The looming threat of a once-in-a-millennium magical event sends nineteenth-century China into violent chaos in this epic alternate-history fantasy.
Author of the Seventh Sword series Dave Duncan transports us to Imperial China in an alternate nineteenth century-an Asian epoch not unlike the Boxer Rebellion era-with a spellbinding tale of rebellion, political intrigue, larceny, seduction, shape-shifting, dark magic, and murder. These are troubled years in the Good Land.
Ten centuries have passed since the last time the Portal of a Thousand Worlds opened, bringing chaos, upheaval, and radical change to the then-ruling dynasty, and now the mystical gateway is rumored to be on the verge of opening once more. Only the Firstborn-he who has been reincarnated through countless generations and remembers all he has ever learned-knows what the future holds, but he has been imprisoned for refusing to comply with a repressive imperial government's wishes.
Now, those hoping to seize the opportunity for wealth and position are hatching sinister plots. And as the cold-hearted dowager empress closely guards a fateful secret, and a rebel army led by a fanatical zealot gathers strength under the Bamboo Banner, the cataclysm approaches. . . .
The recipient of two Aurora Awards and numerous Locus and Endeavour Award nominations, Dave Duncan is an acknowledged master of sword-and-sorcery adventure on par with George R. R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame. A sprawling epic with a colorful cast of royals, thieves, prostitutes, gods, warriors, dragons, assassins, merchants, and mages set against the backdrop of a volatile alternate Asia, Portal of a Thousand Worlds is a magnificent work of invention from one of the premier fantasists of our day.
An aging Empress, a group of monks who make murder their main mission, and a ragtag army - led by a crazy man - who are high on drugs and convinced they are invincible. All of this in an alternate version of 19th-century Imperial China where politics truly makes for strange bedfellows.
First, this book is not really fantasy, though it is being marketed as such. Nor is it really sci-fi. It's almost more like a (very) loose Biblical parable, if Jesus was known as the Urfather and his disciples were Chinese killers and thieves. Having said that, as a person who is absolutely *not* religious, it was still a fairly decent story, and at no point was there anything overtly religious - just some...similarities. But - not fantasy, so if you're looking for that exclusively, you can stop reading here.
The story itself could be described as epic, if one is allowed to use that term about anything not in a series. It's long, there are a LOT of people involved, multiple plotlines, and various generations. It's also not a fast-moving tale. Instead of being like a race-horse, it's the slow and steady gate of a mule that will get you there. The names of the characters are...unusual...to the point that, sometimes, it sort of jerked me out of the story to try and reconcile what I was reading. Having said that, I still found myself interested in how the story would go and how all the various threads of the story would finish.
The characters never truly grabbed me, though I thought Sunshine the best of the lot. It's not that they weren't developed, but I simply did not feel like I cared about them. I'm not sure if it was due to the constant switching of viewpoints, or the large amount of viewpoints there were, but there just was not a connection forged.
Overall, it was just an ok book. I would recommend library over purchasing for most, unless you are already a fan of this author and his works.
