Review – Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Rise of the Empress, Book 1) by Julie C. Dao (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Philomel Books
Release Date: October 10, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-1524738297
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Rise of the Empress series
Source: Owlcrate
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her.
Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng’s majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high? Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins–sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute.”
This is the first book in the Rise of Empress series. This is the first book in a duology, the second book “Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix” just released and is set some time after this book and features different characters. This was a good Asian themed YA fantasy. The world-building is well done and the characters are intriguing (if not very likable).
The story is mainly about Xifeng who is a young woman that has been told by her aunt for many years that she is destined for greatness. When Xifeng leaves her aunt behind and sets off on this journey she will stop at nothing to make her supposed destiny a reality.
This story was a bit like watching a train wreck. You know right from the beginning Xifeng is going to make one bad decision after another. Xifeng is steadfast in her belief that she is making the right decisions for long-term goals, even is her subconscious occasionally bothers her a bit. Still, despite Xifeng being a selfish and unlikable heroine, I was strangely drawn into this story.
I just couldn’t help wondering how bad things were going to get and how far to the darkside Xifeng would go. This is a very dark, very intriguing fantasy that I ended up enjoying. I always find fantasies from a more villainous perspective to be fascinating. It’s always curious to watch how “evil” heroines justify their actions and end goals.
This story does end a bit abruptly, especially considering that this is the “end” of Xifeng’s story. I found the end a bit jarring and was disappointed to find out that “Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix” doesn’t feature Xifeng.
Overall this was a good read and I enjoyed it. It’s well written, the world-building is well done and the characters are intriguing (if unlikable). If you enjoyed this book and are looking for another series with a quasi-evil main lead I would recommend Kiersten White’s Conqueror’s Saga as well. I don’t plan on reading the companion novel, mainly because I wasn’t intrigued enough with this world to keep reading about it. I also didn’t like how evil and conniving a lot of these characters were (even thought it was somewhat fascinating).
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
