Chaz Brenchley

Fun, takes a slightly weird turn in the 2nd half, which I was less amused by, but the basic story works very well, and is clever look at society.

Interstellar travel has been made possible by uploading consciousness to beam it to appropriate receivers, and decant yourself into the next body. Of course this has all sorts of problems and most of the galaxy has very strict rules regarding the identity, naming conventions and the like. However there are always exceptions, and one of those is Rotten Row, where pretty much anything goes. They have two Shutes so you can send yourself back and forth on the same day, and there all restrictions on bodytype have been disregarded, wings, fur, size and gender are all utterly optional. An artist visits hoping to be able to share mental holography of the denizens thoughts, but is almost immediately beguiled by a passing centaur. Of course some things never change, the rich can order any body they can conceive, while the poor try to earn a living as slaves to others literal designs.

The initial introduction to the world-building was the most interesting, with the look at what such a technology might do to things like art - original physical objects having to be shipped by actual tortuously slow spaceship (although the author fails to grasp how big space is, and long even light takes between stars), and culture. Gender and race become irrelevant when you land in whatever body is ready next, but identity the 'youness' remains critical. Religion gets only a passing glance, but like all traditions has managed to hang on and adapt. Once that's all established well enough with the Artist now exploring the fringes of acceptable behaviour, the plot they get roped into is less interesting, but serves well enough to deliver a resolution.

Clever, and an author worth looking out for.… (more)

A coup forces boy emperor, Chien Hua, to retreat to the source of his jade - the small island of Taishu. Jade can only be possessed by the emperor himself due to its inherent properties. It has always been transported, protected and controlled, by wealthy jade masters but with the emperor so close at hand, why shouldn't the miner clans profit from the transaction themselves?
Li Ton, captain of the pirate ship Shalla, has just put all the monks of The Forge to the sword. He's never believed the tales that they ensorcelled a dragon beneath the harbor with their power but he does think their prayers to the old gods keep the fishermen and tradesmen safe. A protection he wants removed, his cargo bays all the better for it.
General Tunghai Wang has all his soldiers in place, ready to cross the harbor, ready to face the emperor and take the jade throne. All that remains is the boat crossing.
And then there's the dragon. She is real, powerful and angry…and free.

Chinese fantasy is not something I’ve read before and I wasn't sure what to expect. The world building is lovely, so packed and concise and the language witty and unexpectedly lyrical at times. Will definitely read book two.… (more)

WOW. This book is so crusades. JFC. It was definitely a good but stressful read. I liked all the characters and the magic is cool. I'm still not sure if I even know what's really going on; what's really the point of the book. But it's interesting none the less. I'm also really confused about the main characters and their significance and it's quite strange that we've only had a semi glimpse of it after 600 pages.

I don't regret reading it though. I suppose my feelings about the overall story will develop as I move on to the next book. I wanted to give it 3 stars because things happened, but I felt like the story didn't go much of anywhere, which is nice because there's lots left, but I'm scared it'll be like this until the last 100 pages and I'll have to throw a fit. But it was interesting enough in its writing that it gets the extra star.… (more)