Sound the Gong
By Joan He
ISBN: 9781250855367
368 Pages
Available in Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook, and Kindle
Trigger Warning: Violence and Death
Synopsis:
Zephyr rose above her humble origins as a no-name orphan, becoming a god in a warrior’s body, but she has never felt more powerless. It's the price of war, of enacting strategy, of gods and magic and fate.
But Zephyr has no intentions of respecting fate. She will do anything to see her plan succeed, and to make her enemies pay, especially the enigmatic Crow.
What she’ll do when she finds out the truth. . . Only the heavens know.
Featuring gorgeous map art and black-and-white portraits, Sound the Gong is the second book in Joan He's riveting Kingdom of Three duology that explores human greed and ambition in a war-torn world. Don't miss the epic beginning in Strike the Zither!
My Thoughts:
As mentioned in my review of Strike the Zither, part one of this duology, Sound the Gong is the second part of a two part fantasy story based loosely on the well known and often adapted Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms (often shortened to Three Kingdoms - which is also the designation for era when the story takes place). There are omissions and distinct changes - most notably that most of the main cast is women, where in the original tale, all of the important players were men. The lead character Zephyr is based on Zhuge Liang, and her lordess Xin Ren is based on the hero Liu Bei. Part two strays further from the original Three Kingdoms plot, changing significant story elements that I would want to say for sake of major spoilers. If you are familiar with the Three Kingdoms story, you will definitely see similarities in personas and certain happenings, but there is enough difference that Sound the Gong completely holds up as an independent story and will be enjoyable to both Three Kingdoms fans and readers who are not familiar with the Three Kingdoms story.
The main quartet of characters, like those seen in Three Kingdoms, is a trio of swornsisters and their military strategist. The shift in narration perspective means that you get to know the swornsisters a little better in this volume. If you know the Three Kingdoms narrative, then you know how their tale will end. Fortunately for me, while I have seen several adaptations, they have all differed slightly in how they played out and I never read the original. So I got to experience this story with no expectations. Miasma, the villain of the story, went from bad to deplorable, and her strategist Crow sadly lost most of the charm that drew me in during Zither.
The author's imagery paints a nice visual of the two worlds in the story, one side entrenched in history, and the other fantastic and magical. Sound the Gong is action packed, graphic and at points gruesome - it is a story about war after all. Despite being based on a longstanding saga, this series holds it's own as a unique story with it's own creative force, and is absolutely worth the read even if you think that you know the tale.
I encountered this series at my local library and the lovely cover art drew me, but the writing kept me engaged. I'm glad I read one right after the other, because there are a lot of characters, with more being introduced in book two, and it can get confusing. But once I got started reading, I was invested in the story and read through both books back to back. Reading Strike the Zither took a week, but Sound the Gong only took a few days.
Overall, Sound the Gong was an entertaining read. As mentioned previously, it is the second of a two part series. If you don't read the first story, you come in in the middle of a war without some important context and may find yourself very confused. I was really grateful that I did not discover this book before the library had both volumes.
Parent's Guide:
Like it's predecessor, this book has a lot going on, but isn't too complicated. It is a war epic so there is quite a bit of violence, sometimes graphic. I wouldn't advise this for younger or sensitive readers, but it has a good deal of entertainment value for more mature teens.