Book Review (1) for the first book in Joan He's Three Kingdoms duology, Strike The Zither.
author media; @joanhewrites on instagram.
1; introduction
Strike The Zither caught my attention because it is a retelling of the Chinese classic romance Three Kingdoms, and also because Joan He has many other great works I was seriously interested in. I ADORED this novel, and hold the two mc's characters in high regard expesually with the way their both written. tldr; order this book and read it :)
(pages: 368)
(release date: 11/01/22)
Personal Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰
- SYNOPSIS:
"The year is 414 of the Xin Dynasty, and chaos abounds. A puppet empress is on the throne. The realm has fractured into three factions and three warlordesses hoping to claim the continent for themselves.
But Zephyr knows it’s no contest.
Orphaned at a young age, Zephyr took control of her fate by becoming the best strategist of the land and serving under Xin Ren, a warlordess whose loyalty to the empress is double-edged—while Ren’s honor draws Zephyr to her cause, it also jeopardizes their survival in a war where one must betray or be betrayed. When Zephyr is forced to infiltrate an enemy camp to keep Ren’s followers from being slaughtered, she encounters the enigmatic Crow, an opposing strategist who is finally her match. But there are more enemies than one—and not all of them are human."
....spoiler territory for my review below.
- Review!:
First of all, I'd like to say all the characters in this novel have such a grasp on me, and Lotus is my favorite in the whole book <3.
In the start we're introduced to Zephyr, the mc, and immediately she comes off as the most arrogant strategist to live, and also one of the sweetest characters in the whole book. I actually envy her confident to always say "My plans will work out" In the first chapter you already get thrown into her situation in supporting the lesser lord Xin Ren, and we're also able to see her ways and means of helping the common people and her friends.
Quickly on, Zephry ends up in the enemy lordess' camp, Miasma, and feigns herself a traitor in an attempt to get close to her, she prepares for a lot of stuff here, but she never prepared meeting the second mc, Crow, the enemy strategist.
There's mostly mistrust between the two of them, but between the lines theres LOADS of yearning and pining. The two of them make an entertaining duo. (Expesually when Zephry admits her feelings in her head.)
Theres TONS. of shock factor in this book. Joan He doesnt disappoint there, and I refuse to go too deep into it. But I was constantly going "What? No way.." at the twists and trying to grab Crow by the throat lol.
All in all though, I cant wait to read Sound The Gong....
I can’t shake the feeling that Hua Cheng must’ve been so overwhelmed seeing the version of Dianxia he met on that ox cart. Like he would trust, support, and love even the darkest version of Xie Lian imaginable, but the one he ended up meeting, after everything, was gentle, sweet, adorable, delightfully silly, honest, and unguarded, ready to protect the old man driving the ox cart and share his steamed bun with a stranger.
Scenes from many gut-wrenching moments probably flashed before his eyes, yet here was his Dianxia, within reach. And they were just having a chat—not as a redacted and his redacted—just two people on a chance encounter on a beautiful autumn day. Hua Cheng’s heart must’ve felt so full that it was about to burst.
At the same time, he probably wanted so much more than having a casual conversation about the water tyrant. Imagine the amount of self-restraint he had to not just blurt out “where have you been??” “How have you been??” “Give me a list of people and creatures who have ever mistreated you in any way in the past 800 years…”
Has anybody else read this novel? I'm only about 12 chapters in and it's pretty enjoyable. It's a comedy so there's cultivation just for the sake of cultivation haha, very lvl999 max op type stuff, but it's funny and hasn't gotten old for me yet. Plus Wenren È is a pretty good protagonist. The only one that gets on my nerves so far is the FL; she deserves way better than He Wenzhou....
It's finally done! After one year of creating the original sketches, I finished this comic project!
I remember having a strong cinematic visual of this scene in my mind, where it's raining and Wei Wuxian is with his hair undone. And this is the outcome hehehe
I had so much fun with this! It was such a great experience to play with the expressions, the gestures, the movement, the angles. It was a learning experience for me.
I hope you enjoy the final piece as much as I enjoyed creating it!
What I really want is a sequel to BotW and TotK which is just side quests rebuilding Hyrule and the main boss is Zelda because Link forgot his dinner plans with her
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