Described as a Chinese-inspired Game of Thrones, Descendant of the Crane by Joan He will punch you in the face, the stomach, and several other places before it lets you reclaim all of the broken bits of you left within the story. It’s brutal, it’s full of intrigue, and so very thrilling. I lost myself in palace politics, sympathised for the masses, and raged with a queen trying to unravel a thousand riddles before they unravel the threads of her very soul. This world of forbidden magic is cunning and cruel, and oh so tantalisingly delightful.
Princess Hesina Yan has been thrust into power at the death of her father the king. However, sure that her father was murdered, Hesina will use everything in her power to find the truth, including engaging the powers of a soothsayer to seek truth. But magic in her kingdom has been long outlawed and forbidden, seen as a treasonous act punishable by death.
Determined to unmask her father’s killer, she uses the soothsayer’s advice and finds help in Akira, a convicted killer now turned investigator for Hesina, who’s hiding a few dangerous secrets. With the future of her kingdom in the balance, she’ll need to find the truth fast, or have the truth and the kingdom wrenched from her grasp forever.
From the start, the story was very plot driven. There are secrets to unearth, a death to solve, and so many suspects. All the while, there’s the sense of foreboding that there’s some larger play at work, a reason everything is happening. Everything is meticulously planned, and pulled off in an extravagant fashion. The descriptions are vivid, and bring the kingdom of Yan, and its characters to life. The story at times left me in a jumbled mess of emotions: frustration, anger, and the excited thrill that comes when you get close to finding the truth. The further along you go into the story, the more it sinks its talons in and doesn’t let go. There’s also an air of fragility that clings to the story, a sense that these characters are all holding onto something, and should they lose it…all hell is going to break loose.
Complex characters are the name of the game for Descendant of the Crane. Hesina is a bundle of anxiety and distrust, and rightfully so as I learned reading through the story. However, she’s not unaware of her flaws, and does her best to overcome them. I don’t think growth is necessarily what Hesina develops as much as she develops experience. So much is happening in her world, and her reactions to them push the story along. Akira is an enigma in comparison, while Hesina’s siblings are full of secrets. Secrets that are used as currency, to further even more secret kingdom agendas. My favourite character of the story is Caiyan. He is so nondescript and completely unexpected, and I loved what he became.
If I’m being completely honest, I loved the drama. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t as much death as the GoT comparison seemed to indicate however it was enough mystery for me to keep turning the page until the very end. I was a little unsure about how the magic system worked, and I wished I’d gotten a little more about it. The ending left me wanting more, I am definitely hoping that Ms. He will revisit this world again. It’s so good! There honestly isn’t enough that I could say to praise this book. It showed me that it doesn’t always have to be about guts and glory and sometimes there’s much more to the machinations going on behind the scenes motivating our characters to act. I cannot wait for others to read this story to get their perspectives on it!
Descendant of the Crane is a 9/10 for me. It was a gripping and intense novel, full of world building and suspenseful characters. If the magic system were built up a little more it would be perfect. I absolutely loved reading this book and cannot wait to see what world Joan He will take us to next.
Descendant of the Crane is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of April 2nd 2019.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Tyrants cut out hearts. Rulers sacrifice their own.
Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, dreaming of an unremarkable life. But when her beloved father is found dead, she’s thrust into power, suddenly the queen of a surprisingly unstable kingdom. What’s more, Hesina believes that her father was murdered—and that the killer is someone close to her.
Hesina’s court is packed full of dissemblers and deceivers eager to use the king’s death for political gain, each as plausibly guilty as the next. Her advisers would like her to blame the neighboring kingdom of Kendi’a, whose ruler has been mustering for war. Determined to find her father’s actual killer, Hesina does something desperate: she enlists the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by
death, since magic was outlawed centuries ago.
Using the information provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant investigator who’s also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of Yan at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?
Does anyone have any great book club discussion questions for this book? It’s so new that there aren’t any lists of questions out there so I’m working to compile some of my own!