I should have loved this book. The concept is great. Lan's character should be great. The world should be right up my street. But this book fells so short. I had zero attachment to the characters. The world building was lacking. The magic was...boring. Who these magic could be boring. Really disappointing and 100% a case that you should never judge a book by its cover.

DNF at 6%
It felt info dumpy and didn't pull me in. Ultimately I wasn't the intended audience. The metal magic system was reminiscent of Brandon Sanderson but it didn't work here.

Very beautiful cover but ultimately I couldn't invest.
While Zhao tries to mimic traditional xianxia, she fails to capture their essence, leading the book to read like a pale imitation

I found it quite hard to get into this book initially, feeling quite lost and confused. It is heavy on world-building and the magic system. Once I felt like I had grasped a better understanding, I was captured. The story is fascinating and refreshing, it had good pacing and enough twists to keep you hooked.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the characters, I wasn't able to connect with them nor was I overly interested in their development. However I do acknowledge it may be the mood I was in, and would want to give this book another go later on.

My rating is for the story and feeling like I wasn't ready to appreciate it

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to read this beautiful book. I couldn't put this book down. Complex, beautiful and addictive

Recommended for those who love a fun mythology retelling and those who are fans of Asian folklore. A great read

I usually enjoy these kinds of stories but i wasnt entirely sold this one really i liked the idea of this story but everything felt over explained and over described and i wasnt wholly sold on the main characters relationship either i found it hard to be invested

I really wanted to read this when I read the synopsis and went into this expecting epic fantasy based on Chinese lore with … dragons?

The prologue with the history sucked me in and made me think this would be more serious and grounded than your typical YA. Some aspects of the book support this - we have themes of colonialism and conquest. Power and hope for the disenfranchised, with our characters being willing to go to any lengths to survive. The rest of it however is pure YA fluff.

The plot is a little topsy turvy and the characters make some very odd questionable decisions with very obvious results. The world building is great but character development needs a bit more work, which I’m expecting to see in the next book. I really liked the main characters Lan and Zen but there’s a rather annoying thing of lack of communication amongst all the characters until it’s too late - which naturally makes for some very poor decision making.

Overall - giving it a 3.5. Will definitely be reading the next book.

If you enjoy mythological inspired YA with intricate world building and brilliant character development, Song of Silver, Flame Like Night is out on Thursday. Thank you to @netgalley and @harpervoyager_uk for the e-arc!

Holy forking shirtballs, this book was amazing. I was immersed right from the start and once I started, I could not put it down! I defo need to read more from this author, I just loved their writing style!

Listen, I requested this based on the cover and the cover alone. It’s STUNNING, I’m still eating it up. I did not pick this up because it was being compared to “The Poppy War” or because of the author’s Instagram marketing. However, had I known that THIS was being compared to the goddess’s R.F. Kuang’s Poppy War trilogy, I might have just ended up rating this -1 star, who knows?

The thing is: the first chapter had me hooked all right. 20-year-old Lan works as a songgirl – a sex worker in anything but name – in a teahouse in Haak’gong, one of the kingdom’s biggest cities, which along with the rest of the country, has been under Elantian – foreign invaders from across the ocean – rule for 12 years. While she isn’t content with her life, she tries to make the best out of it, all the while always being on the lookout for information about her mother, who was brutally murdered when Lan was eight, and the mysterious scar on her arm which she has had ever since that horrible night.

Initial exposition: fine. Everything after chapter 1?? Not so fine. Here’s where the novel fell apart into tiny pieces because enter Zen, or as I like to call him: info dump. The readers being as clueless as Lan about the secret art of practioning (she’s just so helpless and naïve, see), we need a strong manly man to help us understand what’s going on. Info dump will give you exactly that. Suddenly the whole concept of practioning, how yin and yang work, EVERYTHING needs to be explained in the first few chapters. I usually hate being spoon-fed, but in this case, I would have preferred it instead of having a whale-sized bucket of information dumped out over my head. Spoon-feeding it is!!!!!

Let’s now take a look at our two main protagonists who are your usual run-of-the-mill “speshuuuul” girl and a dark, handsome boy. If it wasn’t 9.30 am right now, I’d deliver my usual hate-filled tired reader monologue of how originality in YA novels is dead and how somewhere there seems to be a hidden factory all YA authors have access to, producing the exact same type of male love interest on a conveyor line that is then shipped off to and put into every book published nowadays, BUT it IS 9.30 in the morning, so I’ll restrict myself to giving you the basic rundown of “info dump” and “speshuul girl” because you should know what you’re getting yourself into:

Lan, aka “our speshuuul” girl, is NOT PRETTY! She is too scrawny, the Teahouse’s Madam took one look at her and “declared that she wouldn’t be wasting any fine cloth on a ‘curbside fox.’” She is just different from the other songgirls – she knows she isn’t as pretty!!

Idk why we keep on continuing with this trend, but it needs to fucking die. I swear, the only reason female main characters are never explicitly written as beautiful is not to alienate the “glasses-wearing, nerdy, lowkey ugly, not-very-special girls” who “see themselves” as the MC. It’s 2023, get a fucking grip on yourself. We can handle beautiful main characters, no need to write them as “oh, but she wasn’t as pretty as the other girls” which is SO FUNNY because even though the author tries so hard telling us how Lan isn’t conventionally attractive, every man she meets tells her she is! Within the first few chapters, there are 3!! Elantian men saying how pretty she is, immediately proceeding to want to r*pe her. Women aren’t even safe in fictional spaces, I love it here.

Anyway, after complicatedly telling us that Lan isn’t pretty but she is (if she weren’t, the male MC wouldn’t immediately be attracted to and mesmerised by her), she meets Zen when she “catch[es] sight of someone tall, someone dark, before she crashe[s] headfirst into that someone. (…) “Forgiveness.” A black-gloved hand darted to her waist to steady her, the other catching the edge of her tray (…) “I didn’t mean to startle you.” A voice, lovely and deep as velvet midnight (…)”

Forgive ME but I thought we had left that shit in our Wattpad phases, how you are still putting it in books to this day, make it make sense?
If I didn’t know where this paragraph was from, I could easily mistake it for being from a Harry Styles/Reader fanfic in which reader is an unassuming, but pretty!! girl waiting a party to supplement her pocket money, only that the party she is waitressing at is hosted by Harry Styles, whom she promptly runs into because she is so clumsy, only for him to catch her at the waist, securing the tray with the cocktail glasses… Tell me I’m lying, the only thing missing is “ELLO LUV”.

But Zen isn’t Harry Styles, instead, he is “the most startingly beautiful man Lan had ever set eyes on. A tangle of midnight hair, cropped short (…), spilled over a slim, chiseled face like ink on porcelain. Eyes the gray of smoke, framed by straight black brows, tilted with the slightest edge of insolence – a portrait completed by an insouciant curve of a mouth…”
…
…
Your honour, I rest my case.

As you can already tell from those two paragraphs: this novel’s prose is lyrical. I like my prose to be as nicely written and smooth-flowing as the next person, but it has to stop somewhere. The metaphors and similes have to make some sense for me to enjoy them.

“His eyes held a playfulness like a dusting of stars.”
Okay.

“Those eyes snapped across her like black lightning.”
I always thought it was called lightning because it’s a verbal noun from lightnen “make bright” but okay, black lightning it is.

“His gaze was as sharp as a black blade.”
Ah, I see, a black blade, because a *thinks very hard for 2 seconds* white blade isn’t as sharp as a black one, got it.

“He found her looking at him, gaze bright as black pebbles.”
Tell me I’m not the only one losing my marbles here??? No, wait, I think I got it: the trick is to take one adjective that has to do either with “brightness” or “darkness” + a noun that is inherently aesthetic like “blade” or… “pebbles”??

“Something cut through the air with the swiftness and sharpness of a blade. Zen moved in a kiss of metal (…)”
I, too, want to be kissed by a blade if only for these quotes to stop tormenting me.
…

And one of my favourites out of all those:
“If you’re not with me, then you are against me.”
Okay, Anakin Skywalker dupe.

All in all, there was nothing in this novel that either held my attention or was able to excite me. I didn’t care for the one-dimensional characters, the world-building sucked because we got so little of it except for the art of practioning and the Elantians’ use of metal magic which some reviewers have noted seems like a rip-off of Sanderson’s The Final Empire series. I fell asleep over this one too many times to rate this any higher. Not that the book was offensive, but I was BORED. I was APPALLED by the tropes used, weirdly bemused by the comical writing, and left indifferent by the novel’s plot twists and character deaths.

PASS.


Original review: The Poppy War ran so this could… crawl??

In a fallen kingdom, Lan lives and works at a teahouse, performing as a song girl for the Elantian colonisers. Every free moment she devotes to the investigation of a strange mark left on her skin by her mother on the day the invading soldiers killed her. Then, a mysterious boy visits the teahouse and recognises her as a practitioner of a powerful forbidden magic...

Reading this novel was an immense pleasure. The book is full of action, magic, secrets, intrigues and fascinating characters. Upon leaving the teahouse, Lan and Zen embark on a journey, investigating the mystery of Lan’s heritage, the forgotten magical art practised by her mother and growing closer to each other. Yes, there is also romance in this novel. Fortunately, the romantic theme does not overtake the plot but adds to the captivating storyline.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night is based on Chinese myths and folklore. I loved the world created by the author. It reminded me of some of the other stories inspired by the Asian mythology I read last year, but it still was fresh and original. Some ideas seemed vaguely familiar but were always presented with a unique twist.

I recommend this book to all fans of fantasy and novels based on Asian mythology.

This started off as such a good book, and it steadily went downhill. I didn't feel anything between the two characters, I didn't get any character development, she didn't even spend any time in classes yet she can suddenly do magic perfectly... Of course her mother was someone everyone loved and was super powerful, and of course she has super powerful rare magic that no one else has. I have no interest in the sequel

SONG OF SILVER, FLAME LIKE NIGHT is an epic duology started about a war to regain a country from its colonisers, but the source of power that might best help free their home comes with devastating cost.

It is an action packed book exploring a lot of the country and full of desperate fights to survive. It's nice and pacy, but with sweet or devastating character moments among all the motion. it was a nicely done balance and the attraction between the two narrators Lan and Zen is such a tiny part of the book (which I really liked!)

There are three magic systems in this book - that of the Hin seals, the demons (which could be considered part of the same as the Hin seals), and the magic-based one of the colonisers. They're all really clear and easy to understand, especially the costs of the Hin seals and the demons (as those are the two used by the narrators.) I personally think that magic systems can be some of the hardest things to create and explain, but I was impressed by how well it was explained here.

This book is deeply rooted in Xianxia genre of Chinese epics, which means characters' actions are underpinned by cultural concepts and norms that I wasn't always familiar with (like types of important relationships.) However, it was so easy so follow along and understand them, even with my knowledge gap, because the book has these really succinct, almost invisible explanations of said concepts.

The ending definitely makes me want to read the next book. It very much comes under the "disasters have broken the world as the main characters know it, fracturing their allies and reducing their support" sort of duology first book ending. It's not a cliff-hanger in the sense of an unresolved question - you know who is where and what the threats are, so if has some resolution feeling. However, there is certainly a need for the next book, to find out if they can defeat their enemies.

In a world colonised by Elantians, and magic only known to them, we follow Lan as she uncovers the secret of her past, and the way of her future.
I really enjoyed this book! It was an interesting magic system and a good story. However similar to other books ive read it felt a little bit too fetch questy, and some of the characters felt very shallow. I also didn’t enjoy the romance storyline as it felt a little rushed. The writing also felt a bit clunky at times.
However it is a really interesting world, and I look forward to the next book to see how it evolves.

Amélie Wen Zhao writes gripping and intriguing fantasy stories and this one is excellent.
It kept me hooked and i was fascinated by the world building, the characters, and the well developed plot.
It's a treat, read it
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Whether you're a fantasy fanatic or just like to dip your toe in, you need to read this!

I was swept away by this fast-paced fantasy saga, and gobbled it up in three days! If the second part of the duology was out, I would have dived straight into that too. It is definitely a contender for my top book of the year.

Amélie Wen Zhao wanted to tell her Grandmother's story; that of the start of 20th century China; the unravelling of the Qing reign, and the invasion of the West, all through a lens of fantasy and magic.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night is full of Demon Gods and magic, sage wisdom, and great heart. What gave it great depth of emotion for me was Zhao's masterful rendering of the destruction of colonialism and empire, as well as loss and grief - of family and friends, of a people, a culture, and a way of life. How do you survive?

I loved the two main characters; so different, and yet so similar. I enjoyed the very different personalities among the wide cast of characters, and felt their many different responses to trauma and loss. I admired the philosophical thoughts on power and balance too.

Finally, let's admire the beautiful cover design! This was my first read by Amélie Wen Zhao and now I need to go and read everything she has ever written!

This book starts with lots of puzzles. Our mc is an orphan song-girl working in a tea house seeking answers for her mother’s death (murder) and the mysterious seal on her left wrist which her mom gave it to her before taking her last breath.

She doesn’t recognise the characters in the seal but there’s isn’t much help she could find to solve it. With Elantians trailing after everyone practising Hin “magic”, it is difficult for Lan to seek answers.

Elantians, the colonisers, wield metal magic to suppress the natives and to strengthen their King’s hold in the country. They hunt Hin practitioners to either become their lab rats/lackey or to be killed.

Hin practice, based on harnessing one’s qì, is a taboo in the conquered land and people are forbidden to pursue it. The school of practitioners in this story used only positive qì to control, meditate and fight anyone. They were strongly opposed to the idea of using negative qì because it came with a steep price and was associated with evil. Both Lan and Zen had a hard time to refrain from using their negative qì, which was a matter of choice in the end.

This fantasy was yet another depiction of the atrocities of colonisation. Elantians distorted Hin history to their needs. They want to control everyone by stealing secrets and everything the Hin hold.

As we keep going in the story, each puzzle is solved slowly, the power struggle between the Elantians and Hin reaches a crescendo, blurring the line between good and evil.

I wish there was more focus on building our mcs because most of the focus went into developing the plot and there were still questions that remained but I’m hoping book 2 would answer them for us.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night
Song of the Last Kingdom #1
Fantasy
Amélie Wen Zhao
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a beautifully written book. I loved the world building, it's done creatively, without any info dumps, while still being very detailed.

The characters were well developed. I liked how Lan and Zen both had their own individual personalities and periods of growth alongside the plot progression.

It was well paced and it took me less than a day to finishing reading this book. The adventure and the mysteries kept me intrigued and I couldn't put it down.

The magic system was unique and I've never read anything like it. I'd like to explore it a lot more.

I can't wait to see what the next book has in store.

*Thank you to @Netgalley and the publishers for providing this ARC. This is my own opinion and an honest review, which I am leaving voluntarily*

This was a good read I found it a little slow for me. The writing style was beautifully done but I just didn't fall In love with the characters enough to get invested in the story took me a while to finish.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read this magical novel
I love everything about this novel. The writing style made it flow.
I enjoyed the Mythology, magic and everthing in between