The Black Jade Road

The Black Jade Road (Land of Ten Thousand Willows) Kathryn Grant Date: 01 February, 1989   —   used only   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy

Now that Ty-Sun has his bride-to-be— and what was up with those Puritans, anyway?— he has to get her home. The problem is that he's quickly lost his only remaining ship, and crossing all of Asia on foot may be the only way. Moreover, the Enemy is close behind, and likely to put obstacles both real and fictional in their paths.

The problem that begins to become evident in this book is that this story is all plot, and somewhat thin at that. The justifications for several things are specious at best— particularly the "death" and moving of servant Martin— and seem to be stuck in only to make the plot more exciting. The trips to the astral plane that Ty-Sun makes seem to directly affect the physical world in an inconsistent fashion.

I give this a 3 for the simple reason that it's not badly written, but one should tread with caution. Give it to kids who've loved The Hobbit but haven't graduated to The Lord of the Rings quite yet, or to those who love fairytales but haven't started asking too much about the whys behind them yet.