The Poet Empress by Seattle area author Shen Tao is not the kind of book that I traditionally read. Fantasy, particularly fantasy involving royal families, is really not my bag. I don’t like stories about destiny and preserving bloodlines and other determinative nonsense. But the book came highly recommended by Lost the Plot mobile bookshop, and so I gave it a try, and I’m glad I did. The closest comparison to a book that I can find for this one is The Hunger Games, in terms of a likable protagonist thrown into a life-or-death system that she doesn’t fully understand.
Tao’s world building is at once expansive and restrained: We’re not bored to death with acres of lore before the story starts. Instead, we’re thrown in and Tao parcels information as it’s needed as the narrative unfolds. Our impoverished hero unwillingly becomes the concubine to a sociopathic prince who can magically control knives, and she must find a way to survive and to provide for her family.
After I tore through the first two hundred pages, The Poet Empress slowed down a bit for me as the story began to follow some well-trod paths. But I’m eager to read whatever Tao writes next—if she can inspire me to eagerly read a fantasy novel, she can do just about anything.
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