In a silkpunk fantasy world where engineering guilds are created massive warships and an empire invasion lurks in the distance, Of Jade and Dragons is a YA debut that follows a young girl who disguises herself to join a competition in hopes of finding out the truth behind her father's murder.
pages: 466 | source: purchased/own
publication date: June 18th, 2024
genre: young adult, fantasy, steampunk, asian-inspired
rating: 6.1/10
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I've been highly anticipating Of Jade and Dragons ever since seeing the author's pitch on Twitter - I will take a Mulan-inspired fantasy story any day and one set against the backdrop of competition is a setup I've loved before (i.e. Spin the Dawn). Amber Chen creates an incredibly compelling world where the island nation of Antara finds itself on the brink of war as natural resource supplies dwindle and a larger more powerful Empire tests their borders. The hope of victory rests on the infamous Engineers Guild which has always been closed to female applicants.
Upon witnessing her father's murder by an intruder in his workshop, Aihui Ying decides to impersonate her younger brother and follow her father's footsteps to the capital to find some answers. Her journey is conveniently smoother than expected when running into one of the High Commander's sons, the fourth beile Yeyang. With his support, Ying finds herself as one of the applicants to the Guild's grueling trials for an apprenticeship, using this opportunity to further her own quest for revenge.
Despite such a strong premise that should have instantly hooked me, Of Jade and Dragons took me longer than expected to get through. The two main factors that I struggled with were the pacing and Ying herself. For a book that's over 450 pages, the plot meandered throughout the competition. We get glimpses of the stress other candidates experienced, but Ying seemed to flounder through her classes making it difficult to root for her. We were told of her struggles but her successes seemed like a mere stretch for her. It definitely took me a majority of the novel to warm up to her, hence why the plot seemed to drag.
The story does take an interesting twist once secrets about the guild and High Commander's ambitions are revealed. It's a classic tale of man's greed for power that seems to be the push Ying needs to become more proactive in her story which in turn allowed her character to grow and mature. The additional elements of "friendly" academic rivalry between Ying and her classmates, Yekan and Chang'an in particular, and the potential romance between Ying and Yeyang were placed more in the background but did add more depth to the story that kept me invested through it all.
While Of Jade and Dragons had a slower start for me, the ending leaves open questions of personal morality, the cost of war, and how forbidden love can survive amid political unrest. We haven't heard much about the sequel yet but I'm hoping the author will continue to expand this world and we'll get to see Ying's journey and character arc continue to flourish.
favorite line: Dreams and nightmares are but two sides of the same coin.
