With the current revival of Fantasy books with an Asian or Oriental tone, this novel is rather appropriate. It also helps that it is a great debut novel.

The story deals with one of those traditional tropes - that of the opposing perspectives of good and evil. Wen Alder is a person in a Chinese style Empire from a humble background. His father’s merchant family is one who has been disgraced before, but now is on the rise, mainly due to Alder’s father’s connections to the Emperor and Alder becoming the Emperor of the Hand – a senior assistant to the Emperor.

However, Alder’s mother was one of the oppressed Nayeni – a group whose magical beliefs were suppressed by the invading Sienese Empire years ago. Wen’s grandmother had powers, magical abilities that she believes are also in Alder, and at the beginning of the novel trains Wen in secret to develop them. This is something that if found out by the Emperor or any of his officials would lead to Wen’s execution.

He is given a secret, alternate name, that of Foolish Cur, and has secret marks cut into his right hand by his Grandmother, in order to stop unfortunate magical accidents happening in the future. This happens to Alder early in the novel as he is testing his latent abilities and he is aware that it must not happen again.

So: with lots of set up, the first part of this story is a rite-of-passage/coming-of-age story told by the protagonist. Alder becomes elevated to a new position working for the Emperor and makes friends with the son of one of his important advisors known as Voices.

In the second part of the book Alder, with new responsibilities, is sent to war against the Nayeni at Iron Town with disastrous results. He is then sent to far-away An-Zabat where he meets new people, falls in love and learns about himself. This has consequences which the last part of the book brings to a conclusion.

The novel deals with the indecisions of life as Wen is growing into adulthood. Not only is he trying to deal with changing circumstances, but as the story develops, we find Wen wrestling with that age-old dilemma of having to choose between two life-options. One of them will lead to Wen being a hero, the other to being the villain. But which path is right? Or is there a third option?

Throughout all of this, the setting is different enough to keep the readers attention. Greathouse holds a BA in history and philosophy with a minor in Asian studies as well as a Master's in Teaching from Whitworth University, and he spent four months of intensive study in Chinese language and culture at Minzu University of China in Beijing, which has clearly influenced him and this work.

Without being “all that I know, because I’ve researched it”, Greathouse uses this knowledge and understanding to create not just a difference in cultures but differences in philosophy as well. The plot is enhanced by the use of allegory, parables and folk-stories throughout to create a depth to the story that is not typical to many of this type.

What really makes this better than many is the thought and detail given to the background. The magic and its consequences are examined in detail as Alder tries to determine the best way forward. Neither path is particularly obvious in its benefits and the author does well to point out that, in the time-honoured tradition, that for every action there are consequences. Which makes Wen’s choice all the more difficult.

After a slow-ish start, there are some expected plot points along the way but some unexpected twists too which make the story more than you might expect originating from such traditional tropes. I found this to be one of the better written stories of this type, and by the end I really wanted to know where the characters go to. Told in an Asian style setting and with a logical magical aspect, here you have a story that soon picks up pace and engages the reader until the end. The ending shows that there is more to tell in this story, which succeeding books will no doubt tell. I am looking forward to seeing where this one will go to.