Are All Asian Fantasies Similar?

Even though I was very excited to read A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin, I made the biggest eye-roll when I flipped onto the first page.

Did Titan Books really have to mention it alongside practically all of the East Asian authors who had just released Fantasy novels? Are their works even that similar aside from being broadly inspired by the same side of our home planet? Having read all three of them, I really do not think so and it just seems so silly for publishers to do this when trying to sell books. They might as well just say the book for fans of Asia and call it a day. Was there no comparison they could have made to any author who is non-Asian, maybe cause they both touch upon similar themes, have a comparable writing style? The effort to put out works by under-represented communities is much appreciated but things like that makes the whole deed seem rather questionable for it’s as if they think of the whole continent as a monolith.

That aside, I must say that it’s a pretty good book that had made me think a lot more about my background. The blend between Traditional Chinese Medicine and tea culture was fascinating and the world building on this aspect was very intricate and beautifully done. If I ever get started on Dungeons and Dragons, I might even try and ask to play as a Tea Master.

Anyway, since I have decided to write an article about it, I thought I’d discuss something else that was very curious about the book. Initially, I was very thrown off by the use of Hanyu Pinyin. In some ways it took me out of the novel’s world as I felt like it had disrupted my reading flow through a forced intermingling of Mandarin. It was as if I had to change my intonation to fit the right pronounciation in. I was so confused I began to wonder why she didn’t just use some English word instead or a created word that sounds similar to it. Perhaps the sound values of Mandarin just doesn’t blend too well with that of English. Another thing that I found strange was the way some words were in Hanyu Pinyin whereas others like names were left without the diacritics. I wished I understood the thought process here better. Curiosities aside, I did enjoy the book and I’m definitely looking forward to reading its sequel A Venom Dark and Sweet which will unfortunately, only be out in the UK next year.