Book Review: The Book of Fallen Leaves (The Autumn Empire 1) by A.S. Tamaki

 



4/5 stars. The Book of Fallen Leaves is the debut novel by Mr. Tamaki. It features multiple points of view from three families that make up the ruling class of this Japanese-inspired world, with the focus on a disgraced brother (Sen) and sister (Kai) whose father tried to overthrow the emperor, and a girl (Rui) from their father’s household servants who was saved with Sen on the night of their father’s death. We drop into this world on the brink of another civil war that will directly involve these two siblings and Rui.

At first, I struggled with this story, primarily because of names – I struggle with Asian names and have a challenging time keeping characters straight in my head initially. Once I got the names organized in my brain, the story flowed along nicely, with outstanding prose, and the last hundred pages were an absolute whirlwind of battles, action, and significant events. In addition, we meet demons and gods along the way and discover some interesting reveals about our characters.

When I review a book, I look at four main categories: prose, story, characters, and my entertainment level. This book was beautifully written, with excellent character work and background – on both sides of the coming war, and an intriguing storyline. My only issue with the novel was a lack of entertainment or engagement for the first half of the book. Not to say there was not a significant number of events taking place, but I could not stay focused on the story. I feel like this was more of a me problem than an issue with the story itself, and I’m sure others will have no issues with it at all.

I happily recommend this book to all fantasy fans for its epic set up, its wonderful writing, and the uniqueness of the setting. Tamaki has created an exceptionally good first novel and I look forward to reading more from this author.



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