunbolt-intisar-khanani/ https://noblebright.org/sunbolt-intisar-khanani/#respond Mon, 17 Apr 2017 19:01:15 +0000 http://www.noblebright.org/?p=319 Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement […]

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Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani

The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.

When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life.

This was recommended to me by W.R. Gingell, one of my favorite authors, and of course the cover was done by the ever-so-talented Jenny at Seedlings Design Studio, who did our cover for Light in the Darkness and also the cover for The Lord of Dreams. I loved it – loved the characters, loved the setting, loved the prose, loved everything. It is the first book in a trilogy, so do not expect complete closure at the end. However, the book does end in a logical place; it’s an obvious transition point to a new chapter of the story and not an abrupt cliffhanger. I’m looking forward to continuing the series in Memories of Ash. Very noblebright.

This book review originally appeared on C. J. Brightley’s blog.

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