Thank you to Netgalley & Text Publishing for this arc in exchange for a review. I really enjoy this authors writing style and always fly through her books. The illustrations in this book were a pleasant surprise, beautifully done and I can’t wait to see what they look like in the finished copy!
We jump straight into the story by following the young strategist, Zephyr in the middle of running from a battle with the evil ministress and the follow along on her journey. I just want to say, this author is the queen of plot twists - I can never predict where the book is going to go!

An action adventure story told from a first person point of view and set in a pseudo-historical China with the focus of the story heavily on the action. We see the world from Zephyr’s eyes, chief strategist to one of the clan leaders, as she lurches from one ambush and battle to another. This relentless series of battles is one of the critical weaknesses of this story - too much action and not enough description to enable you to either understand the characters or really picture the locations.

All the main characters are women - we’ve the Empress, the Prime Ministress, Lordesses and all chief generals are women. Eventually some men show up but they are generally peripheral. This is an interesting premise to explore given so many societies are structures with men holding the top positions. However, the differences a female power structure would make to power politics isn’t really explored - perhaps a limitation of the source material (The Three Kingdoms) which is heavy on male power politics - so although the characters are female, they don’t seem to behave any differently than their male sources.

This novel has an interesting premise and there’s lots to explore. However, I wonder if it would do better as a trilogy rather than a duologue so that more time can be given to exploring the settings, characters and the different dynamics of a female power structure. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

DNF

Did not appreciate the style of this book at all. It reminded me of KJ parker at his worst, but stuffed into the mindset of a teenager who thinks they're better than everyone else. The Three Kingdoms inspiration was so blatant, which is fine for a retelling, but sometimes made me roll my eyes ("Red Phoenixes" instead of "Yellow Turbans") and it felt like the beginning of this book was so lacking in context if you are unfamiliar with the source (it basically starts in the middle of Changban, which is the middle of a conflict that starts a decade earlier).

Also the book gender bent everyone into women, which can do interesting things but even the soldiers were all women so I was just left wondering what all the men were up to.

Also the names were stupid. Why did some people have Chinese inspired names and others just have names like Cloud or Lotus.

I enjoyed the storytelling, and loved the concept that the story followed. It was refreshing to see a story have a nearly all female cast, and they all have their own distinct voices and personalities, especially when they're kicking butt and infiltrating enemy camps.

There was a lot of action and the plot was always moving, with a new plot twist being thrown at you, which I personally enjoy, but there were times where it felt rushed, especially in regards to the enemies to lovers narrative, which felt quite forced and lacked chemistry.

Unfortunately, STRIKE THE ZITHER just wasn’t for me. I really wanted to enjoy it, but I felt myself slogging through every chapter. The characters were flat, the romance was flat, the action (oh, there was so much action) was flat. This was simply not a book I could get into, but that’s not to say that others won’t enjoy it.

A lot of mixed feelings on this one.

I was looking forward to this a lot -- similar to how I was vibrating for the release of She Who Became the Sun. I loved the premise, the packaging, and the lovely illustrations. I didn't grow up with the RoTK, but I as someone who reads a lot about China, and watches a good deal of c-drama, I had certain expectations about the mix of things that a reimagining of the classic could be. By the end of the book -- which I read over a couple of days, so even my huffing and puffing about unescapable 1st person POV of a YA book didn't slow me down much -- I was in knots because the book was yanking my chain in too many directions at once. Despite having a strategist for a protagonist, a Nirvana in Fire it isn't.

The storys starts off pretty strongly, establishing the setting and the warring factions well, and the protagonist's character is sketched boldly and regonizably, a tribute to the archetype: cunning, sarcasting, arrogant, physically frail and running on the fumes of neuroses and delusions of grandeur. Aptly called Peacock by some, Zephyr carries the first half of the book in line with the expectations of the trope: desperate last-minute plans, ambitious stakes, moral compromises. My grumbling, at this state, was mostly about what I feel is dumbing down the scheming for the target audience: too much signalling ahead (seriously, NOTHING was subtle about the hundred thousand arrows plan), too much regurgitation of information and proclamations. But it was fine enough to read -- to be honest, this was probably an okay compromise in terms of accessibility to the audience who doesn't spend too much of their life inhaling multi-episode historical dramas full of convoluted plots. I'm fine, this is fine. It's fine. Shoehorned romances are also fine. FINE, whatever, I could put up with them as the YA trappings.

Come midway point though, I felt like the narrative train jumped off its railed and decided to start being a hovercraft instead, shooting lasers and tumbling headfast into strange directions. Pew pew!

With spoilers from here on.

I felt the god realm intermission, and the whole subplot of '"oh no I've been a god all along but i have developed feeligns for this mortal war, gotta go thanksbyeee" was DEEPLy unnecessary. Like, I do object to sticking Zephyr into Lotus's body for the second half of the story as well, but if the author really wanted to replay Mei Changsu's dramedy of mistaken identities in reverse -- more on that later -- then she didn't need the god subplot to frame it. Literally any other one-off magical mcguffin would have been fine, and less bewildering and undermining of the agency/urgency that drives the heroine, and ultimately, the narrative momentum. Gah. Now it feels like she has all the puzzle pieces for being superpowered beyond salvation, and the only thing that stops her form ascending into the next plane is uh. Lack of competence, actually.

So yes. Long story short, not a fan of this god identity subplot at all. It would have been much more interesting if Zephyr was who she was for the first half of the book, with the limitations and aspirations of a mortal. And without a sparkl fairy god floating above her shoulder, hinting at plot elements to shoehorn them into the 1st person narrative.

Now, the body swapping. LONG SIGH. You know why it worked for Mei Changsu, and doesn't really work here? Because MCS was limited by his own unfeigned frailty, and plagued by the knowledge that he couldn't join the fight on his terms as a warrior, and had to contend with court intrigure -- and because he didn't have to dumb himself down: neither in conduct, nor in consequence. Sticking Zephyr, who was known for her role as a strategist, into shoes of literally the mightest and most unthinking warrior of the army, and then fumble one thing after another: barely remembering to impersonate, forgetting how to scheme, doing a bad job of utilizing assets of her new body... That doesn't give her much credibility as a strategist, you know. BUT! Kick out the godhood, and there is so much you can do with this bodyswap: let Zephyr wake up to that change, scheme to make the most of it without knowing how she got there, let her utilize her brain to further her agenda with new variables! There were flashes of that story in that second half -- but only flashes, unfortunately. And when I'm given a hint of what I was looking for but ultimately don't get, I tend to be more disappointed than if I simply didn't care for the book.

The way it's working out, I end up wishing the book was told from the pespective of the mortal frenemies instead: Crow the adversary, who brings an interesting backstory in addition to the shoehorned het, Cicada, Ku the sister who is unforgiving of the separation with her sister, OG Qilin. And yet.

Thanks to #Netgalley for an advanced copy of #StriketheZither. Happy to see more books that talk to the Chinese culture and narratives, examining it from a modern lense, but I didn't like this attempt as much as I would have hoped to.

Thanks heaps Text Publishing for approving this eARC for my review!

Wow. This book is incredible. Do yourself a favour: On release date, pick it up. You won't regret it.

If you are reading this review after November 1st 2022, and have been considering picking this book up, but weren't sure about - this is your sign to pick it up.

Joan He has created an absolutely crazy emotional rollercoaster full of twists and turns, words truly cannot describe how excited I am for STZ 2.

I have a strong feeling this is going to become one of my favourite series of all time!