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A review by bingsoojung
Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen
3.75
I received an ARC of this book for free from netgalley and the publisher.
I really liked this book to be honest. The main character of this book was delightfully headstrong, the romance was romancing in the right way, the tension was good, the standard 3 act tournament arc was paced delightfully, and the murder was devious in the right way that made you feel like you were gaining ground, but not enough to solve it quite yet. I also really enjoyed the deviousness and capriciousness of some characters, and the careful line the author toed in writing a genuinely Morally Grey Love Interest TM who you can adore. The goods of this book far outweigh any of the bads, and I would unquestionably recommend this book for someone looking for a good light fantasy read.
That being said I had 3 gripes with the book, going from least annoying to most. This doesn’t meant the least annoying isn’t the worst, it just means it annoyed me the least.
I really liked this book to be honest. The main character of this book was delightfully headstrong, the romance was romancing in the right way, the tension was good, the standard 3 act tournament arc was paced delightfully, and the murder was devious in the right way that made you feel like you were gaining ground, but not enough to solve it quite yet. I also really enjoyed the deviousness and capriciousness of some characters, and the careful line the author toed in writing a genuinely Morally Grey Love Interest TM who you can adore. The goods of this book far outweigh any of the bads, and I would unquestionably recommend this book for someone looking for a good light fantasy read.
That being said I had 3 gripes with the book, going from least annoying to most. This doesn’t meant the least annoying isn’t the worst, it just means it annoyed me the least.
- The world felt hollow. I honestly didn’t get a sense of any distinct nature of any of the kingdoms or of the world. No nation, culture, or group, was particularly distinct in nature, I couldn’t figure out what was supposed to allow me to tell them apart. This was most apparently in that I didn’t realise that the setting of the book was fantasy Malaysia/Singpore politically and Manchurian culturally, until about half way through. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the main character is called Anhui Ying, and that Anhui is a real place in Northern China, and not a surname in Chinese.
- A lot of the characters didn’t feel their age. Despite the fact that Ying and Ye-Yang are apparently a year apart, and Ye-Kan is years younger than Ying, it didn’t feel that way. Ying and Ye-Kan felt the same age, whereas Ye-Yang felt quite a bit older. Like I wish the author had done a better job of making the characters feel their age.
- The author needed to explain that A-ma/ama/ahma means dad in Manchu. This was the most confusing thing for me personally, as in most Chinese languages ahma means grandma or mom, including all major Chinese languages spoken in Singapore, where the author is from. Just a note would've been so appreciated because I didn't understand what was happening.
TLDR; A fantastic book that, personally, didn’t quite hit. I would recommend this for anyone who really wants people to recognize that China invented gunpowder, and write a fantasy novel around that. That being said, parts of the book left me incredibly confused, especially her calling her dad a-ma. All in all a 7/10 rounded up for very good feelings.