Song of Silver, Flame Like Night

I am a huge fan of fantasy books, but they can be predictable. If you’ve read a few, you know what I mean. Song of Silver, Flame Like Night is a breath of fresh air. It’s set against a rich backdrop inspired by Chinese mythology. The lead characters, Lan and Zen, are multi-faceted and intriguing, and I felt invested in their stories from the first few pages. The peripheral characters are no less interesting and left me wanting more.

The book is fascinating whether you know anything about Chinese myths and legends or not. My only link to China is the Tai Chi I practice once a week! Amelie is a captivating writer. Each chapter is fast-paced, and the plot twists and turns. She is not sentimental with her characters, so you never really know who will survive. Having finished, I definitely want to know when the sequel is due.

More about the book:

Once, Lan had a different name. Now, she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and spends her days scavenging for remnants of the past. For anything that might help her understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother, in her last act before she died. No one can see the mysterious mark, an untranslatable Hin character, except Lan. Until the night a boy appears at the teahouse and saves her life.
Zen is a practitioner – one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom, whose abilities were rumoured to be drawn from the demons they communed with. Magic believed to be long lost. Magic to be hidden from the Elantians at all costs. Both Lan and Zen have secrets buried deep within. Fate has connected them, but their destiny
remains unwritten. Both hold the power to liberate their land. And both hold the power to destroy the world.

I was gifted a copy of Song of Silver, Flame Like Night in return for an honest review.

Hannah Powell is a book blogger, author and director of two garden centres. Her award-winning memoir, The Cactus Surgeon, compares her days in the concrete of London, leading to burnout, with her nature-rich upbringing in rural Essex. It’s a nature and health memoir full of mindful moments.