Of Jade And Dragons by Amber Chen
Dec. 29th, 2024 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
First they killed my father.
Then they threatened my family.
Now I’m coming for them.
Aihui Ying’s life is viciously torn apart when her father is killed by a masked assassin. Left with only his journal and a jade pendant snatched from his killer, she vows to take her revenge.
Seeking answers, King infiltrates the prestigious Engineers Guild - the ancient institution home to her father’s secret past. With the help of an unlikely ally - Aogiya Ye-yang, the nation’s cold but distractingly handsome prince - she begins to navigate a world fraught with politics and treachery.
Soon though, Ying’s quest for vengeance turns into a fight for survival and she’ll have to stay one step ahead of everyone … if she’s to make it out alive.
Aihui Ying is the eldest daughter of Aihui Shan-jin, the widowed chieftain of the remote island of Huarin in the Antaran Isles. Shan-jin was a member of the prestigious Engineers Guild and Ying, who enjoys making her own inventions, wants to follow in his footsteps. But her wish comes true in the worst way possible when she comes home one day to find her dad being attacked in his workshop by a masked assassin. Too late to save her father’s life, Ying is determined to avenge his death and her only clues to finding out why he was killed and who did it are his journal and a jade pendant that she tore off the killer.
The Engineers Guild is located in the capital city of Fei but is only open to male applicants and all would-be apprentices have to pass a gruelling 6-month trial consisting of 3 tests all of which are designed to ensure that only the best are accepted. Although Ying is too late to have submitted her own application, she is fortunate to gain the support of Aogiya Ye-yang, one of the Antaran High Commander’s sons who has just been elevated to fourth beile (essentially the second most powerful people in the Isles and presumed heirs to the High Commander) who puts her forward as his chosen candidate.
Posing as her younger brother Min, Ying soon discovers that not only was her father a legend within the Guild but he was also a close ally of the High Commander thanks to his skill in developing weapons and airships that are vital to the conflict between the Antaran Isles and the neighbouring Great Jade Empire. Worse, the competition to secure a place in the Guild is fierce with each of the other 3 beiles having their own candidates who know that success will reflect well on their sponsors, especially as the High Commander himself is setting the final test. As Ying navigates the Guild and carries out her investigation, she finds herself growing closer to Ye-yang while learning that the capital’s deadly politics mean she’ll have to stay one step ahead of everyone else …
Amber Chen’s Chinese-inspired YA fantasy (the first in a duology) has interesting world-building and I liked the focus on engineering. However the pacing is inconsistent (especially in the final quarter), the plot relies heavily on things happening to Ying rather than her agency and her romance with Ye-yang is unconvincing, in part because Ye-yang is under-drawn as a character. That said, the ending is interesting and I would read the sequel.
I picked this book up because I’m always interested in fantasy fiction set in non-western worlds and so-called silkpunk has thrown up some interesting stories and rich world building. This book certainly comes through on the world building front. Chen has clearly put a lot of thought into constructing her Antaran Isles, its history, geography and its politics and I really enjoyed all of that.
Also good is the fact that this is a fantasy book with a focus on science and engineering and which also looks into the ethics of war engineering. It’s great to have a YA book where the female character has a passion for the subject and is also skilled in it but I liked how even so Ying struggles with the more formal elements of learning in the Engineers Guild. I could have done without the way Chen sets her up as being ‘not like other girls’ in the Antaran Isles by comparing her with her sister, who just wants to get married because I don’t think there’s actually anything wrong with that. Her coming-of-age storyline where she both learns about her father’s past and starts to feel attraction to Ye-yang is well drawn and believable. I also enjoyed the grudging friendship she develops with Ye-yang’s younger brother, the arrogant and rude but brilliant Ye-kan who wants to escape his role as a member of the High Commander’s family and have his own career as an engineer and would look forward to seeing this more in the sequel.
I know that romance is obligatory in YA fantasy these days but the relationship between Ying and Ye-yang never really worked for me. In part that’s because Ye-yang is not developed especially well on the page, he remains cold and distant and never really opens up to Ying or to the reader so it’s all very one-sided. This is a shame because had that been drawn more convincingly than the developments in the final chapters should have had much more heft than they did for me. It’s also not helped by the fact that the pacing - which is uneven throughout the book - suddenly speeds up with a lot of things happening in the final quarter and had it been allowed to breathe a bit more then for me it would have worked better.
For all the negatives, the book does have an interesting ending and one that does make me interested in finding out what happens to Ying next. On that basis, although this book didn’t fully work for me I would definitely be interested in checking out the sequel.
The Verdict:
Amber Chen’s Chinese-inspired YA fantasy (the first in a duology) has interesting world-building and I liked the focus on engineering. However the pacing is inconsistent (especially in the final quarter), the plot relies heavily on things happening to Ying rather than her agency and her romance with Ye-yang is unconvincing, in part because Ye-yang is under-drawn as a character. That said, the ending is interesting and I would read the sequel.
OF JADE AND DRAGONS was released in the United Kingdom on 20th June 2024. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Then they threatened my family.
Now I’m coming for them.
Aihui Ying’s life is viciously torn apart when her father is killed by a masked assassin. Left with only his journal and a jade pendant snatched from his killer, she vows to take her revenge.
Seeking answers, King infiltrates the prestigious Engineers Guild - the ancient institution home to her father’s secret past. With the help of an unlikely ally - Aogiya Ye-yang, the nation’s cold but distractingly handsome prince - she begins to navigate a world fraught with politics and treachery.
Soon though, Ying’s quest for vengeance turns into a fight for survival and she’ll have to stay one step ahead of everyone … if she’s to make it out alive.
Aihui Ying is the eldest daughter of Aihui Shan-jin, the widowed chieftain of the remote island of Huarin in the Antaran Isles. Shan-jin was a member of the prestigious Engineers Guild and Ying, who enjoys making her own inventions, wants to follow in his footsteps. But her wish comes true in the worst way possible when she comes home one day to find her dad being attacked in his workshop by a masked assassin. Too late to save her father’s life, Ying is determined to avenge his death and her only clues to finding out why he was killed and who did it are his journal and a jade pendant that she tore off the killer.
The Engineers Guild is located in the capital city of Fei but is only open to male applicants and all would-be apprentices have to pass a gruelling 6-month trial consisting of 3 tests all of which are designed to ensure that only the best are accepted. Although Ying is too late to have submitted her own application, she is fortunate to gain the support of Aogiya Ye-yang, one of the Antaran High Commander’s sons who has just been elevated to fourth beile (essentially the second most powerful people in the Isles and presumed heirs to the High Commander) who puts her forward as his chosen candidate.
Posing as her younger brother Min, Ying soon discovers that not only was her father a legend within the Guild but he was also a close ally of the High Commander thanks to his skill in developing weapons and airships that are vital to the conflict between the Antaran Isles and the neighbouring Great Jade Empire. Worse, the competition to secure a place in the Guild is fierce with each of the other 3 beiles having their own candidates who know that success will reflect well on their sponsors, especially as the High Commander himself is setting the final test. As Ying navigates the Guild and carries out her investigation, she finds herself growing closer to Ye-yang while learning that the capital’s deadly politics mean she’ll have to stay one step ahead of everyone else …
Amber Chen’s Chinese-inspired YA fantasy (the first in a duology) has interesting world-building and I liked the focus on engineering. However the pacing is inconsistent (especially in the final quarter), the plot relies heavily on things happening to Ying rather than her agency and her romance with Ye-yang is unconvincing, in part because Ye-yang is under-drawn as a character. That said, the ending is interesting and I would read the sequel.
I picked this book up because I’m always interested in fantasy fiction set in non-western worlds and so-called silkpunk has thrown up some interesting stories and rich world building. This book certainly comes through on the world building front. Chen has clearly put a lot of thought into constructing her Antaran Isles, its history, geography and its politics and I really enjoyed all of that.
Also good is the fact that this is a fantasy book with a focus on science and engineering and which also looks into the ethics of war engineering. It’s great to have a YA book where the female character has a passion for the subject and is also skilled in it but I liked how even so Ying struggles with the more formal elements of learning in the Engineers Guild. I could have done without the way Chen sets her up as being ‘not like other girls’ in the Antaran Isles by comparing her with her sister, who just wants to get married because I don’t think there’s actually anything wrong with that. Her coming-of-age storyline where she both learns about her father’s past and starts to feel attraction to Ye-yang is well drawn and believable. I also enjoyed the grudging friendship she develops with Ye-yang’s younger brother, the arrogant and rude but brilliant Ye-kan who wants to escape his role as a member of the High Commander’s family and have his own career as an engineer and would look forward to seeing this more in the sequel.
I know that romance is obligatory in YA fantasy these days but the relationship between Ying and Ye-yang never really worked for me. In part that’s because Ye-yang is not developed especially well on the page, he remains cold and distant and never really opens up to Ying or to the reader so it’s all very one-sided. This is a shame because had that been drawn more convincingly than the developments in the final chapters should have had much more heft than they did for me. It’s also not helped by the fact that the pacing - which is uneven throughout the book - suddenly speeds up with a lot of things happening in the final quarter and had it been allowed to breathe a bit more then for me it would have worked better.
For all the negatives, the book does have an interesting ending and one that does make me interested in finding out what happens to Ying next. On that basis, although this book didn’t fully work for me I would definitely be interested in checking out the sequel.
The Verdict:
Amber Chen’s Chinese-inspired YA fantasy (the first in a duology) has interesting world-building and I liked the focus on engineering. However the pacing is inconsistent (especially in the final quarter), the plot relies heavily on things happening to Ying rather than her agency and her romance with Ye-yang is unconvincing, in part because Ye-yang is under-drawn as a character. That said, the ending is interesting and I would read the sequel.
OF JADE AND DRAGONS was released in the United Kingdom on 20th June 2024. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
