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The Terracotta Bride
by Zen ChoSetting: Hell
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Fiction
Published on March 10, 2016
Format: eBook Source: Owned
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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.
I loved Zen Cho’s novel Sorcerer to the Crown so I was excited to read some of her shorter fiction.
This story takes place in Hell. In the Chinese version you can advance through levels. Â If you have descendants who burn paper offerings for you regularly, you can make a pretty nice life for yourself in the Tenth Court of Hell. Â If you don’t have the money to live well or bribe the officials, you will have to reincarnate and start all over.
In this story a girl is taken as a second wife of a well off man. Â The first wife is estranged. Everything is going fine until he brings home a third wife. Â This wife is made of animated terra cotta. These terra cotta people are designed to be perfect servants but it doesn’t go the way he planned.
I didn’t realize that this was a fairy tale retelling or a short story when I started reading it. Â A girl has been trained to hunt since she was small. Â There are people who turn into animals and animals with higher consciousness around so you have to be careful not to hunt them. Â Her mother is arrested for a long ago murder of someone and all the secrets of her mother and her mother’s lover come out.
I don’t want to say a lot more about it because I think seeing it unfold without preconceived ideas of what would happen was part of the fun. Â Read this one if you like updated fairy tales with twists.
Both of these are excellent short fiction pieces that can introduce you to these authors. Â They each feature lesbian characters and Asian or multiracial leads. Â Pick them up.