A review by tome15
The True Queen by Zen Cho

4.0

Cho, Zen. The True Queen. Sorcerer Royal No. 2. Ace, 2019.
Malaysian fantasy author Zen Cho is a hot property. It has been five years since the first novel in this series appeared, and judging from the reviews, her readers thought the wait was worth it. But for me, the elements of this novel don’t quite come together. It begins well enough with the story of two sisters who suddenly appear on a fictional island, and who both suffer from amnesia. They are taken in by a local witch, who tells them someone has stolen something from them. One sister, Sakti, has an abundance of magical ability but is overconfident and self-absorbed. The other, Muna, lacks magical ability but is kind and self-sacrificing. Clearly, one sister needs to learn humility, and the other needs to gain self-confidence. I like the story arc that it produces, but then the plot starts. The witch sends them on a magical journey to London to discover who has stolen pieces of their souls. They arrive at a London that is a bit like Jane Austen’s world, except that there are dragons and other magical creatures masquerading in human form and an aristocracy rife with magicians and more racial and ethnic diversity than Jane Austen ever dreamed of. From here on the book adds genre tropes and punching prosocial buttons—critiquing discrimination based on race, class, and gender. The sisters’ coming of age story, the whimsical fairy world, and the Regency romance with its anachronistic social themes all too often get in each other’s way. Cho has a nice prose style and good command of the smaller elements of her narrative structure, so it is easy to see why her fans are drawn to her. 4 stars, but it is not for me.