This book was extremely detailed and beutifully written. The story was so engaging that I couldnt put it down no matter what I wanted to do until it was finished.

A unique look into the possible life of Chinese Emperors and their attendants in the Forbidden City.

I was torn between being intensely fascinated by the story of Empress Wu and being bored to tears by being inundated by too much detail. I won't recommend this book to anyone I know but I can't warn anyone away from reading it.

It's a really interesting story, and filled with awesome historical details. However, the prose can be a bit clunky and slow sometimes.

Interesting from a historical perspective but I kept rolling my eyes at the over the top prose. I wonder if it was better in the original language (either Chinese or French)?

All in all a good book, very descriptive which I normally enjoy...but this was a bit extreme. I did enjoy learning about the culture though. Fascinating.

J'avais adoré La Joueuse de Go mai je n'ai pas été séduite par ma lecture d'Impératrice...

“Shan Sa is a celebrated painter.” In the Empress she uses words on a page as her media. Beautiful.

This book was interesting, but cold. Meant to give us special insight to a woman who achieved remarkable power during a time when women never had power, I feel I learned a lot about Empress Wu but never, through all the pages of this book, felt anything for her. She was calculating and infinitely practical, taking advantage of every circumstance in her life to become what she became. It's impressive to see a woman do so much, yes, but the way she did it (felt to me) was by behaving like a man. She was cruel, ruthless, and manipulating, even to her own children. The real tragedy is that in the end, nothing she did mattered. Even before her death, the empire was reverting to the more closed-minded and fractured land it had been before. Empress Wu was magnificent, yes, but she is a footnote in history rather than an icon.