Now the catch is that these sooths are thought of as bad people, and by even acknowledging them as human beings you are guilty of treason.

That's a really long story that I legally cannot disclose here, but by the end of it, I'd managed to win back the rights to DOTC, and it essentially went out of print in the US. Her imagery is gorgeous and has your mouth watering at the idea of strolling through a persimmon garden even if you’ve never eaten a persimmon before.

Well I'm happy to announce that signups have re-opened for a limited time :) More details can be found here.

Also, I think the book does explore interesting themes, like grief, ethics, and especially the idea of broken family. As Hesina adjusts to her new power as queen, she finds herself relating to her enemies and questioning the purely benevolent view she always held of her father. Do I need to knowledge of Three Kingdoms (the classic that STRIKE THE ZITHER is based on) to read STRIKE THE ZITHER?I know I talk about how much I love every female main character I’ve read about this entire year, but Hesina really hits it home for me. Both kingdoms are on the brink of civil war/foreign war, and about to implode from all the factions of unrest stirring up drama within the community.

The government has an effective anti-corruption system, the education and job market are based on merit and not nepotism. Przede wszystkim - takie dziury fabularne, że nic tylko zbierać je z podłogi i samemu sklejać bo autorce niestety się do tego nie spieszyło. The premise Joan He lays out in Descendant of the Crane isn't shockingly original, but the relatively familiar contours of the plot do not make it any less elaborate. Determined to deliver justice, she decided to start a trial to find the murderer and become the next queen.Sometimes in books like these you KNOW things aren’t what they seem, and you’re smart enough to go into reading it with some amount of suspicion towards every character in the book. The imperial doctors say the king died a natural death, but Hesina has reason to believe he was murdered. Plus, there’s also politics with another country (I definitely hope to see more of this in a potential sequel if it happens) and I was devouring it all. Hesina realizes that she can no longer grasp after the tail end of her father’s memory, clinging doggedly to his teachings; she needs a lot more foundation stones before she can start building this tower.

In this shimmering Chinese-inspired fantasy, author Joan He introduces a determined and vulnerable young heroine struggling to do right in a world brimming with deception.

Hesina finds herself thrust into a tale she hardly understands when news of the king’s death—her father’s death—burst wildly and messily into Yan. The characters are well written and what I really like is that as in GOT, the author does not put the characters in molds of good and bad.