Pon, Cindy - Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia
Sun, May. 31st, 2009 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterAi Ling has had a fairly good life: her father and mother love each other and her, her father has taught her to read and write, and it looks as though she will have some say in who she will marry. But then, her father goes to the capital, her mother's mood drops, and a skanky older guy tries to coerce her into marrying him. Ai Ling decides she has to find her father again, but at every turn, she's beset upon by strange creatures, from a three-breasted woman to a soul sucker to assorted other demons.
I am stubbornly annoyed that a publisher had told Cindy Pon that "Asian fantasy doesn't sell," and I sincerely hope the book's sales are phenomenal. Also, I've heard one of the big chains didn't order it... if someone tells me which one, I will go place an order at my local one. I have also gotten one of my public libraries to buy it and am going to suggest it to my other two.
The book itself is extremely fun, although it suffers a little from flat prose. Ai Ling didn't stand out for me as a heroine, but she's your fairly average YA heroine: spunky, can-do, and nursing a secret crush. What made the book for me was the sheer exuberance of it. Not a chapter goes by without another monster or a lovingly described meal, and I love that Ai Ling's appetite is as voracious as mine. Clearly she notices the important things in life! I particularly liked the climax, which has Ai Ling figuring out how to rescue herself.
My favorite parts are probably when Ai Ling and hot guy Chen Yong go beyond the Kingdom of Xia and encounter increasingly odd and interesting beings and lands. Well, that and the food descriptions, of course!
When I began reading this book, I could not get into it. I had thought it was the prose, but halfway through, I came to the horrified realization that I had been steeling myself for exoticism and foreignness, despite the fact that I very much knew that the book was written by a Chinese person who knew something about Chinese culture. There had been no exoticism that I could pick up on in the book, but the mere mention of Chinese names and ideas in English was enough to raise my guard, thanks to years and years of reading books by non-Chinese people that frequently rubbed me the wrong way, if not outright offended me.
It's never fun realizing that despite the massive effort you've spent decolonizing your reading practices, there are still (and may always be) parts of your brain that remain whitewashed.
Anyway. This is fun and frothy, and a welcome addition to the vampire- and faery-saturated landscape of YA fantasy. Also, although this book is standalone, Pon is working on a sequel/prequal. Also also, minor quibble, but every time the book used "Xian" to refer to denizens of the kingdom of Xia, I kept thinking it referred to the city of Xian/Xi'an.
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rachelmanija's review
I am stubbornly annoyed that a publisher had told Cindy Pon that "Asian fantasy doesn't sell," and I sincerely hope the book's sales are phenomenal. Also, I've heard one of the big chains didn't order it... if someone tells me which one, I will go place an order at my local one. I have also gotten one of my public libraries to buy it and am going to suggest it to my other two.
The book itself is extremely fun, although it suffers a little from flat prose. Ai Ling didn't stand out for me as a heroine, but she's your fairly average YA heroine: spunky, can-do, and nursing a secret crush. What made the book for me was the sheer exuberance of it. Not a chapter goes by without another monster or a lovingly described meal, and I love that Ai Ling's appetite is as voracious as mine. Clearly she notices the important things in life! I particularly liked the climax, which has Ai Ling figuring out how to rescue herself.
My favorite parts are probably when Ai Ling and hot guy Chen Yong go beyond the Kingdom of Xia and encounter increasingly odd and interesting beings and lands. Well, that and the food descriptions, of course!
When I began reading this book, I could not get into it. I had thought it was the prose, but halfway through, I came to the horrified realization that I had been steeling myself for exoticism and foreignness, despite the fact that I very much knew that the book was written by a Chinese person who knew something about Chinese culture. There had been no exoticism that I could pick up on in the book, but the mere mention of Chinese names and ideas in English was enough to raise my guard, thanks to years and years of reading books by non-Chinese people that frequently rubbed me the wrong way, if not outright offended me.
It's never fun realizing that despite the massive effort you've spent decolonizing your reading practices, there are still (and may always be) parts of your brain that remain whitewashed.
Anyway. This is fun and frothy, and a welcome addition to the vampire- and faery-saturated landscape of YA fantasy. Also, although this book is standalone, Pon is working on a sequel/prequal. Also also, minor quibble, but every time the book used "Xian" to refer to denizens of the kingdom of Xia, I kept thinking it referred to the city of Xian/Xi'an.
Links:
-
rachelmanija's review
(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 1st, 2009 08:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 8th, 2009 05:30 pm (UTC)