Language: R (60 swears 5 'f'); Mature Content: PG13 (kiss, mention anatomy, nudity); Violence: PG13 (Gory deaths and intense violence)
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL - AVERAGE
17yo Jinghua once lived in under the Song dynasty with her family, food, and a solid future, but that was before the Songs fell to the Mongols. Now, she is a slave to the people who killed her family. But fate is unrelentingly cruel, and what little of a life she has established quickly dissipates when a neighboring kingdom captures the Kipchak Khanate. Compelled by a hasty leave and the lack of anywhere else to go, Jinghua finds herself to be traveling companions with the Khan and his youngest son, Prince Khalaf. Soon it becomes apparent that the only way to save his Khanate is to marry the Princess Turandokht. However, the Princess will only marry a suitor who can answer three riddles to prove himself her intellectual equal. Failure is met with death. As Jinghua travels, she finds herself both pulled further and further into this spiraling plot, and falling hopelessly in love with Khalaf.
The Bird and the Blade was beautiful. It had politics, action, romance, and philosophy in it, so basically the whole package story-wise. However, it was the writing that really did it for me! Devastatingly beautiful poetic descriptions paint vivid depictions of thirteenth-century Asia. The characters are realistic and flawed, no strict hero-archetype characters. Even though the action was slow at times, the ending redeemed this novel a thousand times over and left me sobbing! All characters are Asian, strictly heterosexual relationships.
Sierra Finlinson
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment