The book has a very nice historical backdrop and would have much potential. The characters all have allure either based on history or imagination. The story line can be interesting at times. We can disregard the writer's periodic use of modern words and focus on the beautiful references to Tang dynasty poems etc.
However, I really cannot like this book, due to how the author portraited the emperor, as all knowing, sacrificing for the country etc. This is rather unfortunate, she is probably writing to appease to modern day censorship. But this makes for unsatisfactory entertainment. When you have to be boxed in by crappy totalitarian ideologies, you don't write entertaining books.
The book has a very nice historical backdrop and would have much potential. The characters all have allure either based on history or imagination. The story line can be interesting at times. We can disregard the writer's periodic use of modern words and focus on the beautiful references to Tang dynasty poems etc.
However, I really cannot like this book, due to how the author portraited the emperor, as all knowing, sacrificing for the country etc. This is rather unfortunate, she is probably writing to appease to modern day censorship. But this makes for unsatisfactory entertainment. When you have to be boxed in by crappy totalitarian ideologies, you don't write entertaining books.