The Moon in the Palace by Weina Dai Randel

The Moon in the Palace: A Novel of Empress Wu by Weina Dai Randel --- 395 pages

This is the first in a two volume set of historical novels imagining the life of the famous Tang dynasty 7th century Empress Wu, the only women to rule China in her own name. Interestingly, during the seventh century, there were also women rulers in the neighboring kingdoms of the Korean peninsula, and sitting on the throne of Imperial Japan.

In this novel, Wu begins life as one of three daughters of a Chinese Governor. Her father having no son, places his hopes for the family's advancement in his beautiful and intelligent second daughter Mei. When her father dies, Mei's family loses their home and position, and are forced to take refuge with a unscrupulous relative. Mei's only hope of restoring her family's fortune depends on being selected as one of the yearly tribute of maidens sent to the Palace to serve the Emperor Taizong.

But when she arrives in the Palace, Mai realizes that she still faces long odds to achieve the Emperor's notice. To do so she must learn to navigate the treacherous intrigues of the Imperial household, conceal her feelings, and find allies who can help. Her quest becomes even more complicated when she falls in love with the Emperoro's eighth son, Prince Zhi; and when the cunning and devious concubine Jewel decides that Mei is her greatest rival for the role of "Most Adored," the title bestowed upon the Emperor's favorite.

Worst of all the Emperor proves to be a man of unpredictable moods: genial and uxorious one moment, selfish and cruel the next.  Some dreadful secret eats at his mind, causing him to see treachery all around him. As the Empoeror sinks deeper into obsession and madness, signs and portents declare the ruler has lost the mandate of Heaven.  In such times of turmoil, Mei knows, the favor of Fortune can be won --- or lost --- forever.

If you enjoy this book, the second volume, The Empress of Bright Moon, will be published in April.

The author was born and grew up in China, reading stories about the Empress Wu. She trained as a journalist and came to the United States to pursue her career as a writer. She has published stories for both Chinese audiences and now, Western audiences. Dai Randel is married and lives in Texas.

Click HERE to read an interview with the author from the Huffington Post.

Click HERE to read a review in Library Journal.

Click HERE to read a review in the Dallas News.

The Red Chamber by Pauline Chen

The Red Chamber by Pauline A. Chen ---381 pages

An intriguing debut novel from Pauline Chen, her "re-imagining" of the central plot of the Chinese classic, Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, the 18th century novel widely acknowledged as the most significant work of fiction in the Chinese literary canon. Not many Westerners however have read the original, some 2,500 pages long with a cast of over 400 characters, and missing its original ending.

Chen story focuses on the three main female characters from the original: Lin Daiyu, the orphaned cousin come from the South to live on the sufferance of her mother's wealthy and politically connected family, the Jias of Beijing; Wang Xifeng, the ambitious wife of the eldest surviving Jia son, whose position in the family depends upon a husband she despises; and Xue Baochi, another cousin, whose cold reserve hides her longing for the Jia's younger son, handsome and heedless Baoyu. It is a world of opulent luxury for the privileged few and abject poverty for the teeming masses, in which women are powerless, dependent upon their male relatives, and pitted against each other by the system of concubinage.

When the Jia men are caught on the wrong side of Palace politics during a political coup that overthrows the old Emperor, they wind up imprisoned on trumped up charges, their property confiscated by the new Emperor. The women are left to fend for themselves, disgraced and impoverished. What bonds will hold the family together? What secrets will drive them apart? Who will survive, and who will die?