wrote_and_writ

Here is a synopsis from the author's website:

Xue, a talented young musician, has no past and probably no future. Orphaned at a young age, her kindly poet uncle took her in and arranged for an apprenticeship at one of the most esteemed entertainment houses in the kingdom. She doesn’t remember much from before entering the House of Flowing Water, and when her uncle is suddenly killed in a bandit attack, she is devastated to lose her last connection to a life outside of her indenture contract.

With no family and no patron, Xue is facing the possibility of a lifetime of servitude playing the qin for nobles that praise her talent with one breath and sneer at her lowly social status with the next. Then one night she is unexpectedly called to the garden to put on a private performance for the enigmatic Duke Meng. The young man is strangely kind and awkward for nobility, and surprises Xue further with an irresistible offer: serve as a musician in residence at his manor for one year, and he’ll set her free of her indenture.

But the Duke’s motives become increasingly more suspect when he and Xue barely survive an attack by a nightmarish monster, and when he whisks her away to his estate, she discovers he’s not just some country noble: He’s the Duke of Dreams, one of the divine rulers of the Celestial Realm. There she learns the Six Realms are on the brink of disaster, and incursions by demonic beasts are growing more frequent.

The Duke needs Xue’s help to unlock memories from her past that could hold the answers to how to stop the impending war… but first Xue will need to survive being the target of every monster and deity in the Six Realms.

This book was a pretty fun read. It’s one of those books that, if I was a billionaire, I would pay for a lavish, 40-episode drama adaptation, with all the best CGI and costumes and actors and music. And I’d release it outside of China to get away from censors (there are some background gay couples, plus all the magic stuff).

I don’t have anything particularly insightful to say about the book. It’s a pretty straightforward fantasy novel steeped in Chinese mythology (although it’s not a direct adaptation of existing stories). I did think it was weird that it was shelved as a YA book, although Xue technically is a young adult -- she goes through her coming of age ceremony towards the beginning of the novel. If I recall correctly, Sue Lynn Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess is shelved in adult fantasy and I would say Xue and Xingyin (protagonist of DotMG) are pretty similar characters. Lin’s previous novels are also sold as YA, so maybe that’s just what her editors have decided is better for marketing. I only bring it up in case you decide to read this and have trouble finding it, or if you don’t like to read YA -- it’s really not YA, at least not as YA is presented. Anyway! It’s fun, the world building is interesting, and I enjoyed reading this.