Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Hey book lovers! After loving Dragon Pearl, I snatched up an e-arc of Phoenix Extravagant, a standalone fantasy novel about a nonbinary main character who teams up with a magic mechanical dragon and a trained super fighter to take on an evil empire. Due to the pandemic, the original release date for June 2020 was pushed to October 20, 2020.

About The Book 📚

Publisher: Solaris

Suggested Reader Age: 16+

Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, LGBT,

Rep: nonbinary, polyamory, homosexual, East Indian inspired, bisexual

Triggers: sex, foul language, animal cruelty, abuse, death, violence, war.

Synopsis

“For generations the empire has spread across the world, nigh-unstoppable in their advance. Its power depends on its automata, magically animated and programmed with sigils and patterns painted in mystical pigments.

A symbol-painter – themselves a colonial subject – is frustrated in their work when their supply of Phoenix Extravagant dries up, and sets out to find the source. What they’ll discover is darker than anything they could have imagined…”

About The Author

“Yoon Ha Lee is an American science fiction writer born on January 26, 1979 in Houston, Texas. His first published story, “The Hundredth Question,” appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1999; since then, over two dozen further stories have appeared. He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.” https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3001246.Yoon_Ha_Lee

My Review

› Gyen Jebi is an almost twenty-six-year-old nonbinary painter who can give objects abilities using special paint made from rare pigments, one of those pigments is called “Phoenix Extravagant”. Hwaguk is a Korean-inspired land that has been conquered by the Razanei Empire. Jebi and their sister, Bongsunga, have had a hard life. Their parents died of a disease when they were young and Bongsunga was left to raise Jebi, and then Bongsunga lost her wife in the Razan war six years ago.

› Jebi and Bongsunga are low on money and owe a moneylender a large sum of money. The Razanei deputy minister of Armor agrees to pay that debt in exchange for Jebi to become an employee.

› Jebi reluctantly accepts the job as a painter for the army and that’s when they meet Arazi. A dragon. An advanced war engine. We know something horrible happened when the Armor tried to use the mechanical dragon in battle, and so it needs an experienced painter to find the right pigments and symbols to fix it, give it the necessary abilities to be used in war. Jebi also meets Vei – a tall woman with brown skin, tattoos and long hair. The Armor’s duelist prime – an expert in sword fighting (who reminded me of Legolas from Lord of the Rings).

› They didn’t know exactly what happened at the massacre with Arazi. Jebi figures there’s no one better to ask than the dragon – so using the pigments and symbols they gave Arazi telepathy. This is when things get really weird. Jebi and Arazi regularly speak to each other in their minds for the rest of the story and I’m sorry it just felt really strange and childish. If this were a middle grade book then yeah, that would have been cool, but as a mature young adult novel it just didn’t work for me.

› I use the CAWPILE method to rate books.
0-3 Really bad
4-6 Mediocre
7-9 Really good
10 Outstanding

› Characters: 9

› Atmosphere: 7

› Writing Style: 8

› Plot: 5

› Intrigue: 7

› Logic: 6

› Enjoyment: 8

Average 7.1

1.1-2.2 = ★
2.3-4.5 = ★★
4.6-6.9 = ★★★
7-8.9 = ★★★★
9-10 = ★★★★★

My Rating ★★★★

› Final Thoughts
• With a diverse cast and imaginative setting, Phoenix Extravagant is a story about family, war, rebellion, and loyalty that reminded me of The Hunger Games.