The Art of Prophecy Brings Martial War Artists to Their Knees

As legendary conflict artist Ling Taishi watches the teenaged prophesied hero of her nation, Wen Jian, carry out in an over-decorated gladiatorial area, she rapidly realizes that the boy is the worst of all potential outcomes. A deluded, over-indulged, under-trained teenage dirtbag. So a lot for being the kid warrior the Zhuun wanted to defeat the Eternal Khan, Taishi thinks; the boy can barely maintain his personal in opposition to underfed foot troopers with out having his handheld.

Elsewhere, amid the border skirmishes between the Zhuun and the Katuia, the Eternal Khan is killed whereas wandering round in a drunken stupor. Not by Jian, however by a bog-standard Zhuun military patrol, throwing the prophecy of the nice hero into whole disarray. The nomadic Katuia nation is decimated, her folks compelled into indentured servitude, and her armies disbanded. But that’s not stopping the legendary Salminde, the Viperstrike, from searching for a brand new Khan to unite the Katuia and return them to their former glory.

So begins The Art of Prophecy, a brand new epic martial arts fantasy from Wesley Chu. What follows is an unbelievable feat of wuxia worldbuilding and narrative weaving that intertwines to create an expansive and fascinating story on par with collection like Legends of the Condor Heroes, Dandelion Dynasty, and the Green Bone Saga. The narrative skips throughout many factors of view, making The Art of Prophecy half travails of a grasp and scholar and half conqueror revenge quest. With clear characters and a plot that doesn’t a lot meander as intersect with the story at key breaking factors, this e book is a incredible instance of wuxia-style storytelling, exacting generational legacies and expectations on nice heroes and younger youngsters all the identical.

Wuxia, for individuals who don’t know, is a style of historic fantasy that has developed in Eastern Asia, and, extra particularly, China. Wuxia is an early kind and whereas positively speculative in nature, is often extra grounded, specializing in martial artists who’ve pushed their skills to the very boundaries of human chance and past, exhibiting unbelievable energy and attaining supernatural feats by means of their coaching. Wuxia tales are sometimes set in the Warring States interval of China, or some fantasy-adjacent setting. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a good instance of wuxia. Xianxia, a companion style, has quite a lot of the identical type, but additionally brings in gods, demons, ghosts, reincarnation, or any variety of extra mythic components. Xianxia just isn’t as in style amongst western audiences, however I’d level to Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings or the younger grownup novel Iron Widow (by Xiran Jay Zhao) as strong examples.

Because of the media talked about above, in addition to the rising Western recognition of breakout Chinese reveals like The Untamed and Word of Honor (which had been initially webnovels), which could possibly be streamed on Netflix, wuxia and xianxia are each experiencing a cultural second for English-speaking audiences. And for these readers who didn’t get on board the practice with Ken Liu or R. F. Kuang, Wesley Chu and The Art of Prophecy is right here to persuade you to offer cultivation a attempt.

In this book, which is the first of a planned trilogy, standing tall amid standout narration are the characters. First is my favorite elder dirtbag, Ling Taishi. Taishi is a past-middle-aged, handicapped, once-in-a-generation war artist who does not fuck around and offers no excuses for who she is. It’s unusual in Western fiction to find an older lady taking on the role of consummate martial badass (there are a few out there! Just not as many as I’d like to see, personally), and Taishi has got to be one of my new favorite fantasy characters. She occupies the kind of constantly annoyed mentor space in this book that makes her similar to Luke Skywalker in The Last Skywalker, someone who knows they’re too old for this bullshit and takes it on anyway.

Then there’s her student (sort of). Our boy-hero, Jian, is such a heart-wrenching vision of innocence and indulgence that it’s hard not to feel bad for him. Talented, yes. Pathetic, also yes. He tries so hard, but he’s such an absolute dummy that you just want to tuck him into bed and tell him he can try again tomorrow. His development throughout the book is wonderfully nuanced and clear, and by the end of it all he’s really earned his place as Ling Taishi’s martial arts inheritor, making an incredibly satisfying ending to the first of what will be a fantastic series.

Lastly, we have Salminde, another character that I’m personally in love with. Her desire for vengeance is driven by a deep, personal sense of duty and a code of honor that makes her all the more dangerous because she has very little left to lose. Her need to create a safe place for her family and her people is so relatable that even though our main characters are arguably her nemesis, she never comes across as a villain. Every decision she makes is incredibly emotional, as she goes from a leader to a wanderer and then becomes a savior over the course of the book.

I’m waxing poetic about the characters, but it has to be emphasized that even for folks who don’t read wuxia, or usually pick up big doorstopper epic fantasies, these warriors are so well developed and have so much heart and fervor that they whip off the pages, ready to fight at a moment’s notice. It’s this incredible energy that drives the book forward as it weaves in and out of the plot, providing context and building up the structures of the massive epic before wartime brings it crashing down. It’s a remarkable feat to read through a book that merges so many tropes of eastern and western storytelling, giving readers the scope of modern epics like The Poppy War trilogy and the promise of the intimate intrigue of She Who Became the Sun.

This book was, for me, un-put-downable. Flitting in between fights and daring escapes, I wasn’t ever wondering when I would get to that character I really liked, or asking myself what happened in the last chapter. Chu is showing off in this book, and I’m here for it. There’s so much nuance, wonder, and excitement that I would chew off my own leg to get the whole trilogy right now. An absolutely fantastic start to a series that has (very deservedly) already been optioned for TV, so please imagine Michelle Yeoh as my absolute favorite murder momma and no-holds-barred badass Ling Taishi while reading.

There’s a lot of wonderful themes and through-lines that cross swords in this book. Acts of faith are undermined, overwritten, and proven correct across its pages. Ambition is rewarded and destroyed. Hope is found, shattered, remade. These are universal themes, made poignantly heart-breaking as families are found, made, and brought back to life. Ambitious is a delicate word for the enormity of The Art of Prophecy, but I think in the absence of something more sweeping, ‘ambitious’ is about as apt a descriptor as I’m going to find.

The world of The Art of Prophecy expands as Ling Taishi and Salminde travel across its breadth, and every part of the book becomes more and more clear, from the politics to the prophecy. Often in epic fantasy, the scope becomes blurry as you look at more of the surrounds, but in this book, distance becomes interwoven scales of armor, creating a legendary piece that ripples across every page, preparing the reader for the next desperate, incredible fight between martial arts masters.

The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu goes on sale August 9.

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