Jiang is a brilliant strategist, and has the magical ability to control fire. However, he is of very low rank in a strictly hierarchical society, and over the years of training and service, he gets tired of being treated poorly and of being forced to defer to Li Ai, who is the emperor’s heir but far his inferior in skill. The execution of a close friend only deepens his dissatisfaction with Li.
When captured by Tanaka, he is offered the opportunity to defect to a fairer and more open society, and takes it. This begins not only his successful career as a strategist, but also a close alliance with a healer and warrior, Yu Xun, who becomes a devoted friend and companion. Can Jiang, still a young man, manage to master not only military strategy but political artistry, to take on the responsibility of leading battles, negotiating alliances, and governing cities, and to prove himself a born leader?
This story will please most those readers interested in military strategy and battle planning, since a great deal of it takes place in actual combat or planning for combat. Those parts of the tale not immediately concerned with warfare center around the relationship between Jiang and Xun, and their joint development into a very formidable partnership. Both are very likeable and well-drawn characters, and the bond between them is warm and touching.
The reader becomes interested in Jiang’s career, and it is pleasing to watch him grow from a resentful and resigned little boy to a grown man comfortable with authority and command. Minor characters are likewise brought vividly to life with their own motivations and personalities, and cultural differences between Li, Tanaka, and Smith are deftly if subtly touched upon. Magic is incorporated into the tale in a reasonable way, as simply another tool used by the soldiers, without being either overemphasized or ignored.
There is perhaps too much emphasis on the absolute wrongness of the Li empire. One wonders how such an oppressive and bureaucratic government, which fails to use talents it needs solely because of rank, and does not appear to have much skill in the indoctrination of youth by any means other than terror or execution, could retain the loyalty of anyone worth having. However, this is a minor qualm, and one can no doubt cite examples of such from history (however, sometimes real life is less believable than fiction can afford to be). Likewise, Jiang’s rise feels at times too easy – he is too quickly trusted when he defects to Tanaka, and he suffers few real substantial setbacks and/or failures.
However, this is still a lively and captivating account of a young soldier and strategist as he grows from childhood to adulthood. There appears to be plenty of room for sequels to this tale, and I for one would like very much to read about the further adventures of Jiang and Xun in what appears to be a diversely-populated, complex and three-dimensional alternate world.
Reviewed by Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader