Daughter of the Empire

Daughter of the Empire, by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts

Publisher: Harper Voyager.

Publication date: First published May 19, 1987 - Epub edition 2012.
Category: Political fantasy novel

Setting: Alien Japanese/ Chinese country)

Source: I spotted book two, Servant of the Empire, in my local newsagent and had a read of the blurb. I was intrigued and went looking for the first book.

Under the green tinged sun of an alien world called Kelewan, Mara listens as the gong counts away her life as the daughter of the Acoma, at its end she will be made a servant of Lashima, Goddess of the inner light.

The ceremony is sharply halted by a harsh urgent cry of a man she has known since birth. Keyoke, the Acoma force commander is seen rushing up the stoned pathway towards her, grave news is given quickly prohibiting the now last living heir of the Acoma to undertake the vows that would bind her to the temple.

Mara must now bring her house back from the brink of destruction and does so with advisers Keyoke and Nacoya by her side, she overcomes immediate destruction of Acoma and bends tradition to enlist a strong force of grey warriors (masterless soldiers who had fallen from honour) to her curse. Not yet at full strength and still at risk from enemies, Mara’s learns of a new Cho-ja queen and bargains with the art-like creature and persuades it to move onto her lands with warriors that will ensure Mara’s houses survival. She endures the suit of a lesser enemy’s youngest son to ensure the Acoma name has an heir, and then she manages to dispose of her greatest foe in his own impregnable stronghold by the book’s end.

Daughter of the Empire took my breath away, the depth and twisting turns of the political slash fantasy novel had me enthralled.

Set in a world with many six legged creatures, and a man sized intelligent ant-like race, subservient to the Tsuranuanni Empire and its Lords.

For me it reads like a manga, for I imagine an Asian styled race that will do anything for honour of their house and name.

Mara’s character is to me spellbinding as she turns from frightened girl forced to grow up fast into a ruling lady of an ancient house. Mara is right away under attack from the Acoma’s ancient rivals the Minasawai whom have orchestrated the deaths of her father and brother during the Riftwar.

Despite its age this book is wonderful, and so is it’s sequels. The Empire trilogy will keep you enthralled for many days.

Love The Otaku Bookworm.

The Kinslayer

By Jay Kristoff

This review comes late and apologise for this but I have been a slave to another trilogy I started and quickly finished after I finished this book. My last post reviewed the Storm dancer the first book of the lotus wars series. I now review its sequel. The Kinslayer the second of the Lotus wars series.

In the after mass of The Stormdancer our heroin Yukiko has fallen into a deep desperation brought on by the fate of her beloved father, as a result her powers are spiraling out of control and she struggles to come to terms of the maelstrom of events that she and her Thunder tiger Buruu have just survived. Realising her powers are getting more out of control with her unstable moods Yukiko and Buruu must journey north in search of answers. Waylaid for most of the duration of the book Yukiko and Buruu find themselves dancing a deadly dance against tattooed monks, foreigners and Thunder tigers who all have their own agenda.

Meanwhile back into Shima the empire has been thrown into chaos and the only way to calm the waters and stifle the rebellion after the Shōgun’s death is to name the new Shōgun.

Hiro, the man that once seeked the hand of the stormdancer is now trapped in a political game to place him at the head of the empire. Set to wed the surviving sister Ashia of the Shōgun Yoritomo. Ashia daily wishes that she had been allowed to die after the beating her brother had given her. All the while the rebellion the Kage organization have set in motion with help of Yukiko, is now poised to attack the capital city with hopes to disrupt and maybe destroy the up and coming wedding to make Hiro Shōgun.

We meet new characters in the form of street rats Hana and Yoshi brother and sister who have lived and fought on the streets of the imperial city for most of their lives, both have been hiding a great secret all of their lives, like Yukiko the siblings can communicate with animals and this aids to their survival thus far in the brutal dance of the streets.

This book is brutal in its last few chapters Yoshi and Hana are swept up with the fight for rebellion against the guild and the Shōgun’s men, whilst they run for their lives from the Yakuza. At the end we are left wanting more answers and feel cheated for not having had more Buruu and Yukoki fighting against the wedding and aiding the rebels.

I loved the Siblings Yoshi (Mario brothers) and Hana (Can you get a more generic Japanese girls name?) but in my otauku heart of hearts, I loved the names and the ties I made with the characters through them. Allowing for them to be what they were and wanting more chapters surrounding Yoshi his lover and his kid sister who took up what I thought was Yukiko’s space whist she was off finding herself.

I wait for the next book with bated breath and just hope Jay Kristoff will be more gentle to our favourite characters… or maybe not *evil grin* And loving every second of it.

Love The Otaku Bookworm.

The Stormdancer

By Jay Kristoff

I have finished two books recently and started a new trilogy by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts, but today I review the first of the Lotus wars series.

For the last few weeks I have been tearing up the sky’s over the red lotus fields of the Shima Imperium, a Japanese-steam-punk-like country steeped in the pollution of Blood Lotus. A wonderfully versatile plant which Shima’s lower inhabitants are forced to grow to make medicines, poisons and more importantly the fuel to run the higher classes machines.

Jay Kristoff spins an interestingly unique third person perspective tale with an odd mix of steam punk meets feudal Japan with a sprinkle of Western medieval mythology in the shape of a griffin or as the story introduces it as an Asashitora roughly translated into thunder tiger.

Our heroine Yukiko Katsune is the daughter of the Black Fox Masaru loyal servant to the Shogun, and one that is tainted with the ability to talk mind to mind with animals.

Her father is tasked with an impossible mission to hunt and capture a live Asashitora, long thought extinct. The Shogun has dreamt of a victorious battle where he rides this magical creature whilst commanding his armies to crush the barbarian hordes of the west. 

The hunt is on and they end up finding the animal high in the last wild lands alongside a huge mountain range not yet claimed by lotus farms. There on the deck of an airship Yukiko, her father and a crew of hard navel men find and fight the Asashitora within the heart of a thunderstorm. The airship comes off second best, but only after the Master Huntsman has inaccurately sedated the animal and clipped its wings. Appalled at her father’s actions towards the animal, Yukiko frees it from the cage it has been imprisoned in as the sky ship falls from the sky. In a desperate attempt she grabs a hold of the animal and they manage to glide to safely. 

On the ground but in the company of a creature more likely to kill her then protect her Yukiko must gain the thunder tigers trust and even friendship as they battle they’re way through starvation, reluctant allies and powerful enemies set on enslaving or killing them. They return to the city of the shogun after learning from their new found allies terrible truth of the Blood Lotus, they position themselves to strike the power house of Shima itself, but can a flightless Asashitora and one girl topple an evil overload and escape with their lives?

The Stormdancer was an enjoyable read easy read, although lacking a depth I’m used to in my reading books, it read like an anime and kept me vividly engrossed, I think Otaku’s out there will enjoy it as much as I did. I loved the language which at the start was a bit weird to see the odd Japanese word thrown in but overall I think that’s what added to the character of the story and added to the enjoyment of reading this book.

Love The Otaku Bookworm.

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak



Last week I walked Nazi Germany’s war riddled streets besides the Grim Reaper himself, as he narrated the spell-binding story of the Book Thief. To begin with it was slightly hard to follow but as Death introduces himself and the cast, he sucks us in with his summery of the story. Speaking with a wonderfully witty first person perspective, Death smoothly slips into a third person perspective for the main body of the book.

This all entices the reader and with the short explanation in the beginning you find yourself clinging to the side of the book hungering to learn what waits in the gaps between what Death has slyly told you and the bombs falling from overhead.

We follow through deaths narrative the life of Liesel, a little girl who picks up a book dropped by a gravedigger at her brother’s funeral. The siblings had been on the way to be fostered by the Hubermann’s when he slips into Deaths arms on an overcrowded train. Liesel now alone she meets her new papa who is a man with an accordion heart and her new mama, a woman who cloaks her caring soul within a thunder storm personality. With help of her new papa and the Jew hiding beneath their basement’s stairs, they slowly teach Liesel the power of the written word, and what it means to have your own mind in Nazi Germany before and during the second world war.

I have never before read one of Markus Zusak’s books but after this story with its beautifully playful use of language and the heart and soul of humanity cradled within a Grim reaper grasp, I will totally be looking out for more of Markus Zusak’s works in the future.

If you are thinking of watching the movie, then do so but just remember the book has so much more in it than can be fitted into 2-3 hours’ worth of film. The characters mean more to you after you meet them through the pages of this story. Whilst you only see small snippets of characters through the film and do not get as attached to them as you are meant too.

I hope you enjoyed this first review.


Love The Otaku Bookworm.