TO GAZE UPON WICKED GODS

In the first of a series, a young woman with a deadly magical power chooses family, safety, and pragmatism over national loyalty.

Yang Ruying has been “blessed by Death”: She has the power to steal the life force from those she touches, although she pays a physical price for using her power. But the magical gifts she shares with some of her countrymen were not enough to protect the Empire of Er-Lang (which resembles a part of China) from occupiers traveling from another universe, where Rome never fell but developed high-tech weaponry and medicine over the centuries. A rash theft brings Ruying to the attention of the youngest Roman prince, Antony Augustus, who coerces Ruying into becoming his personal assassin. Antony claims that her killings on his behalf will ensure peace and a future for both their worlds. Ruying’s need to keep her grandmother, her rebellion-minded twin sister, and herself safe, plus her growing feelings for Antony, help to quiet her doubts, even as her guilt for the blood on her hands increases. Inspired by the Russian and Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the novel is an interesting look inside the mind of a collaborator; while Ruying hates the occupiers, she simply does not believe the rebel forces led by the mysterious Phantom have the power to defeat the Romans, and prefers to snatch what security she can in a bloody, desperate world. As a result, she works very hard to try not to think about what is happening to her people—especially those with magic. Readers may find the writing somewhat heavy going; the author is striving for a poetic style that doesn’t entirely land. For example, a distraught Ruying thinks, “A part of me that I couldn’t bandage or balm fissured slowly like thin ice cracking under weight, and the frigid blue waters beneath waited eagerly to drown me in their bitter depths.” The author also spends a great deal of time describing Ruying’s feelings—time that might be more effectively spent showing her actions as Antony’s assassin, which are more summarized than described in any detail.

A profoundly felt story, unfortunately conveyed in somewhat stilted prose.