Category: Fantasy ISBN-10: 1502397765
Type: Fiction
Pages: 816
Copyright: October 2014
ISBN-13: 9781502397768
Price: $7.99 (eBook)
With the scope of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and the evocativeness of Roger Zelazny's Great Book of Amber, THE PIRATE EMPRESS is an epic saga of love and betrayal, honor and hope, war—and ultimate sacrifice in Ming Dynasty China.
Li is a palace runaway prophesied to bear China's greatest Son of Heaven. Among her enemies are the Emperor and a Mongol warlord whose ambitions will be thwarted by her son's rise to power. While war rages on the Wall and pirates tyrannize the south coast Li's young son is kidnapped. Abandoned to the mercy of the pirates where a nine-headed water god rules the seas and a cruel admiral makes her his wife, Li learns a bitter truth: "If you're weak, you die." So she learns how to fight and to survive—with the goal to rescue her son. But at the core of all her troubles is the Fox Faerie, whose magic has corrupted both empires. The Fox Faerie has broken the Emblem of Balance, summoned the monsters of legend and set the past against the future...
Amid the wars and power struggles of Men and Demons, a Chinese Princess sacrifices herself and all she loves to save the Empire from a scheming Fox Faerie, and keep the Cosmos in balance. With the scope of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and the evocativeness of Roger Zelazny's Great Book of Amber, THE PIRATE EMPRESS is an epic saga of love and betrayal, honor and hope, war—and ultimate sacrifice in Ming Dynasty China.
Professional Reviews
The Pirate Empress
"Women do not inherit anything but misery in China," is the caustic sentiment expressed to a Ming princess named Li in Deborah Cannon's sprawling historical-fantasy epic The Pirate Empress.
Li finds herself in the center of a vast and very tangled web of palace intrigue, imperial politics, and of course plenty of derring-do on the ocean, as she's forced into marriage with a brutal sea captain in order to further her quest to save her kidnapped son, who has been prophesied to become an emperor, a future Son of Heaven.
Complicated forces are aligning against that destiny, and hovering over friend and foe alike is the supernatural Fox Faerie, who seeks the destruction of all mankind. Readers who might remember Barry Hughart's wonderful fantasy novels set "in an ancient China that never was" will take to Cannon's fast-paced and wonderfully written tale, which mingles supernatural beings with well-researched flesh-and-blood characters and historical details from the Ming Dynasty.
The characters sparkle with life, and their dialogue crackles--this is an intensely readable and well-done work of fantasy-infused historical fiction. Strongly recommended. - Fiona Ness, (Historical Novel Society)
A SWEEPING ODYSSEY, CAPTIVATING FROM COVER TO COVER!
"A blend of historical novel and Asian fantasy epic, set during the era when the Ming Dynasty ruled China. The protagonist Li is a palace runaway... To rescue her son, she must not only navigate horrific perils, but also find a way to fight back against the corrosive Fox Faerie, whose corruptive magic threatens to eradicate human civilization. The Pirate Empress is a sweeping odyssey, captivating from cover to cover." - Mary Cowper, Midwest Book Review
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