The Terracotta Bride by Zen Cho

The Terracotta Bride by Zen Cho is a novella set in the afterlife. Or a novelette, actually, now that I've checked the author's website. Or perhaps, looking at the word count, a short novella. Either way, a not-especially-long ebook.

A tale of first love, bad theology and robot reincarnation in the Chinese afterlife.

In the tenth court of hell, spirits wealthy enough to bribe the bureaucrats of the underworld can avoid both the torments of hell and the irreversible change of reincarnation.

It's a comfortable undeath … even for Siew Tsin. She didn't choose to be married to the richest man in hell, but she's reconciled. Until her husband brings home a new bride.

Yonghua is an artificial woman crafted from terracotta. What she is may change hell for good. Who she is will transform Siew Tsin. And as they grow closer, the mystery of Yonghua's creation will draw Siew Tsin into a conspiracy where the stakes are eternal life – or a very final death. 

I actually started reading The Terracotta Bride on a whim. Of course I had been meaning to read it since I bought it, but when I found myself at a bit of a loose end as to what to read, I opened it up because it happened to appear on my bookshelf screen in iBooks. This was not a turn of events that I in any way regret. The Terracotta Bride is a delightful story that hooked me quickly. Even though it's not exactly a cheerful story, it has made me quite keen to read more of Cho's work, possibly starting with Sorcerer to the Crown, which is waiting in my audio TBR.

Siew Tsin died when she was young and did not have many skills for navigating the afterlife successfully. After her great-uncle sold her as a bride, she was more or less stuck in her husband's household. But things started to change when her husband brought home the titular terracotta bride as his third wife. I'm not sure that I can say much more without spoilers, but suffice to note that the story does not progress with any tired clichés of female rivalry.

I really enjoyed The Terracotta Bride and I am definitely interested in reading more of Cho's work because of it. I highly recommend it to anyone with a passing interest in Chinese mythology (though I should note that the main character is Malay) and afterlife fantasy generally. I will definitely be reading more of Cho's work.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: March 2016, self-published
Series: No? Not really sure.
Format read: ePub
Source: Purchased (on SmashWords, I think) close to launch (partly motivated by the introductory discount...)

ODY-C Vol 1: Off to Far Ithicaa by Matt Fraction and Christian Ward

ODY-C Vol 1: Off to Far Ithicaa written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Christian Ward is the first volume of a comic retelling of The Odyssey, set in space and incredibly gender-bent. Basically all the characters are female. I think there are two minor male characters in the whole first volume (unless you count gods temporarily appearing male) and neither are 100% human. Gender-bent in this case means that all the traditionally male characters are female and the few female characters either remain female or... something. For example, Hera is still a woman but she has a beard but the male gods are all women now. Basically what I'm saying is if you ever thought The Odyssey would be improved with more female characters and/or gender flipping AND/OR thought it would be cool to have it set in space, this is your book!

An eye-searing, mind-bending, gender-shattering epic science fiction retelling of Homer's Odyssey starting with the end of a great war in the stars and the beginning of a very long journey home for Odyssia and her crew of warriors. The journey to Ithicaa begins HERE!

The first thing that struck me when I started reading ODY-C is just how pretty it is. It's very bright and colourful, as the cover suggests, with a sort of surreal and dreamlike quality to the art. It's probably worth reading just for the art.

Which is just as well because the story was a bit confusing, especially at first. The language used is fairly poetic in style — with occasional breaks — and is mainly narration rather than dialogue. I think I would have gotten into it more quickly if I were more familiar with the original Odyssey (which I'm really not). As it was, I had gotten into the swing of it by the time we got to the Cyclops (also female... and three-breasted, possibly to make up for the eye?). It was also kind of surreal reading about an army of only women. Having the more prominent warriors be women was less unusual than having all of the random grunts be women too. (And isn't it interesting what that says about society?) Some of the names of characters were slightly altered or just spelled differently, which didn't help with working out which bits of Greek mythology they were reflecting, but I felt more or less abreast of the situation by the end. Also, the Zeus-induced reason for the absence of men was pretty hilarious. Anther reason to pick this up.

I should mention that this comic series is not for children and, quite frankly, NSFW either. Although the art isn't sexualised (except for the sex scenes, I suppose, but even then not so much) there's a significant amount of nudity. Also swearing and a lot of violence (particularly the part with the Cyclops). So I wouldn't give this to your kids, basically. That said, it's probably less bad to read in public than Sex Criminals, if we're going to rank things.

I would mainly recommend this to readers familiar with The Odyssey and anyone willing to read it just for the art. The friends who recommended it to me said something like "It's a bit confusing but so pretty!" which is dead-on. (They also showed me a floppy with a detailed timeline in the front, which was not present in the version I read.) Read it if the idea of Greek mythology in space sounds appealing or if you don't mind being confused. I'm a bit torn as to whether I'll be picking up the next volume.

4 / 5 stars

First published: June 2015, Image Comics
Series: Yes. Volume 1 collecting issues #1-5 of ongoing series ODY-C
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley