Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor
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Description
Zachary Ying never had many opportunities to learn about his Chinese heritage. His single mom was busy enough making sure they got by, and his schools never taught anything except Western history and myths. So Zack is woefully unprepared when he discovers he was born to host the spirit of the First Emperor of China for a vital mission: sealing the leaking portal to the Chinese underworld before the upcoming Ghost Month blows it wide open.
The mission takes an immediate wrong turn when the First Emperor botches his attempt to possess Zack’s body and binds to Zack’s AR gaming headset instead, leading to a battle where Zack’s mom’s soul gets taken by demons. Now, with one of history’s most infamous tyrants yapping in his headset, Zack must journey across China to heist magical artifacts and defeat figures from history and myth, all while learning to wield the emperor’s incredible water dragon powers.
And if Zack can’t finish the mission in time, the spirits of the underworld will flood into the mortal realm, and he could lose his mom forever.
Book Information
Posts
Mmhh
Ich bin erstmal voll traurig, dass wir nicht viel mehr asiatische Geschichte lernen. Denn das würde hier grundsätzlich mehr verständlich machen, auch wenn wir mit Zack vieles zusammen lernen ! Ich habe es ca. Bei 3/4 abgebrochen, weil ich einfach gemerkt habe, dass es mich nicht unterhalten hatte. Die Idee von Percy meets chinesische Geschichte meets VR Computerspiele ist vielleicht für eine jüngere Leserschaft interessanter. Da kam ich einfach nicht mit, da mir auch diverse Anime und so fehlen, hatte ich keinen Bezug zu diesen Dingen. Die Erzählsicht mit einem Erzähler war für mich nicht stimmig und mir fehlte es ein wenig an Charakternähe. Aber ich finde es Mega, dass die Geschichte auf deutsch existiert und hoffe das andere mehr Spaß dabei haben 😁
That was a really cool book. The story was exciting and fun and adventurous - if you loved Percy Jackson than this is the perfect book for you. You also learn a lot about Chinese history which I just loved. The only reason it's not a 5 star book is honestly that the ending was extremely open and there is no announcement of a second part - as soon as one comes, I'll probably change my rating to 5 stars. But for now, it's a very good but unfortunately not finished story. I would still absolutely recommend reading it, if you are okay with an open ending.
THIS SLAPPED SO HARD!!! Am I terribly miffed about the cliff hanger that isn't even a soft one, but a "here's this big reveal and the MC won't even be giving a first reaction for you, byyyeee"? Yup, but I am also thrilled! This was fun! The characters' voices were distinct, the humor was delightful, it married present day technology perfectly with the history of it all (a history I know far too little about, but this inspired learning and a drive to read up more) - the author said in interviews who they wrote this book for and I know full well it wasn't my white ass and yet I had the time of my life while reading, so nobody be deterred from this, it is a delight and a poem to being made an outsider and feeling like you don't quite fit in anywhere and what real friendship looks like and ethics and familial devotion and big world conflict broken down into accessible portions - they delivered a full swing, damn :D I am already giddy for volume two! CWs (+spoilers): grief for a dead parent, the other parent in mortal peril, mentions of religious persecution, racist microaggressions, daddy issues (hilariously self-referential in one iconic chapter title too) Counting this for Prompt 21 of Book Riot's 2022 Read Harder Challenge: Read a queer retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, folklore, or myth.
Description
Zachary Ying never had many opportunities to learn about his Chinese heritage. His single mom was busy enough making sure they got by, and his schools never taught anything except Western history and myths. So Zack is woefully unprepared when he discovers he was born to host the spirit of the First Emperor of China for a vital mission: sealing the leaking portal to the Chinese underworld before the upcoming Ghost Month blows it wide open.
The mission takes an immediate wrong turn when the First Emperor botches his attempt to possess Zack’s body and binds to Zack’s AR gaming headset instead, leading to a battle where Zack’s mom’s soul gets taken by demons. Now, with one of history’s most infamous tyrants yapping in his headset, Zack must journey across China to heist magical artifacts and defeat figures from history and myth, all while learning to wield the emperor’s incredible water dragon powers.
And if Zack can’t finish the mission in time, the spirits of the underworld will flood into the mortal realm, and he could lose his mom forever.
Book Information
Posts
Mmhh
Ich bin erstmal voll traurig, dass wir nicht viel mehr asiatische Geschichte lernen. Denn das würde hier grundsätzlich mehr verständlich machen, auch wenn wir mit Zack vieles zusammen lernen ! Ich habe es ca. Bei 3/4 abgebrochen, weil ich einfach gemerkt habe, dass es mich nicht unterhalten hatte. Die Idee von Percy meets chinesische Geschichte meets VR Computerspiele ist vielleicht für eine jüngere Leserschaft interessanter. Da kam ich einfach nicht mit, da mir auch diverse Anime und so fehlen, hatte ich keinen Bezug zu diesen Dingen. Die Erzählsicht mit einem Erzähler war für mich nicht stimmig und mir fehlte es ein wenig an Charakternähe. Aber ich finde es Mega, dass die Geschichte auf deutsch existiert und hoffe das andere mehr Spaß dabei haben 😁
That was a really cool book. The story was exciting and fun and adventurous - if you loved Percy Jackson than this is the perfect book for you. You also learn a lot about Chinese history which I just loved. The only reason it's not a 5 star book is honestly that the ending was extremely open and there is no announcement of a second part - as soon as one comes, I'll probably change my rating to 5 stars. But for now, it's a very good but unfortunately not finished story. I would still absolutely recommend reading it, if you are okay with an open ending.
THIS SLAPPED SO HARD!!! Am I terribly miffed about the cliff hanger that isn't even a soft one, but a "here's this big reveal and the MC won't even be giving a first reaction for you, byyyeee"? Yup, but I am also thrilled! This was fun! The characters' voices were distinct, the humor was delightful, it married present day technology perfectly with the history of it all (a history I know far too little about, but this inspired learning and a drive to read up more) - the author said in interviews who they wrote this book for and I know full well it wasn't my white ass and yet I had the time of my life while reading, so nobody be deterred from this, it is a delight and a poem to being made an outsider and feeling like you don't quite fit in anywhere and what real friendship looks like and ethics and familial devotion and big world conflict broken down into accessible portions - they delivered a full swing, damn :D I am already giddy for volume two! CWs (+spoilers): grief for a dead parent, the other parent in mortal peril, mentions of religious persecution, racist microaggressions, daddy issues (hilariously self-referential in one iconic chapter title too) Counting this for Prompt 21 of Book Riot's 2022 Read Harder Challenge: Read a queer retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, folklore, or myth.