Wesley Chu

A “superb fantasy saga” (Helene Wecker) of martial arts and magic, about what happens when a prophesied hero is not the chosen one after all—but has to work with a band of unlikely allies to save the kingdom anyway, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lives of Tao
 
“An ambitious and touching exploration of disillusionment in faith, tradition, and family—a glorious reinvention of fantasy and wuxia tropes.”—Naomi Novik, New York Times bestselling author of A Deadly Education

So many stories begin the same way: With a prophecy. A chosen one. And the inevitable quest to slay a villain, save the kingdom, and fulfill a grand destiny.
 
But this is not that kind of story. 
 
It does begin with a prophecy: A child will rise to defeat the Eternal Khan, a cruel immortal god-king, and save the kingdom. 
 
And that prophecy did anoint a hero, Jian, raised since birth in luxury and splendor, and celebrated before he has won a single battle. 
 
But that’s when the story hits its first twist: The prophecy is wrong. 
 
What follows is a story more wondrous than any prophecy could foresee, and with many unexpected heroes: Taishi, an older woman who is the greatest grandmaster of magical martial arts in the kingdom but who thought her adventuring days were all behind her; Sali, a straitlaced warrior who learns the rules may no longer apply when the leader to whom she pledged her life is gone; and Qisami, a chaotic assassin who takes a little too much pleasure in the kill.
 
And Jian himself, who has to find a way to become what he no longer believes he can be—a hero after all.

The War Arts Saga #1

The Art of Prophecy

This book literally took me years to finish, and I hate that it took so long for me to get into it, but the second half of the book was so good that it made everything else worth it. 

Jacque

I picked this book up more than anything for the cover, but I stayed for the story. This is a phenomenal martial high fantasy book. It’s told in multiple perspectives that span the hero, a mentor, the enemy, and a somewhat villainous character with plot lines that all converge and overlap throughout the story. 

Taishi is by far my favorite character-she is sassy and entertaining and a complete badass. PLUS she can walk on wind. I did listen to this book on audio, and I have to say the narration is phenomenal. It’s easy to tell who is speaking when, which can be hard in a multi-POV story, and it is done spectacularly. 

I cannot wait to see how this series continues and will definitely be picking up the rest of these books as they come!

Tace

I picked this book up more than anything for the cover, but I stayed for the story. This is a phenomenal martial high fantasy book. It’s told in multiple perspectives that span the hero, a mentor, the enemy, and a somewhat villainous character with plot lines that all converge and overlap throughout the story. 

Taishi is by far my favorite character-she is sassy and entertaining and a complete badass. PLUS she can walk on wind. I did listen to this book on audio, and I have to say the narration is phenomenal. It’s easy to tell who is speaking when, which can be hard in a multi-POV story, and it is done spectacularly. 

I cannot wait to see how this series continues and will definitely be picking up the rest of these books as they come!




altlovesbooks

More like 3.5 stars, rounded up.

I admit, I got sucked in by another pretty cover. I have a thing for striking black and white art. 

Jian is told from an early age that he's the chosen one, the one who is expected to do great things and save the people based on prophecy alone. The problem is that he was raised knowing this, and as a result grows up spoiled, unprepared, and basically untrained. Taishi, an elderly martial arts master sent to test him on his preparedness, is stunned and disgusted to find out what's been made of their once-in-a-lifetime champion, and becomes his teacher to make things right. Along the way, this master/student duo meets up with skeptical side characters who disagree with Jian's Chosen One role, and things decidedly do not go as planned.

This book definitely reminded me of high flying fantastical wuxia films I've seen in the past. There's lots of magical martial arts involved, drunken style references, and a good bit of sometimes slapstick humor. The cast is large and interesting for the most part, though I had some side characters I liked more than others. The setting is definitely inspired by Imperial China, but varied enough that I didn't get a been-there-done-that vibe. The Chosen One trope, evident from the book's description, is turned on its head in an interesting (if not unexpected) way, which was refreshing to read.

All that said, this book just didn't hit the right notes for me to rate it much higher. The writing style was just okay, a bit flat for what I generally read. The book was also very long and a bit meandering in its many different plot lines, and the constant shifting of viewpoints were sometimes hard to keep up with. It definitely had an anime/wuxia feel to parts, which I really appreciated, but sometimes in other parts just didn't work. 

I highly recommend this book if you're into high flying wuxia epics, particularly because this is the first book of a series. Maybe pass on it if you're looking for depth and nuance, though.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Cloudface

I picked this book up because I love twists on the “chosen one” trope in fantasy and I was not disappointed. The cast of characters sprang to life on the page and I’m very interested to see where the rest of this series goes. Ling Taishi might be my favorite character from any book I’ve read this year; I am also a sucker for the “legendary hero who just wants to retire” trope and her deadpan humor had me laughing so hard I had to put the book down. If the author ever writes a prequel about her life I would buy that in a heartbeat.
I had to gush about Taishi because she’s my favorite, but I really liked all the characters in this book. 
I will say it took me a long time to finish this novel because it got so slow in the middle, and sometimes the descriptions of the settings were so vague that I couldn’t form a clear picture of where they were. Also, Qisami was… my least favorite POV character. She felt a little cartoonish with her bloodlust, but I’m hoping she’ll get fleshed out a little more in future installments. I will look forward to book two, but I’ll have to be in a specific mindset to read it whenever it comes out.

This was a little disappointing to me, but I think it might be because I found the premise so interesting and I hyped it up for myself. Basically a prophecy hundreds of years in the making is broken - so what happens now to the Prophesied Hero now? And how could the prophecy be so wrong? The war arts aspect and the cultures created were vibrant but the execution of the idea was insanely slow to me. In my opinion, almost all the characters were very unlikable. Only Taishi was interesting and worth reading about. Plot wise, there were some questions that I think should have been answered. Why exactly were the Zhuun and Katuia people at each others throats?? What is jing? Etc. The writing was fine, but Chu indulges in a lot of repetition, often using the same word twice in a sentence or the following sentence which drove me a little crazy. I haven’t decided if I will continue the series. 

Katie Allard

I reviewed this when I read it forever ago on readerly when it came out but I love this story. They call everyone eggs which to me iss somehow the best part. I will literally die on the alter of  fantasy books with absoluttely no romance and women protagonists over the age of 40 being the nest fantasy books. Fight me. 

The Art of Prophecy The War Arts Saga #1

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