Wow. This was a book that was kind of picked by Tor Publishing via a quiz. I will say this, I was not expecting this book to be so incredible!

The three main characters for me were Ouiyang, Zhu, and Xu Da. They all were fascinating and the story is more sweeping than I imagined. It takes place in 14th century China/Mongolia, and in the middle of all this. A monastery where our main character comes into her own. Zhu goes from scared, dying of starvation, little girl - to a monk novice in about a third of the book. She's thoroughly developed but when she disappears and returns - she is not the same little girl. She's grown into a crazy monk in which Heaven itself listens too!

Maybe fact, maybe a bit of fiction but one thing I was promised was a book that had armies, and battles, and political intrigue, and this book does not disappoint.

I'm going to be reading it's companion in a few months. He who drowned the moon.