This is another novel that I wouldn’t ordinarily have read in the course of my usual explorations. It was a recommendation on Broken Forum and though it has some fantasy, it is seen as closer to being a mainstream novel than a genre one. This one is by Guy Gavriel Kay, a Canadian writer who has made a name from writing alternative history with some fantastical elements. This one in particular is a fictionalized version of the An Shi Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty and it really surprised me how much I liked it.

When his father, a famous general, dies, second son Shen Tai spends two years mourning by going to Kuala Nor, a battlefield where his father once fought. There lie many unburied corpses of Kitan and Taguran soldiers who fought there before a peace treaty was signed between the two empires and he decides to properly bury them. As ghosts haunt the place, his courage and devotion earns him great honor and the Taguran Empire gifts him 250 Sardian horses, heavenly horses that are greatly sought after in Kitai. On the same day that he receives this news however, a friend from the Kitan capiral of Xinan arrives carrying tidings of his own family. Before he can hear this message, the friend is killed by the bodyguard who turns out to be an assassin but Tai himself is saved by the ghosts of Kuala Nor. Meanwhile in Xinan a new First Minister Wen Zhou has been appointed by the aging emperor and Tai’s own elder brother Shen Liu is the minister’s leading advisor. The empress has been pushed aside in favor of the Precious Consort Wen Jian and Tai’s sister Shen Li-Mei who was previously a handmaiden serving the Empress is made into a Princess to be married off to the leader of the Bogü people in the north. Finally Tai has another personal connection to the new First Minister as they both favor the same courtesan.

There are quite a few characters and intersecting plotlines in here and this isn’t exactly a short novel. But that really is what is needed to capture the full scope and complexity of this fictionalized version of China and I am frankly amazed that this is indeed a complete story in one book. I think the author cheats a little by having so many important events revolve around the Shen family with the main character, his elder brother and his younger sister all independently involved with different personages attached to the imperial palace. That certainly helps to keep the plotlines from spiraling out of control. It also works very well in presenting what is effectively the superpower of the world at the time, with multiple factions and multiple loci of power, and surrounded by neighboring polities that are always looking upon it with both fear and avarice. In recent months, I’ve complained about how novels that boast of complex intrigues actually have rather simplistic plots. I have no complaints of that sort here as this book is as rich and as ambitious as I could ever want.

Part of the appeal of this book is about retelling of some of China’s history in fictionalized form to an English-reading audience, and I had to look it up to check that the most seemingly far-fetched stories in here such as Wen Jian adopting An Li, the barbarian governor who controls three of the empire’s armies, as a son and swaddling him in oversized diapers, are actually true. Another part is distilling the essence of Chinese culture and traditions. It attempts to do this with Chinese poetry, both classical ones rendered in English and what I think are original ones; plot elements that convey a sense of the different rights and expectations for men and women in society; how the pomp and ceremony around the imperial throne is a necessary component of the apparatus of state power; and many, many more details about daily life in the empire and how the empire itself is run. The amount of research that must have been needed is just mind-boggling. Even if I’m ethnically Chinese, I’m certainly not an expert. But from what I can tell, all this looks very plausible and is incredibly fascinating to read.

I am a little leery that Kay also tries to adapt some of more fantastical elements of Chinese culture as well. The tone is set early in the novel with an encounter in Kuala Nor that firmly establishes that in this world ghosts are real so we know that this really is a fantasy version of China. It then goes on to introduce the Kanlin, an order of warriors with extraordinary skills that are straight out of wuxia. I suppose this makes the novel more appealing for genre readers and it’s cool to have kung fu scenes of Tai and his Kanlin bodyguard fending off assassins at night but it does detract from the realism of the book. Details of the cryptographic system that the palace uses to ensure that the orders it sends to its generals are legitimate sit uncomfortably next to how the Kanlins are perceived to be absolutely trustworthy. I don’t think real life China has anything like their equivalent so the made up details feel out of place given how plausible and grounded the rest of the world building is. For similar reasons I disliked most of Tai and his sister’s adventures north beyond the wall, due to the fantastical elements.

I do understand why Kay included those perspectives however. His intent was to provide the reader with as many views of the empire as possible. So we have the point of view of high government officials as well as lowly servants, and we see the empire both from the inside and the outside. I’m astonished that he even provides the perspective of throwaway characters who only appear for a single scene just for the sake of completion and wide coverage such as a foreign courtesan considers Tai when he arrives in Chenyao. That’s just how ambitious and comprehensive this book is. On the whole, it is notable how sad the plight of just about all of the female characters here is and I suppose this is a realistic depiction of the absolute power of the patriarchy at the time. Even someone as intelligent and influential as the emperor’s Precious Consort owes all of her power from her relationship with the emperor. As we see from the experiences of Li-Mei, what women want for themselves mean nothing at all and they are only ever assets of the family to be spent at the discretion of the male head of the family.

Finally my biggest disappointment with this book is that while it is clearly very sympathetic with how little agency women have in this society, the main plot at times feels like a standard male wish fulfillment fantasy for Tai. His main sacrifice and great deed, digging graves for the soldiers, effectively happens before the story starts and he gets to coast on the rewards of that deed for the rest of the book. Worse, he has women pining for him and even has a one true love to pivot to by the end of the book. It’s all very genre and old-fashioned and makes me think how tough it is to write male protagonists in the fantasy genre these days. It makes sense that relatively male characters would fall in love and desire women and so on, but you also need to make sure that they’re not creepy and that their character is not entirely defined by that relationship. No wonder all of the fantasy stories I like these days have female protagonists.

Anyway that aside I do think that this is a great book that I would recommend highly. It is both a book that I enjoyed while in the process of reading and that I think is very impressive while considering it in retrospect. I will most certainly be reading the next book in the series and the fact that it is set several hundred years after this one with an entirely new set of characters only makes me anticipate it even more.