SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao https://t.co/MX6ES58smZ Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)— garik16|CanesFan (@garik16) November 7, 2018
Short Review (cont): In a story that takes an aspect of the Snow White story and marries it to an East-Asian derived background, this book follows the young woman Xifeng as she attempts to follow a heartwrenching dark path toward becoming Empress. A very good dark tale. (2/3)— garik16|CanesFan (@garik16) November 7, 2018
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is the first in a fantasy duology (the second book has just come out today) which takes aspects of the Snow White story and marries them to an East-Asian fantasy world. But while it clearly takes inspiration from the story, it mostly (with few exceptions) tells its own story of a young woman torn between what she's been told is her grand destiny and her knowledge of the dark acts that would be required in obtaining that destiny. This is its own story, not simply a retelling.
And it's a very good story in the dark fantasy genre, with a protagonist who is very well - not necessarily easy to root for, but sympathetic and understandable at the very least. The story isn't particularly subtle about where it's going in the end, but it is excellently done to make the reader want to keep reading to see how it will get to its inevitable destination in the end. The result is a book that's definitely worth your time if you're interested in a dark fantasy story that's not built off a Western background.
More after the Jump:
---------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------
Xifeng is a beautiful 18 year old girl, who lives with her abusive Aunt Guma in a poor village in the continent of Feng Lu. She works as a seamstress in her village for her Aunt and has a crush on a local village blacksmith boy, Wei, who wishes to marry her if she'd simply let her. But Xifeng is unwilling to fully commit her heart to Wei, for reasons she could never tell him: A dark magic runs in her family, and Guma has used it to foretell Xifeng's destiny - that somehow she is to become the Empress of all of Feng Lu, with Wei destined to somehow be sacrificed for that destiny.
It is in search of that destiny that Xifeng finally agrees to leave the village for the Imperial City with Wei, who simply hopes that she'll agree to marry him as he becomes a soldier in the Imperial Army. But as Xifeng comes nearer to the palace and then finds her way inside, she finds herself more and more drawn toward her foretold destiny, driven by a dark force that lurks inside of her and wishes her to use her wits and dark magic to achieve it by any means necessary....even if that means hurting the ones who are good and simply wish for love.
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Again, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns isn't very subtle about where the book is going: while Xifeng has doubts about some of the acts she might have to perform in order to get there, and pictures the alternatives, it is always clear that Xifeng is going to wind up as the Empress at some point in this story. And while some of the people in the way of her destiny are truly despicable (the antagonist for a good portion of the book is an incredibly spiteful and greedy/evil concubine who tries to abuse Xifeng in order to get her out of the way), some are not and simply want a good life. As such, while the reader should know in the back of their minds that Xifeng is going to achieve her destiny, there's enough doubts about what she'll have to do to achieve it that it's hard to put this book down to see how it happens.
Xifeng is what makes this story work as well as it does. As I said above the jump, it's not that she's a character the reader will want to root for, except in certain moments I was basically rooting for her to abandon her course and take another path she was never going to follow. But the book does a great job showing why she takes her own dark path and makes her sympathetic for the most part even as she goes further and further into the darkness (for the most part). The other characters Xifeng meets along the way generally don't get enough screen time to become fully developed characters - but they serve a purpose and Xifeng more than makes up for it as the star of this book.
That's not to say that Xifeng is all there is in this book. Dao does a great job building this world, featuring mythical demon creatures in the forest, the five nations that make up the continent and their origin story, and the Imperial Palace itself. It's a world I would definitely like to see more of, whether in the sequel or in other stories not directly related to this book's tale.
Still, the book is far from flawless, despite being a fascinating tale of a young woman taking the course into the Dark Dark Side (extra "Dark" for proper emphasis). The book is sometimes slow in how things progress and takes its time moving the pieces into place. And once the main antagonist for Xifeng is dealt with about 75% of the way through, the book often seems like its in cruise control, with Xifeng having made her final choice (she makes another one a little later, but it's a bit too late for her to do anything else). Still these final few chapters help setup the plot that will become the second book coming out And it's a second book that I'll be very interested in and will definitely be reading.
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