A Chinese myth tells of the situation that arose when the ten children of the Sun Goddess decided to go out into the sky all at once on their own. Normally, the Sun Goddess would take one sun across the sky in her chariot. With ten suns in the sky, the earth below was suffering. A solution was found in having an archer shoot down each sun, leaving only one.
In this novel, the archer marries a woman who would become the Moon Goddess. She drinks an elixir of immortality that was given to the archer as a reward for his actions that saved the earth and humanity. I have read only a little bit of Chinese mythology, so I was familiar with the first part of the myth. Did the archer marry someone who became a Moon Goddess in actual historical mythology? I will have to do some research.
I like the idea of taking a myth and then extending it. I am trying to do that myself in my own stories and artwork. I don’t remember if the life force that each individual possesses was called Chi in the novel, but I assume it is what was referred to many times throughout the story as the power that individuals tapped into during times of battle.
I felt a little aversion to the developing romance, as I feared that it might become too much like teenage insecurity and inexperience, but it actually added to the overall emotional weight of the narrative. It helped establish the connection, friendships, loyalties, and love in the story. It made the betrayals and rededication of friendship more powerful. I enjoyed the feeling when characters formed relationships that said I can trust this person no matter the situation. They will support me, and they will do the right thing.
There was a continuous rhythmic pattern flow of loss and victory. A new problem would arise and then solutions had to be discovered that fit logically and comfortably into the context. It was done well.
There was a feeling that the novel was YA and only slightly crossed into an adult book. The politics were impressions and not detailed very much, which was good because they could easily become confused and entangled. The book has left me with a feeling that I need to explore Chinese mythology because I think there may be references in the story to a larger mythic world that I missed due to my lack of knowledge. The experience of this story can only become richer when there are more connections made with other stories and the world.
There is a second book in this series, and I will be reading it later this year.