Joan He

A dazzling new fantasy from New York Times and Indie bestselling author Joan He, Strike the Zither is a powerful, inventive, and sweeping fantasy that reimagines the Chinese classic tale of the Three Kingdoms.

The year is 414 of the Xin Dynasty, and chaos abounds. A puppet empress is on the throne. The realm has fractured into three factions and three warlordesses hoping to claim the continent for themselves.

But Zephyr knows it’s no contest.

Orphaned at a young age, Zephyr took control of her fate by becoming the best strategist of the land and serving under Xin Ren, a warlordess whose loyalty to the empress is double-edged―while Ren’s honor draws Zephyr to her cause, it also jeopardizes their survival in a war where one must betray or be betrayed. When Zephyr is forced to infiltrate an enemy camp to keep Ren’s followers from being slaughtered, she encounters the enigmatic Crow, an opposing strategist who is finally her match. But there are more enemies than one―and not all of them are human.


Kingdom of Three #1

Strike the Zither

We're all so transient. We live and we die; we forget and we're forgotten. The earth claims our bodies and strangers claim our names.

"It's a bad habit of mine, liking ruinous things."

"As you made the heavens rain arrows,  I realised that the two of us could not coexist in this world."

Kaitlyn

"Do you think I'd have lived to the ripe old age of nineteen if I took an arrow for anyone?”

"Worry not," says Crow. "I have plenty of time to woo you. I could even take another arrow if I need to."

It feels so real. I'm living, He’s living. 

Strike the Zither quotes

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