BookBrowse Reviews Strike the Zither by Joan He

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A female-led reimagining of the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Joan He's Strike the Zither is a tale of warfare, hidden identities and found family.

Strike the Zither, the newest novel by Joan He, follows Zephyr, a brilliant strategist serving Xin Ren, one of the warlordesses fighting for control of the Xin Empire. Zephyr's intellect allows her to outsmart Ren's enemies, but a single misstep forces her to join the ranks of Miasma, the empire's Prime Ministress and Ren's preeminent adversary. Not only must Zephyr hide her true loyalties, but a stunning revelation finds her questioning how much she's willing to sacrifice to ensure her lordess takes the throne. In this female-led reimagining of Romance of the Three Kingdoms (see Beyond the Book), which many classify among the great classic novels of Chinese literature, He has crafted a novel filled with shifting alliances, clever strategy and supernatural intrigue that will keep readers on their toes until the final page.

He's narrative drops readers right onto the field of battle. Zephyr and the rest of Ren's forces are fleeing Miasma to keep themselves and hundreds of evacuating peasants from falling to enemy warriors. Zephyr's quick thinking allows the crowds to evade pursuit; later, she again protects the peasants from being slaughtered, though her choices land her in the enemy's camp. Zephyr's ability as a strategist is unmistakable in these opening chapters as well as elsewhere throughout the book, but overall, her tactical brilliance is told rather than shown. Many of the circumstances on which Zephyr's reputation are built have happened prior to the book's opening, forcing the reader to take her cleverness as fact; as this is the first book in a planned duology, these events may be further explored in a second volume, but their vagueness here detracts from Zephyr's character development.

Nonetheless, as the story progresses, He explores her characters more thoroughly. Some of this characterization is due to shifting loyalties; in a time of war, duplicity and disguise are not unexpected, and the revelation of Zephyr's true identity—along with the mid-story introduction of a supernatural twist—changes the dynamic among several main characters. These characters' relationships with one another are largely based on how they're qualified to serve Ren. Zephyr contributes her strategic thinking, for example, while Lotus and Cloud, Ren's swornsisters, are unmatched warriors. Their similar temperaments and abilities draw Lotus and Cloud closer to one another than either is to Zephyr, yet time and circumstances give Zephyr a tighter bond with Cloud. Consequently, Cloud's character gains depth, allowing readers to finally understand her motivations and her desires as well as enriching the narrative overall.

These expanding character developments occur largely because of the liberties He has taken with her source material. The novel's second half alters the Chinese classic significantly, bringing in the supernatural in a way that is more explicit than in Three Kingdoms and changing Zephyr's role in the story as well as her ultimate fate. Similarly, He indicates in an author's note that she has changed other storylines to foreshadow a major plot point of Three Kingdoms, leading to several shocking twists in the final chapter of Strike the Zither. These will presumably be explored in more detail in the second volume of the duology, Sound of the Gong, which is due to publish in 2023.

Strike the Zither is a book filled with action and intrigue, humans and gods, loyalty and honor. Although it reimagines a classic Chinese novel, Zither can be read and enjoyed regardless of a reader's knowledge of the source material, and the list of characters and artwork included at the beginning of the book will serve as a helpful guide to the expansive world that He has recreated. Fans of Asian literature will appreciate the nods to Chinese mythology and culture, while those who thrill at depictions of warfare and action will appreciate Zephyr's tactical abilities, the shifting alliances and the well-written battle sequences.

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in November 2022, and has been updated for the April 2024 edition. Click here to go to this issue.