Thursday, July 28, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on August 9, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.     


The Art of Prophecy is the first in a new epic fantasy/wuxia trilogy from author Wesley Chu, whose previous work (The Lives of Tao trilogy, The Fall of Io series) has been really entertaining.  Wuxia* works kind of fit in an odd place for me as a reader - I've come to not particularly love action scenes in most books, since my eyes tend to skim over some words and struggle to focus upon intricate sequences (and I have issues visualizing)....and yet Wuxia works tend to be so over the top with their action scenes and martial arts moves that it becomes entertaining again to read...hence why I was able to enjoy all four volumes of Legend of the Condor Heroes.

* Wuxia, for those who don't know, is a genre of Chinese Martial Arts stories, in which such Martial Arts often have ridiculous names and often go along incredible magical seeming powers.  Think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for example.*

And I really did enjoy The Art of Prophecy, which starts off with a major prophecy twist - the ultimate bad guy that the prophesied hero was supposed to grow up and kill is dead and his forces are defeated years before the hero has trained out of boyhood - and uses that to start up an enjoyable, fun and action packed story following a number of main characters struggling to figure out what to do next in a world upended.  The characters are terrifically fun, reminding me of Chu's Tao/Io series, and the stories contain lots of interesting themes/questions - questions about destiny, about conflicts between peoples, about fighting for freedom as opposed to collaborating, and more.  There's even some science fiction-y or steampunky things going on with one group of people as well.  The result is highly enjoyable, and this is a series I'll definitely be coming back to for its sequels....

------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------------
For ages, the people of the Enlightened States have fought with the Nomadic Katuia clans in a seemingly unwinnable war, with the Katuia led by the immortal king known as the Eternal Khan.  But years ago, a prophecy was given of a hero who would rise up and defeat the Khan....and that prophecy pointed to one boy in particular - Jian, a boy celebrated since birth and raised by a number of Martial masters to ensure his ability to fulfill his destiny.  But as Ling Taishi, one of the greatest magical martial artists in the States, soon discovers there's just one problem: Jian's training has been terrible, and where should be a fierce and capable fighter is instead just a privileged, spoiled and inferior brat.  And so Taishi, an older woman with one crippled arm, takes it upon herself to train the boy herself.  

Unfortunately there's another problem:  somehow, despite the prophecy, some lucky soldier has already killed the Khan, years before Jian could ever have been ready.  With the prophecy rendered irrelevant, the leaders of the Enlightened States have no use for Jian anymore, and soon he and Taishi find themselves on the run from assassins in a world completely upturned, a world where a legendary Katuia warrior finds herself trying to raise up her conquered people in revolt, where assassins see Taishi and Jian as the prizes that will launch them into fame and prosperity, and where Jian and Taishi may find that destiny is a more malleable thing than they could have ever expected....
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The Art of Prophecy is a Wuxia-esque novel, and its set of point of view characters all follow types of archetypes of the genre - Ling Taishi is the legendary old master, technically crippled but whose use of magical martial arts - the ability to manipulate Jing (essentially Chi/Qi) to summon wind blasts and manipulate the wind to enhance her fighting arts - makes her a match for anyone out there; Jian is the neophyte with immense potential who was badly taught and who needs to be beaten down to basics to learn to achieve his potential; Sali is the former righthand of the conquering villain who is determined to save her people and use her legendary weapon to raise her people; and then there's Qisami, an assassin who can blend into the shadows who's fun and jovial in her use of shadowy martial arts.  It's a quartet with different views and personalities, to say nothing of skills, and Chu makes them all come to life in incredibly fun fashion.  

Really I kind of loved all four characters.  In Taishi you have the sarcastic elite master martial artist, who has deep regrets about her past that drive her to try to save Jian and to figure out what wrong with the prophecy.  She's an utter blast with her irreverence and her martial arts capability, as she figures out what's going on slowly to some extent, as exasperated as she is.  Jian is probably the least interesting since he's so clearly the out of his depth eventual possible hero (or is he?) and his need to learn brotherhood and how not to just be a privileged brat is kind of standard, but it works well.  Sali is just a terrific character in the warrior whose role is to go back and die historically but refuses to do so as she sees what has happened to her people, and finds herself taking a leadership role with her Viper/whip/spear weapon that she had no intention of taking to free her now essentially conquered and oppressed people and family - it's really easy to root for her (even if she's technically in an antagonist's role).  And then there's Qisami, who's just a hilariously sarcastic and greedy assassin from the shadows, in what essentially seems to be a romantic or just familial relationship with her second in command, as she chases fame by fighting our heroes.  They're all just tremendous fun.

The world here also has some really interesting themes underlying it and the plot.  So you have the conflict of peoples - the nomadic Katuia who used to travel using seemingly steampunk cities but who are forced upon losing to be stuck to the same grounds and cities as their Enlightened States conquerors (who do not know how to work steam power)...and this conflict of identities, the subservience they're forced into, and the things the people do to survive forms a strong plotline of imperialism, of collaboration and of how and when one should rise up.  There's the theme of destiny of course, but even more than that, of willful ignorance and how people are unwilling to change their views and update them as new events occur.  And there's the constant theme of leadership and what it means to take that mantle and for what underlying reasons.  A lot of these themes come out of Sali's plotline, which is really strong, but we see some of this with everyone else but Qisami (who's more just fun than anything else) as well, and it creates a really strong plotline that will keep you engrossed. 

And well there's the martial arts and wuxia action as well to go along with those serious themes and the major characters (and the minor ones they encounter along the way).  So you have a lot of really fun fights, even if there's plenty of other scenes so it's not quite like a full Legend of the Condor Heroes-esque novel (which can just have fight scenes for pages on pages).  You'll rarely be surprised who will prevail in these bouts, but they're executed very well and are always fun, which just add to everything else.

So yeah, I really enjoyed The Art of Prophecy and think you will too.  Very recommended.  

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