Strike the Zither: 1 (Kingdom of Three)

Product Information

Joan He takes no prisoners, and STRIKE THE ZITHER is her latest triumph. An intricate, expansive epic...this book is as ambitious as its scheming, ruthless cast—and just like its narrator, delivers above and beyond." - Margaret Owen, author of The Merciful Crow series and Little Thieves My gaze cuts from Lotus to Cloud, Ren’s other swornsister. She’s helping evacuees farther up the muddy slope, her ultramarine cloak rich against the muted greens of the firs. Will be the talk of the empire. Think lots of drums and bellowing. Miasma’s generals ran so fast, you’d think we had a hidden force of ten thousand.” update: after 15 minutes of intense deliberation, i have come to the conclusion that i did not like this. inform the press. Please note that the arc is not final. While the story doesn't differ, during edits some language and translations from Chinese were changed to be more mindful of the English context in which they will be read. This will be reflected in the finished copy! Thank you for understanding <3

Strike the Zither Book Review | Common Sense Media Strike the Zither Book Review | Common Sense Media

Overall, I rate this book a 4/5. He writes an ambitious genderbent YA retelling of Strike the Zither that doesn’t shy away from the military and war aspects while introducing a wide cast of memorable characters. Theres’ a lot to love in this first book and I can’t wait for all the political intrigue of book two that the ending teases. Do something!” Lotus shouts at me. “Use your brain!” Her hair has frizzed into an impressive mane around her face, and she waves her ax as if she’s itching to use it. Crow as a mirror to Zephyr is fascinating. He’s the only one she sees as a rival (for now), and I loved reading about their dynamic. There’s also a hint of a romantic aspect that I believe we’ll see more in the sequel; the tension between them is thrilling! I can’t wait to see more of them, especially because of [redacted]. A kiss with biting lips that draws blood. One or two kisses not described in detail, and some mild romantic dynamics and attraction feelings of attraction. In a land torn by war, three warlordesses fight for control. Zephyr is a brilliant strategist, and she'll do whatever it takes to keep her lordess Xin Ren safe. With armies at their heels and resources thin, Zephyr's only choice is to infiltrate the enemy's ranks and destroy them from within. But when the enemy's strategist Crow appears, has she finally met her match?you know what we don't get enough in fantasy? girls who get along and work together to conquer the world. it's my favorite thing in the whole wide world. AND THIS??? A THREE KINGDOMS REIMAGINING BUT ALL GIRLS ?? SO PERFECT. almost every single person in power is a woman. SLAYYYY

Strike the Zither: Book Review – asia pacific arts Strike the Zither: Book Review – asia pacific arts

Wow I hated Zephyr so much. She is arrogant and yet the book gives us no reason to believe she is as brilliant as she is constantly claiming. They do as they’re told, scowling all the while. They love Ren for her honor, Cloud for her righteousness, Lotus for her spirit. My job is not to be lovable but to get every peasant off the mountain and into the town over, where Ren should already be waiting with the first wave of evacuees, the other half of our troops, and—hopefully—a boat passage south so that I can secure us some much-needed allies.

Dumb Muscle: Lotus is an excellent fighter, but she can't read and never quite understands any of Zephyr's elaborate plans. I had a little sneak peak at some of the illustrations of the characters at the start of the eARC too, but due to formatting they got a little bit jumbled up. BUT Joan shared a proper sneak peak here, and what can be better than a book with an awesome story, beautiful cover and even gorgeous illustrations inside?! Strike the Zither is a YA fantasy based on a classic Chinese epic called the Three Kingdoms, mixed with inspirations from some other Chinese stories. This novel employs the classic trope of “pretend you’re defecting so you can join the enemy’s side and gain intel and then use that to turn around and destroy them.” We’ve all seen that done before but it was still enjoyable to read about here for the most part. Wouldn’t help us. It’s not just Miasma we’re up against: Our own numbers are bogging us down. We must evacuate everyone, Ren said sternly when I suggested it was time we flee our current town for the next. Miasma will slaughter the commonfolk just for harboring us.

Strike The Zither (Literature) - TV Tropes Strike The Zither (Literature) - TV Tropes

do I need 3kingdoms knowledge to read the book? the short answer is that you do not; people like my editor with zero 3kingdoms knowledge have read the book and enjoyed it enough to publish it. the longer answer is that reading 3kingdoms may give you some additional context to certain story elements, such as the midpoint twist, which is my textual response to how Luo Guanzhong, the frequently accredited author of the classic, elevated real historical figures to characters of mythical proportions, with names such as Zhuge Liang looming large in the Chinese consciousness to this day. understandably, YMMV with the twist (here's why I chose to write it to the audience I did). If you are looking to get into the classic, I would highly recommend the abridged translation by Moss Roberts. It covers about 80% of the plots involving the main cast in a fraction of the words, compared to the 800k unabridged text. What’s in the setting doesn’t quite live up to what’s in the plot. Zephyr is a hard character to empathize with mostly because her attachment to Ku, her sister, seems shoveled in to add the aforementioned empathy. Her narrative voice isn’t truly three-dimensional. Even though readers hear that Zephyr is a strong strategist from others, her first-person point of view doesn’t really make a case for that. The first half of the novel has Zephyr emphasizing what goes into her strategist position without clearly examining the importance of her strategy-making processes or how they came to be. Following that, He throws readers into the story with such a fast momentum that it’s easy to become indifferent to Zephyr’s struggles.Blame me, or blame the heavens for placing us on different sides of this war. May we meet in another life."

Goodreads Loading interface - Goodreads

I found it hard to emotionally connect with any part of Strike the Zither. For some reason, I felt very distanced from the story, like a far-away viewer of unknown people rather than an active participant. I don’t feel like I know Zephyr that well, or anyone else for that matter. I wasn’t emotionally invested when betrayals or deaths or big events happened, and that saddened me.

This book contains examples of:

The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: When Zephyr is in Lotus' body, she has some thoughts that are more similar to Lotus' personality than Zephyr's own. She impulsively challenges Sikou Dun to a fistfight and is horrified afterwards, knowing that she would never have done that as Qilin. Exciting events, fascinating characters and exotic settings to stimulate the imagination of even the keenest fantasy readers.’ The book included a map and character art for four of the FMCs that were totally to die for! Not sure why we didn’t get character art for at least Crow as well, but whatever… Also the book gender bent everyone into women, which can do interesting things but even the soldiers were all women so I was just left wondering what all the men were up to.