Descendant of the Crane

Book Title: Descendant of the Crane

Author: Joan He

Date Started: June 16th 2020

Date Completed: July 19th 2020

Genres: Historical, Fantasy, Mystery

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

What a debut. Descendant of the Crane was not what I expected; it was so much more. Joan He has written one of the most interesting female protagonists at the head of a very complex political drama with some strong mystery and fantastical elements. The Chinese-inspired foundations were an added bonus that I adored, and while I've dipped my toes into a range of Asian-inspired retellings/history I don't think I've actually read one based on China until now.

I had this feeling, while reading, that if I were to poke around the details of the politics or events it'd probably fall like a house of cards. But I didn't want to poke it. Hesina is so compelling and the story moves through the motions so quickly that I found it easy to just sort of let it go. And now that I've finished it, I don't want to interrogate either because it was such a fun ride. I feel like details and world elements are so well positioned they're almost like a standee on a stage: you only see one side of it, and you kind of know that the other side isn't painted, it hasn't been fully worked out. But the point of having it there is totally relevant, so you only need to see that one side to help the story flow. I'm not saying it's necessarily better than truly having those things worked out - but it's a darn sight better than info-dumping because you're self-conscious people won't understand what's going on. As it is, in a world I'm not super familiar with the formalities of, I got what was happening, the power status and duties of Hesina and the kingdom's tensions through the process of reading the story.

All in all, the actual plot was so engaging. The end twist was a bit hard for me to fully get with (and it's so obvious this is going to be a series, despite what GoodReads says), but there's so many twists and turns and all of them are so strongly rooted in Hesina and her growing understanding of her role as Queen. For some reason before starting, I was expecting a sort of adventure across the empire storyline, but actually Descendant of the Crane is very focused on the palace and the court, though we visit other places occasionally. While I would say it's probably more about relationships than straight-up politics, the tensions between what was right or wrong for a country, and the responsibility of choosing those wisely was explored in an interesting way.

As I've mentioned, Hesina is such a fascinating protagonist. When I began reading, I was struck by how quickly we got into the thick of things - her father is already dead, she is practically in power already, and the obstacles are quite clear immediately. And I think that's because He puts Hesina right in the middle of this story; it's her choices and her mistakes and her motivations that we're really exploring in the frame of this kingdom and its conflicts.

This, of course, would not be as effective as it is without the surrounding cast of characters who were undoubtedly my favourite aspect of this book. First of all, I do have a soft spot for fraught sibling rivalries and divided loyalties, so Hesina with her blood brother, half brother, and adopted brother and sister all trying to help her with very different perspectives was always gonna be a fun state of affairs for me personally. I will also mention I love the subtly of the romance, and the influence it had on Hesina without taking over her storyline - in fact, Hesina's priorities were a very sensible and engaging driving force for this book that you rarely get to see so eloquently carried out.

I thoroughly enjoyed Descendant of the Crance, and while there were holes in it and I debated what rating to give it, I was so impressed on a number of accounts that it would've been unfair to rate it any lower than five stars. While I far and away prefer stand-alones to series, I will happily read a sequel to this.