Blog Tour: Strike the Zither by Joan He

That's right, I'm here with another blog tour stop for you all today! 

Today I am featuring Joan He's latest upcoming release Strike the Zither! I have been consistently impressed by Joan He's work and have no doubt that Strike the Zither is going to be just as creative and engaging as her previous work. As usual, below you'll find some information and a summary of the book, some information about Joan He herself, and some amazing things other people have been saying about Strike the Zither. And can we talk about how absolutely striking this cover is? I am really loving the overall design and colors used throughout. 

Huge thanks to Ellen Whitfield for her help with this blog tour and providing me with a copy of Strike the Zither!

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Title: STRIKE THE ZITHER
Author:  Joan He
Pub. Date: October 25th, 2022
Publisher: Roaring Brook/Macmillian
Find it: Amazon | Bookshop.org | Barnes & Noble

SYNOPSIS:

“New York Times and Indie bestselling author Joan He shocked readers with the rich Chinese-inspired fantasy Descendant of the Crane, and stunned with the “cli-fi” (climate sci-fi) twists of The Ones We’re Meant to Find. Now she returns with a masterful, genderswapped reimagining of China’s most famous historical epic, Three Kingdoms, in her new novel STRIKE THE ZITHER (October 25, 2022, Roaring Brook Press). 

He is diversifying a YA market saturated by Eurocentric fantasy and Western canon by exploring a classic based on one of China’s most tumultuous eras in a way that is captivating for unfamiliar readers, and thrilling for lovers of the original tale. 

STRIKE THE ZITHER opens to a world of chaos in the year 414 of the Xin Dynasty, with a puppet empress on the throne and three warlordesses hoping to claim the continent for themselves. Zephyr (a female reimagining of Chinese statesman Zhuge Liang) took control of her fate by becoming the realm’s most cunning strategists, serving under warlordess Xin Ren, whose loyalty to the empress is double-edged. When Zephyr is forced to infiltrate an enemy camp she encounters the enigmatic Crow, an opposing strategist who is finally her match. But in a war in which one must betray to survive, there are more enemies than one – and not all of them are human. 

Filled with found family, adventure, and political intrigue, readers will be exported to another world where loyalty and betrayal come hand in hand."

 

EARLY PRAISE:

“Strike the Zither is a page-turner, full of unexpected twists, with an expansive, intricate world of sisterhood and subterfuge. He’s smooth, economical style is the perfect vehicle for this gripping political fantasy, marrying cat-and-mouse intrigue with a tenderness and emotional depth that heightens the stakes of every new reveal. A standout work from a remarkable author.” – Olivie Blake, author of The Atlas Six 

“A fierce reimagining of the Chinese classic: an ode to loyalty, family, destiny, and the complicated ways each of these elements bind or free the cunning strategist at the center of the tale. This riveting read is full of twists and surprises that shock and delight, building up to the epic conclusion that left me gasping.” – Judy I. Lin, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Book of Tea duology 

“Joan He takes no prisoners, and Strike the Zither is her latest triumph. An intricate, expansive epic that poses difficult questions and eschews easy answers, this book is as ambitious as its scheming, ruthless cast―and just like its narrator, delivers above and beyond.” – Margaret Owen, author of The Merciful Crow series and Little Thieves 

“Filled with twists and turns, Strike the Zither is a meticulously plotted, supremely satisfying story that explores identity, legacy, and loyalty in unexpected ways. This is Joan He’s best yet.” – Hannah Whitten, New York Times-bestselling author of FOR THE WOLF 

“Rich with intrigue and epic in scale. Strike the Zither grows tall on the heroic classics it draws from, yet beats powerfully with a heart of its own.” – Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the These Violent Delights Duet 

“Richly layered and highly creative, Strike the Zither offers a world brimming with war, love, and unforgettable characters. A truly magnificent book.” – June Hur, bestselling author of The Red Palace 

“In this tautly plotted, vividly reimagined tale of a beloved Chinese classic, He orchestrates an epic page-turner… Strike the Zither will keep you guessing―and gasping for more.” – June CL Tan, internationally bestselling author of Jade Fire Gold 

“Strike the Zither reimagines the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms in a way never seen before, with intense twists and turns that pay homage to its inspiration while being refreshingly different. A brilliant exploration of destiny and identity!” – Xiran Jay Zhao, New York Times-bestselling author of Iron Widow

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

JOAN HE was born and raised in Philadelphia but still will, on occasion, lose her way. At a young age, she received classical instruction in oil painting before discovering that storytelling was her favorite form of expression. She studied Psychology and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Pennsylvania and currently writes from a desk overlooking the Delaware River. Descendant of the Crane is her debut young adult fantasy. Her next novel, Strike the Zither, is the first in a duology and will be published on October 25, 2022. 

LINKS: Author Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram

Review: The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

 

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He
Roaring Brook Press
Publication Date: May 4th, 2021
Hardcover. 384 pages.

About The Ones We're Meant to Find:

"Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay. Determined to find her, Cee devotes her days to building a boat from junk parts scavenged inland, doing everything in her power to survive until the day she gets off the island and reunites with her sister.

 

In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara is also living a life of isolation. The eco-city she calls home is one of eight levitating around the world, built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.

 

Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But as the public decries her stance, she starts to second guess herself and decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own."

I am honestly at a bit of a loss with this one. I'm not sure what I think of it: part of me is really impressed by the beautiful, dream-like writing and the ideas that He played with, and part of me found it difficult to follow and immerse myself into. 

 

The Ones We're Meant to Find is set in a futuristic world where the earth is basically dying and becoming more and more inhospitable to humankind. To combat this, 'eco-cities' have been up into the sky where people can be protected from the devastation below, although it is only a portion of the population that is allowed this privilege. This book plays with some really interesting ideas about saving humanity, determining who is 'worthy' to be saved, and some of the morals and ethics involved in combating climate change and coming up with solutions to protect humanity.

 

The book is split with alternating perspectives between Kasey, or Kay, currently living in the aforementioned eco-cities, and Celia, who is currently living on a deserted island and has no recollection of how she got there, all she knows is that she needs to get back to her sister. I did not really connect with Kay's narrative at all. I struggled a lot with feeling like I could understand anything about Kay's personality, motivations, etc., and this really held me back from getting more involved in the story as a whole. She's supposed to be a big STEM genius, which I understood, but there wasn't quite enough hard emphasis on what she has done to get to that point for me to quite grasp everything she was capable of. I struggled a bit to get through Kay's chapters at times and found my attention just wasn't as enraptured by her narrative.

Celia, more commonly known as Cee, was easier to connect with and understand her world, but there was still a bit of a barrier that prevented me from truly getting inside her head. The island setting is obviously far easier to imagine than the eco-cities previously described, and I found these sections oddly calmly and beautiful in their sort of dreamlike-haze narrative style. Don't get me wrong, these chapters are perfectly readable and not hard to follow, but there is definitely something special present in He's writing that really comes through as we follow Cee (and the delightful robot U-Me) while she builds a boat to go find her sister. Cee seems to have a bit more in the way of personality, although even then, as I mentioned, there was something that still separated me from truly understanding her own true feelings about things–although perhaps she didn't understand her own feelings, either, which I think was probably intentional on the author's side. I could tell that He was trying to do something interesting with her two main protagonists the entire time, and I think she handled this aspect well–and I know that's vague to say, but I can't say more without giving anything away.

I found the world-building rather confusing and not fully explained– and not in a 'mysterious world' way that sometimes works in books, this was just difficult to understand. I was really intrigued from the synopsis to learn more about the eco-cities and how humanity was functioning in this new world, and although we do get some snippets into what life is like now and how things work, it all felt rather fractured to me and I the image in my mind stayed blurry about what things were like. We learn that people largely travel around via 'holo-ing' in order to cut down on people physically moving around and wasting resources, and this honestly just made for some confusing scenes and discussions for me. It also made it hard for me to understand just how these cities were set up.

As you may have seen from other reviews, there is a pretty big twist in this book, and it was one that I could tell was coming, and although I didn't know exactly what it would be, I definitely had some inklings that were on the right track and made it more fun to discover for some reason and see what I was right and wrong about. Obviously I can't say anything about the twist, but I thought it definitely caused the pace to pick up a bit and sort of drew me a bit deeper into the story because I was so curious to see the how's and why's be explained as we continued on with the story. The ending itself is also one that I think will be quite divisive, and even I'm not sure if I like it or am frustrated by it. I'm curious to hear what others thinks of it, personally.

The pacing of The One We're Meant to Find is definitely on the slower side, although it doesn't necessarily drag. It's not the most eventful story, but at the same time I had a strong awareness that He was constantly moving the book in a purposeful direction, and even if there were parts that felt slow, I could tell that important plot elements were being put into place that paid off as the story continued. And for its part, I read through this book in a little over a day, so it was obviously good at keeping me wanting to know more and captivated by what was happening–but I think part of that was also me continuing to read in hopes that I would start to understand the world more than I did.  

 

Overall, I've given The Ones We're Meant to Find 3.75 stars. This is honestly a rating that I spent way too long trying to decide on, and I'm still hovering somewhere between 3-4, but for as much as I struggled with certain aspects, I'm still thinking about it and the dreamlike writing that was oddly compelling, and finding myself wondering a bit about this concept and what could happen, which to me shows that there's definitely something about this book that I enjoyed. If you are interested in the premise, then I would encourage you to pick this one up to try. It's not going to be for everyone, and if you're looking for something fast-paced this isn't it, but if you're just curious about something new and a bit odd and are okay with the world-building being a bit hazy, then you might just enjoy this one.

 

 *I received a copy of The Ones We're Meant to Find courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.* 

Buy the book: Amazon | IndieBound

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng by K.S. Villoso, The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He, & We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

 

May is packed with releases, which means we are once again going to be featuring three books each week for Can't-Wait Wednesday because one or two are simply not enough. :)

This week's upcoming book spotlights are: 

The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng (Chronicles of the Bitch Quuen #3) by K.S. Villoso
Publication: May 4th, 2021

Orbit

Paperback. 448 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"The stunning finale to the Chronicles of the Bitch Queen trilogy where the queen of a divided land must unite her people against the enemies who threaten to tear her country apart. K. S. Villoso is a "powerful new voice in fantasy." (Kameron Hurley)

 

Queen Talyien is finally home, but dangers she never imagined await her in the shadowed halls of her father's castle.

 

War is on the horizon. Her son has been stolen from her, her warlords despise her, and across the sea, a cursed prince threatens her nation with invasion in order to win her hand.

 

Worse yet, her father's ancient secrets are dangerous enough to bring Jin Sayeng to ruin. Dark magic tears rifts in the sky, preparing to rain down madness, chaos, and the possibility of setting her nation aflame.

 

Bearing the brunt of the past and uncertain about her future, Talyien will need to decide between fleeing her shadows or embracing them before the whole world becomes an inferno."

I'm not sure what to say about this other than: I'm so excited to find out how Villoso is going to wrap up this incredible and unpredictable trilogy! I've really been enjoying this series and I'm glad I'll get a chance to pick up the finale soon. :)

and...

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

Publication: May 4th, 2021

Roaring Brook Press

Hardcover. 384 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay. Determined to find her, Cee devotes her days to building a boat from junk parts scavenged inland, doing everything in her power to survive until the day she gets off the island and reunites with her sister.

 

In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara is also living a life of isolation. The eco-city she calls home is one of eight levitating around the world, built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.

 

Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But as the public decries her stance, she starts to second guess herself and decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own."

I'm not usually a big fan of people on covers, but since the moment I saw this cover I was absolutely enraptured by it and it's pretty much what made me have to know what it was about--and I think it sounds like an amazing story, also!

and...

We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker

Publication: May 11th, 2021

Berkley Books

Paperback. 368 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"Everybody's getting one. 

Val and Julie just want what's best for their kids, David and Sophie. So when teenage son David comes home one day asking for a Pilot, a new brain implant to help with school, they reluctantly agree. This is the future, after all. 

Soon, Julie feels mounting pressure at work to get a Pilot to keep pace with her colleagues, leaving Val and Sophie part of the shrinking minority of people without the device. 

Before long, the implications are clear, for the family and society: get a Pilot or get left behind. With government subsidies and no downside, why would anyone refuse? And how do you stop a technology once it's everywhere? Those are the questions Sophie and her anti-Pilot movement rise up to answer, even if it puts them up against the Pilot's powerful manufacturer and pits Sophie against the people she loves most."

I'm honestly ever-so-slightly hesitant about this one simply because this feels very similar in premise to other books I've read, but I did  enjoy Pinsker's A Song for a New Day and I have high hopes that she can do something cool with this one! It's definitely a premise I'm drawn to and I can't wait to have a chance to check it out!

What do you think about these upcoming releases? What are your anticipated upcoming releases?

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Descendant of the Crane by Joan He & The Deepest Blue by Sarah Beth Durst

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

This week's upcoming book spotlight is:

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He
Publication Date: April 2nd, 2019

Albert Whitman & Company
416 pages

Pre-order: Amazon | Book Depository | IndieBound 

From Goodreads: 

"Tyrants cut out hearts. Rulers sacrifice their own. 

Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, but when her beloved father is murdered, she’s thrust into power, suddenly the queen of an unstable kingdom. Determined to find her father’s killer, Hesina does something desperate: she engages the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by death... because in Yan, magic was outlawed centuries ago. 

Using the information illicitly provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust even her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant and alluring investigator who’s also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of her kingdom at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high? 

In this shimmering Chinese-inspired fantasy, debut author Joan He introduces a determined and vulnerable young heroine struggling to do right in a world brimming with deception."

I really love most Asian-inspired fantasy books that I've read, so that inspiration sparked my intitial interest in this book. I think Princess Hesina sounds like she'll be a promising protagonist as well and I can't wait to dive in and see where the plot goes!

and...

The Deepest Blue by Sarah Beth Durst
Publication Date: March 19th, 2019

Harper Voyager
368 pages

Pre-order: Amazon | Book Depository | IndieBound

From Goodreads: 

"The natural magic of the classic The Island of the Blue Dolphins meets the danger and courage of The Hunger Games in this dazzling, intricate stand-alone fantasy novel set in award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst’s beloved world of Renthia. 

Life is precious and precarious on the islands of Belene. Besieged by a capricious ocean full of malicious spirits, the people of the islands seek joy where they can. Mayara, one of the island’s fearless oyster divers, has found happiness in love. But on the day of her wedding to the artist Kelo, a spirit-driven storm hits the island with deadly force. 

To save her loved ones, Mayara reveals a dangerous secret: she has the power to control the spirits. When the storm ends, she is taken into custody by the queen’s soldiers and imprisoned with other women like her. 

They vary in age and social status, but to many they are heroes who will aide the country or witches that will sacrifice themselves trying. No matter who they are, the women are sent to a terrifying place—an island filled with bloodthirsty nature spirits, and left without food, water, shelter, or any tools except their own instincts and magic. Whoever survives the Island of Testing will be declared heirs to the queen. But no matter if she wins or loses, Mayara knows that the life she dreamed of is gone."

Durst is the author of the popular Queens of Renthia series, and I believe this book is considered a standalone novel that's merely set in the same world as the previous trilogy, which makes me excited to check it out! I feel like it's been a while since I've read an island setting, so I'm looking forward to that aspect.

What do you think about these upcoming releases? What are your anticipated upcoming releases?

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