Book Review:

Song of the Six Realms by Judy I. Lin

Publication Date: April 23, 2024

Summary from Goodreads:

Xue, a talented young musician, has no past and probably no future. Orphaned at a young age, her kindly poet uncle took her in and arranged for an apprenticeship at one of the most esteemed entertainment houses in the kingdom. She doesn’t remember much from before entering the House of Flowing Water, and when her uncle is suddenly killed in a bandit attack, she is devastated to lose her last connection to a life outside of her indenture contract.

With no family and no patron, Xue is facing the possibility of a lifetime of servitude playing the qin for nobles that praise her talent with one breath and sneer at her lowly social status with the next. Then one night she is unexpectedly called to the garden to put on a private performance for the enigmatic Duke Meng. The young man is strangely kind and awkward for nobility, and surprises Xue further with an irresistible offer: serve as a musician in residence at his manor for one year, and he’ll set her free of her indenture.

But the Duke’s motives become increasingly more suspect when he and Xue barely survive an attack by a nightmarish monster, and when he whisks her away to his estate, she discovers he’s not just some country noble: He’s the Duke of Dreams, one of the divine rulers of the Celestial Realm. There she learns the Six Realms are on the brink of disaster, and incursions by demonic beasts are growing more frequent.

The Duke needs Xue’s help to unlock memories from her past that could hold the answers to how to stop the impending war… but first Xue will need to survive being the target of every monster and deity in the Six Realms.

Confession:

I fell in love with this cover the minute I saw it. I think it is the prettiest one I have seen so far this year. The summary of the book also sounded very good to me, so I didn’t hesitate to add it to my TBR. I had heard good things about this author’s other books, so was looking forward to enjoying this one. Unfortunately I did not fall in love with it, I did like it, but I had a lot of issues with it as well.

The book is totally told from Xue’s point of view. I liked Xue quite a bit, I found her to be endearing and very relatable. She was also pretty brave, smart, curious and a wonderful musician. She is a little bit out of her depth, being a mortal in an immortal world, but she holds her own and defends herself and her morals well. But I never really felt connected to her. Her story ended up being a bit bland and so uninteresting that I ended up not caring about any of the characters. Her love interest, the Duke of Dreams, had hardly any page time, so it was hard to accept their romance. I did like the Duke though, when we did see him.

My biggest issue with the book was the pacing, It was really slow throughout, so slow that I kept finding my mind wandering and losing track of the story. I think this also lent itself to me not really understanding the whole story, especially the things that happened at the end. The whole story just sort of felt jumbled up and didn’t make much sense to me. Probably part of this was due to my attention constantly wandering, but I’m not sure. I’m not sure what compelled me to finish the book, but I kept at it hoping things would pick up, and that I would have that moment where it all came together and made sense. But sadly that never happened.

The writing was a bit of a saving grace though, and the world building to a certain extent. Both were wonderfully done. The writing was gorgeous at times, especially when Xue was playing her music or talking about it. The descriptions of both the mortal realm and the celestial were breathtaking and really painted a picture in my mind. But I think that some of the writing is what bogged down the story a bit as well. I also liked and appreciated the folklore sprinkled throughout the story, and the poetry. These were woven into the story quite seamlessly and made the world feel real.

Even though I didn’t fall in love with this book liked I hoped I would, I did like it enough to give this author another chance. There are many people who thought this was a great book, but I saw more than a few reviews that had the same issues as I did. If you are a fan of the author, certainly give this one a chance. If you have not read any of her other books, you might want to start with one of her other books, as I don’t think this is her best work. Also, if you are looking for a good romantasy, this certainly isn’t one to pick up. But if you are interested in a fantasy steeped in asian folklore, than this is one you might want to give a chance.