Silver Phoenix - Cindy Pon

[bookgazing]

Can I just say how gutted I am that I did not love Cindy Pon’s Chinese inspired fantasy novel. It sounded amazing (teenage girl, rejected by the marriage market must quest to find her father, who she believes has been taken captive at the Emperor’s Palace) and had a cover that popped graphically. I was ready for some vaguely Allanna reminiscent adventuring antics in a well realised fantasy world and ‘Silver Phoenix’s protagonist Ai Ling, is a charming heroine who evolves from an obedient daughter, unsure of her own abilities to a young women who defeats monsters and saves the day countless times. However, I felt that other aspects of the book, such as Pon’s creation of the fantasy kingdom of Xian, the relationships between some of the characters and the repetitive, unpolished feel to the writing let Ai Ling down.

In the first few chapters Ai Ling and her family are introduced, Ai Ling’s betrothed rejects her, Ai Ling begins to suspect she can hear people’s thoughts, the reader learns that her father left the Emperor’s Palace in disgrace and her father is recalled to the Palace. Time passes quickly and Ai Ling is all of a sudden compelled to go questing to bring her father home, because an odious man is looking to take her as a wife in repayment for an debt he alleges her father owes. So much happens so fast that the deep relationship that supposedly exists between Ai Ling and her parents, which in part makes her feel she must bring her father back, is never fully developed. The beginning of the book feels rushed and while it’s easier for the reader to form an emotional connection to Ai Ling as her thoughts are exposed to them, it’s much harder to understand how the connection between her and her parents goes beyond everyday filial loyalty. This lack of understanding makes her rapid decision to go after her father alone seem rather surprising and abrupt.

It’s the same with Pon’s fantasy The Kingdom of Xian, which is essentially China. Readers are told that the book is set in Xian, but there is never any real distinction made between Xian and China to give Xian a distinct being. It’s hard to work out why Pon felt she needed to create a new world, rather than setting her book in ancient China and just having unexpected fantastical happenings occur there, since Xian is not significantly different from it. It’s obvious that Pon has the required creative powers to bring a fantasy world to life, as she demonstrates when describing the many different monsters Ai Ling battles and the fantasy lands she explores, but Xian is just typical historic scenery that is inserted so Ai Ling isn’t walking on thin air. The lack of detail about what makes Xian, Xian evokes a feeling of constriction, as if Pon has a word limit she can’t exceed and so must cut out much of the development of her world. This sense that her story does not have enough room to breathe within the confines of her book’s structure quickly becomes familiar, as the reader sees Ai Ling find out she has a magical power and adapt to using it with the minimum of effort, angst, or curiosity about this extraordinary new ability.

But this unbelievably swift acceptance of her strange power is really my only criticism of Pon’s heroine. Ai Ling is fearless, as she sneaks out of her house to begin a lonely journey to rescue her father, but as a young girl, from a scholarly family who has not been bought up to fight she’s realistically fearful of the first supernatural encounters she has. As she gains experience and learns to properly control her abilities and weapon, she becomes the heroine, sinking her dagger into monsters, or using her abilities to save her male companions. She leads Cheng Wong and Li Rong capably without it causing conflict because she is a woman, and she makes friends with Cheng Wong, who describes himself as traditional, even though her quest is about as untraditional as it can get for girls in Xian society. And she eats! She loves food, gobbles it up at every opportunity and never worries about how eating will make her appear unladylike, because if she’s going to be an effective warrior she needs fuel and because dumplings taste good. It is ridiculous that I was so cheered to see a female heroine who actually eats her fill and is even comfortable being teased about her appetite, but happy, hungry female characters are so rare that Ai Ling feels like a feminist literary victory. Cindy Pon’s implicit feminist message is really fortifying and while I felt that sometimes her characters explicit conversation about women in Xian society felt like set pieces, rather than natural dialogue, I don’t think you can fault an author for trying to show that girls are human and that girls can fight, physically to save people.

The relationship between the three travelling companions is a valuable antidote to the other half realised relationships throughout the book. Despite Pon’s tendency to describe Cheng Wong’s golden eyes at every opportunity (know that I really want to make a Cullen comparison here, but I don’t want to be accused of playing Twilight bingo) it’s easy to see that Ai Ling and Cheng Wong’s admiration for each other goes past lust and love at first sight. It’s built on a mutual admiration of the skills and personal attributes that allow them to repeatedly save each other, as well as an interest in what is important to the other. OK there’s a little bit of lust and love at first sight in there as well, but it’s all very sweet and sensible, without a whole lot of overwrought angst. Li Rong, who is part of Cheng Wong’s adopted family is a cute character who acts as a balance to his brother and Ai Ling’s seriousness, but at the same time he isn’t just a structuring tool, he has his own personality. There’s a scene where the brothers spar and I felt a real brotherly history between them, full of all the tensions and joys that a lifetime living together brings.

My favourite aspect of the book other than Ai Ling and her travelling companions are the monsters the author includes. I’ve seen a little chatter about how they’re based on Chinese mythology, rather than being her own made up creations, but being totally unfamiliar with the darker side of Chinese mythology they felt like fresh fiends to me. I was really impressed by the level of imaginative evil that Pon introduces into her book, from the demon made of corpses to the sorcerer who steals life forces to stay alive. I can see she’s a big fan of possession and shape shifting, which I think are two of the creepiest deceptions evil can practise, so I was receptive to her version of evil and found myself interested every time another monster showed up. Her imagination also extends to creating mystical alternate kingdoms and the world of the Immortals, where her descriptions of the different kinds of mystical trees caught my attention. Unfortunately it is these inventive sections that seemed to suffer from a severe case of repetitive adjectives. Nothing is royal blue, or sky blue, everything is cerulean and the same applies to red, as crimson seems to be the only shade of red in these kingdoms.

This doesn’t sound like much but throughout the book repetitive description continued to annoy me. People with black hair, almost certainly had ‘raven’ hair, as I said above Cheng Wong’s eyes are noted as being golden about twenty times and everyone’s clothes and hair are described as soon as they are introduced, which becomes an irritating formula the more people the travellers meet. It might not sound like much, but it grated on me and it did leave me feeling like this book hadn’t reached the polished stage of a final novel. I also think there might be a completely unnecessary sequel coming, which will bug me because a little bit of extra space could have allowed for a much richer story and resolutions to some unresolved plot parts.

By the end of her adventures Ai Ling is a remarkable heroine, stranded in book that just doesn’t quite live up to the potential of the individual elements within it. I do want to recommend that people read it, because of Ai Ling and her friends, but be aware you might hit the same rough spots I did. I think there’s a much better book in Cindy Pon and it is exciting to watch authors develop, so I’ll be keeping my eyes open.

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