This month I’m recommending a Young Adult novel which is set in a world based on Eastern and Central Asia but which uses elements from European folklore. Spin The Dawn (2021) by Chinese-American author and composer, Elizabeth Lim, is the first in a two volume story known as The Blood of the Stars. The second volume Unravel The Dusk (2022) has already been published and both are available as paperbacks with gorgeous covers or as ebooks.

This is the story of a young woman called Maia Tamarin. She lives in a small coastal town in the great empire of A’landi. Talented seamstress Maia was once part of a very happy family and her father, Baba, was one of the most skilled tailors in A’landi. After Maia’s mother died, her father took to drink and later all three of Maia’s elder brothers had to go and fight for the Emperor Khanujin in a brutal civil war between the Emperor and the warlord known as the shansen. Eventually a peace-deal is arranged with the Emperor agreeing to marry the shansen’s only daughter, Lady Sarnai, but by this time two of Maia’s brothers have been killed and the third badly injured. Maia struggles to support her family with her needlework while fending off an unwanted suitor. She longs to be the greatest tailor in the empire but women aren’t allowed to be tailors in A’landi.

Everything changes when a eunuch from the Imperial Court arrives with a summons from Emperor Khanujin. Baba is to travel to the Summer Palace to sew for the Emperor. Maia tries to explain that her father is too unwell to travel and her brother has little talent for sewing but the eunuch insists that the invitation only applies to a male Master Tailor. Deciding to snatch this chance to improve the family fortunes, Maia cuts her hair short and disguises herself as her lame brother. Baba reluctantly gives her his blessing and a pair of very special scissors that once belonged to Maia’s grandmother.

At the Summer Palace Maia learns that she is the youngest of twelve tailors summoned to compete for the title of Imperial Tailor. Their challenges are to create garments for the Emperor’s bride-to-be, Lady Sarnai, and those whose offerings fail to please her will be sent home. The first task is to make an elaborate shawl from white silk by the next morning. Maia soon finds that some of the other tailors are prepared to sabotage their rivals’ work. She is only able to complete her damaged shawl when she discovers that her grandmother’s scissors have magical powers. As the competition progresses, Maia is reluctant to use the scissors again, partly because she feels that it is cheating and partly because she is being carefully watched by the Emperor’s Lord Enchanter, Edan. She fears that he may have guessed that she is girl pretending to be a boy – an offence which could cost her her life.

Maia finds herself caught up in court intrigues. There is something very strange about the Emperor and fiercely independent Lady Sarnai clearly does not wish to marry him. Maia earns magic-hating Sarnai’s emnity by refusing to spy on the Lord Enchanter but is still chosen to face a near-impossible challenge. She must make copies of the legendary dresses of the goddess Amana woven from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon and the blood of the stars. Maia’s quest for these magical substances will take her on a long and dangerous journey through and beyond A’landi. Lord Edan defies the Emperor to go with her and together they face bandits, assassins, ghosts and demons. Maia and Edan slowly discover each other’s secrets but this is a quest which will demand terrible sacrifices from both of them.

One of the best things to happen to Fantasy fiction in recent times is that authors from a wider range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds are getting published and changing and enriching the genre. Asian Fantasy has a fascinating heritage of history, mythology and folklore to draw on and is flourishing. Lim has made very good use of the geography and material culture of Imperial China in The Blood of the Stars. I love Fantasy novels with well drawn maps and these novels have a beautiful example by Virginia Allyn. The Silk Road has become the Spice Road, the Heavenly Mountains feature as the Mountains of the Moon and the fearsome Taklamakan Desert as the spider-haunted Halakmarat Desert. Lim describes the daily life of her invented world in convincing detail, whether it is in an Imperial Palace or a nomad’s tent. One trivial reason for reading Asian Fantasy is that the food is so good. I could almost taste the steamed coconut buns and taro puffs that Maia loves.

An important part of traditional Chinese culture is the unbreakable bond between family members, both living and dead. Maia is portrayed as a devoted daughter and sister as well as a uniquely talented individual. Her mother and two of her brothers are dead before the main story starts, but we get to know them through Maia’s memories even before they appear as ghosts in Unravel the Dusk. In the course of the story Maia learns more about her ancestors and the gift they have handed down the generations. Maia also has a strong sense of duty to her Emperor, however fallible he may be, and to her country. Maia’s development from shy submissive girl to strong and confident young woman is a story arc familiar from numerous Young Adult novels but Lim also shows us how her heroine contributes to the welfare of her family and her society. Maia’s situation is contrasted with that of Lady Sarnai whose male relatives have patronised and betrayed her. Sarnai, with her warrior skills and her determination to stick with the man she loves whatever the political consequences is a more typical modern heroine than gentle, reserved Maia but Lim resolutely refuses to make ruthless Sarnai into a likeable person. The intertwining fates of these two very different young women were more interesting to me than the rather conventional love affair between Maia and her ageless enchanter.

In the early part of Spin the Dawn, the relationship between Sarnai and Maia is that of judge and contestant. I’m guessing that, like me, Lim is a fan of The Great British Sewing Bee. She seems to have fun parodying the rules of this much loved TV programme with its scary judges and plucky competitors. In The Great British Sewing Bee the sewers taking part are always kind and supportive towards each other. That isn’t the case in this fictional competition in which all kinds of dirty tricks are played including getting sewers drunk and setting fire to their work. Since I have a passionate interest in Asian textiles, I was almost bound to love The Blood of the Stars. Lim has done her research on tailoring and embroidery and all the garments that Maia creates are beautifully described but this isn’t just a story about posh frocks. The three dresses of the goddess Amana are awe-inspiring magical artefacts as dangerous as Thor’s Hammer or one of the Rings of Power.

The inspiration for these dresses seems to come from a popular motif in European folktales in which a persecuted heroine hides three marvellous dresses one as gold as the sun, one as silver as the moon and one that glitters like stars (see Grimm Tales for Young and Old Fantasy Reads May 2014) inside nutshells. I remember being enchanted by this image as a child and perhaps Lim was too. She has transposed the motif to an Asian setting and transformed it into something rich and strange. Some might call this `cultural appropriation’ but surely folktales are a common heritage for all humanity? Maia’s skillfully woven story has made me look at familiar things in new ways and isn’t that one of the main purposes of fiction? Until next month….

Geraldine