The Art of Prophecy

The grumpy, shrewd, and open-minded Ling Taishi, the mentor of the spoiled hero Jian, certainly steals the spotlight in this novel. The initial uncomfortable master-apprentice relationship gradually turns into a warm and lasting bond as the two face a world of danger, assassins, and revolution together.

The badass image of this older war artist is quite striking, while the other two female leads (one is an idealistic revolutionary and the other a brutal assassin) are also nicely fleshed out in their respective separate plotlines. The martial arts action scenes are cinematic and well-written.

Wuxia. Need I say more? Wesley Chu’s The Art of Prophecy has it all: an intriguing fantasy world, epic struggles between empires, battles, thwarted destinies – and martial arts.

It poses the fascinating question: what happens to the prophesied hero when it turns out the prophecy is wrong, and he isn’t a hero after all?

What I loved most about this book are the female characters: warrior Sali, assassin Qisami, and Taishi. The scene-stealer for me is Taishi. She’s a master of martial arts, she can travel on the wind, she’s harsh, bad-tempered, an exacting teacher to the unfortunate-prophesied-hero-who isn’t… show more.