Reviews

Strike the Zither by Joan He

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islandbookwyrm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

khakipantsofsex's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

3.5

Content Warnings

wanderinglynn's review against another edition

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adventurous

3.75

This is not my favorite book Joan He. But she can certainly write a page-turning story full of politics, found family, war, strategy, intrigue, and action.

Some of my struggle with this book is the pacing. The first half of the book is fast paced. I started reading chapter one and thought I had accidentally picked up book 2 because it drops you in the middle of the action. I hung on and the story evened out so that I understood the world and the action occurring. Also, the hardcover edition has character art and maps, which was helpful especially during the first few chapters when I was trying just to hang on.

But . . .

At the half-way point, there's a plot twist and the story takes a sharp right turn. That twist slows down the pacing enormously. In fairness (and without giving anything away), it makes sense but that doesn't lessen the jarring nature. And of course, because this is a duology, book 1 ends with not so much a cliff hanger as a different kind of twist.

This is a book that, at it's heart, is based on politics.

I'm getting ready to dive into book 2. So for now, I'll leave my rating at 3.75 stars because I do like Joan He's writing.

tales_of_a_bookbug's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It's been a while since a fantasy book wow-ed me like this but I'm very happy about this one!🤩 There's nothing I could love more than a calculating and arrogant protagonist in my books! I'm a Zephyr fangirl now 😆 I also love sickly love interests so that was an added bonus!⁣
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This one is a genderbent reimagining of Three Kingdoms set in a realm with many warring factions and Zephyr is the strategist for Xin Ren, a warlordess with her own set of principles. Zephyr is determined to win the war for her, even if it means that she'll have to pretend to betray her while infiltrating their enemy Miasma's camp. She also wants to secure some alliances for Ren and is ready to make some sacrifices for it. But things don't always go according to plan, do they? And Miasma's strategist Crow seems to see right through her and he has some surprises hidden up his sleeve(pocket?😂)⁣
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I loved the writing and the characters in this one! Zephyr(one of her many sobriquets) is a multifaceted character with her arrogance, intelligence and talents. She's quite ruthless at times - to herself and others, but her loyalty to Ren is unshakable and that makes her very interesting! I also loved Ren and her swornsisters - Lotus, Cloud and Tourmaline. They were all very different in character and in their relationship with Zephyr too(varying from like to dislike) but they have such close knit bonds!⁣
There was constant action and the political intrigue had me turning the pages! There were some nice twists in the second half and towards the end too! The hints of romance with Crow had me smiling but I'm hesitant to hope for more as I don't know how things will work out in book two after that ending. Safe to say, I'm very excited to read Sound The Gong now!⁣
Also, love the character illustrations and artwork in the paperback version!❣️✨

charvi_not_just_fiction's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I blame Joan for writing mindblowing books that always leave me out of commission for a couple of days... review coming at some point

* * *

"Honor is defending what you can't bear to lose. It's fighting for a family that can't help you."

Strike the Zither is a fascinating retelling of The Three Kingdoms that delves deep into politics, relationships and war. You don't need to read the original, (I certainly didn't and don't intend to) you'll still get a wonderful experience.

I absolutely adore Zephyr! She is such a different protagonist. Arrogant, confident, proud and sure of her abilities to manipulate others and the circumstances to get what she wants, which in this case is seeing Ren's victory. You'd think I'd get annoyed by her after some point but I was just in awe of her. When I say I was ready to worship her, I truly mean it.
Zephyr is dedicated to her lordess Ren who she sees as a sister and friend and will go to any lengths for her, even when Ren might not agree. It was so interesting to see the dynamics between Ren, Zephyr, Cloud and Lotus. I think Lotus was one of my favourites, her loud, boisterous and straightforward warrior personality is infectious and hard not to like. While Cloud might be less friendly, over the course of the story we see that she truly has her swornsisters' interests at heart and you can't help but like her for that. And then there's Ren, who wants to lead the others with compassion, honour and love. Literally, she's such a nice character sometimes I'm yelling at her to get the tiniest bit more ruthless because how else is one supposed to reach their goals in this cruel world?

Nobody does strategies and politics better than Joan He. As Ren's strategist, Zephyr plots to help her get a hold of the Southerlands and invade Miasma by staging a betrayal and pretending to join Miasma's side. Which is where she meets Crow, the only strategist who can really rival her. It was fascinating to see the mind games being played between the two and generally by Zephyr as she ruthlessly cuts everything and everyone who stands in her way, plotting and double-crossing throughout the narrative when needed.

I'm holding back so much because like any typical book by Joan He, this one is filled with plot twists that will make you gasp and chuck the book to the other corner of the room. All I'll say is you simply won't be able to stop reading from Act 2 onwards.

The writing is beautiful and lyrical, I love the poetry bridging the gaps between the acts and the descriptions of the zither and its music. Also, I totally see the hype behind Crow. He's such a gentleman and you can clearly tell he's gone for Zephyr which is why the slow-burn can really be excruciating sometimes.

So I don't know if this review was helpful in any way to make you decide to pick this book up but all I can say is this won't leave you disappointed.
I love this book with all my heart and now that I finally have my review up I'm gonna go read the sequel :D

isc's review against another edition

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2.0

WARNING: spoiler-filled rant below

Ok, so I really wanted to like this book. I’ve been getting into Chinese literature/mythology over the last couple of years and have consumed my fair share of Xianxia novels, so when I heard this was a genderbent version of the Three Kingdoms, I was instantly intrigued. However, the story itself was just so aggressively YA at times it felt like it detracted from the material, Iike: “Bet you’ve never been fan-slapped.” Hello?? That’s the sentence that almost made me DNF after only 4 chaps…But I stuck with it…so please enjoy my numbered list of nitpicks.

1. I didn’t understand why some names were translated and some not…like we have characters like Xin Ren and Xin Bao and then everyone else is Lotus, Cloud, Crow, etc?? It just added to the aggressive YA vibe I was not jiving with. Would have vastly preferred “Huang Lianzi” over Lotus.

2. The pacing is sooo fast, like we barely get to see Xin Ren and her sworn sisters before ohhh Zephyr is defecting. And then we barely spend any time on that before she’s back with them. Like I’m not seeing how Zephyr has any emotional connection with these people?? ESP BC SHE’S SUPPOSED TO BUILD A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH CROW during her time with Miasma?? I think this story would have benefited from being significantly longer so these different settings and characters have time to breathe, and when Zephyr has these moments of conflict, they hold more emotional weight.

3. The thing with Crow needs its own bullet point. Like they barely interact… HE POISONS HER, and she legit has feelings for him?? Listen, I love a good enemies to lovers—him poisoning her (even though it came out of nowhere) was honestly a point in their favor because part of the appeal of the trope for me is seeing how two characters can go from borderline murderous to unwaveringly devoted, but something like that requires multiple books…not 100 pgs?? There were some sweet moments in the latter half, but they didn't feel earned. The whole thing was so quick that I thought one of them/both of them were faking their attraction bc Strategy but nope?? Ok whatever.

I have other things I could rant about (the whole bodyswap thing, the confusing worldbuilding, etc.) but this review is already too long. Suffice to say, I won't be picking up the sequel.