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435th out of 3,890 books
—
4,069 voters
Thirteen Orphans (Breaking the Wall #1)
As evocative and moving as Charles de Lint’s Newford books, with the youthful protagonists and exciting action of Mercedes Lackey’s fantasies, Thirteen Orphans makes our world today as excitingly strange and unfamiliar as any fantasy realm . . .and grants readers a glimpse of a fantasy world founded by ancient Chinese lore and magic.
As far as college freshman Brenda Morris...more
As far as college freshman Brenda Morris...more
Hardcover, 368 pages
Published
November 11th 2008
by Tor Books
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Conflict in the lands born from smoke and sacrifice spills over into the world of college student Brenda Morris, who learns that she is heir to Rat - Rat being one of the twelve signs of Chinese zodiac. All houses associated with these signs have been exiled into the here and now. Their descendents live mostly in the United States. Lots of spells and magical powers, but explanations of same left me bleary-eyed and wishing characters would just get it over with.
This has a great premise - magic, alternate version of ancient China called the lands of smoke and sacrifice, the thirteen beings who escaped this world and whose heirs eventually found their way to various parts of the U.S. Suddenly,these thirteen who are each associated with an animal from the Chinese zodiac and who perform magic spells using elements from their own personalized Mah Jong sets, are being attacked and having their memories stolen. Of the original 13, only 4 remain - two who have...more
Jane, the author, contacted me to let me know her book was out. I had heard her read part of this book back in August and really enjoyed the story, when I didn't have any background information.
So far, this is a great read! It's hard to put the book down.
Thoughts on final read: While this is a fantasy book, the storyline weaves everyday people into interesting themes-this one centered around the game of Mahjong. There were some great clues and foreshadowing in the book. I really thought certain...more
So far, this is a great read! It's hard to put the book down.
Thoughts on final read: While this is a fantasy book, the storyline weaves everyday people into interesting themes-this one centered around the game of Mahjong. There were some great clues and foreshadowing in the book. I really thought certain...more
Four and a half stars, probably. A solid start to a fantasy series set in the contemporary US but with ties to ancient China, with a magic system based on mah johng. As always, JL's writing sucks you in, the characterizations are vivid and interesting, and the story has a few unexpected twists.
I really like the premise of this - that when the first emperor of China 'burned the books and buried the scholars', he unknowingly created another world, the Lands of Smoke and Sacrifice, an alt-China. I admit to some disappointment that the story takes place in our world, where the characters' ancestors (the Thirteen Orphans) fled after dynastic overthrow in the Lands. Within a couple-three generations of assimilation, the descendants mostly believe the the history of how the Twelve protected...more
One hundred or so years ago, thirteen refugees fled into this world from The Land of Smoke and Sacrifice. Twelve were warriors and magicians, sworn to guard the safety of the 13th, their boy emperor, forced from home and throne by war and a political coup. They accepted exile in return for oaths that their foes would spare their families and friends. The Land of Smoke and Sacrifice had been formed in its universe by events in China during and after the Warring States period, so they originally f...more
I abhorred this book.
The premise was interesting, but Linskold managed to destroy it utterly.
The pacing was snail-slow, the dialogue choppy and unrealistic. Lindskold seems to think we need every present character to repeat every new plot revelation, which means basically the same line three or four times over. This is the first book I've ever read where I actually had to skip portions of dialogue just in order to stay motivated enough to read more.
Worse, she takes what could be a story populat...more
The premise was interesting, but Linskold managed to destroy it utterly.
The pacing was snail-slow, the dialogue choppy and unrealistic. Lindskold seems to think we need every present character to repeat every new plot revelation, which means basically the same line three or four times over. This is the first book I've ever read where I actually had to skip portions of dialogue just in order to stay motivated enough to read more.
Worse, she takes what could be a story populat...more
This is an engaging, action-filled book. It is neither as reflective, nor as deep, as her book "Child of a Rainless Year." While this is only the second book of hers that I have read, I find her characterizations of older women more real than her characterizations of younger ones. There are several passages involving Brenda, a nineteen-year-old, that feel false, which is too bad as she should be a wonderful character. The most engrossing passages involve Pearl Bright, a former child star now in...more
The first of Jane Lindskold's books I read was Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls, which, as best as I can recall, a friend loaned to me. I was attracted by the title and entranced by the strange, quirky story within. (One of my goals for this year is to reread the book; I hope I love it as much on a reread many years later.) From then on, I kept an eye out for Lindskold's books. Some I passed on, some I loved (Changer and Legends Walking particularly and I wish she'd write more in that unive...more
This was a decent if convoluted urban fantasy. It features Brenda, a part-Chinese college student, who learns that her father is one of a magical "Thirteen Orphans", going back to Chinese mythology & ancient history; the powers are inherited by one person in each family. The Orphans are named for the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac (plus one, The Cat) and they use a mah jong board in their magic. They immigrated to America a couple generations ago, to avoid assassination attempts from peopl...more
Very enjoyable newish book from Lindskold. After the mediocre last couple of Firekeeper novels, I stopped buying every new book from her, so I didn't notice this one until it came out in paperback. It's a well-told tell of magic and mahjongg, with many of Lindskold's strengths: believable characters who interact well, solving problems together using their assorted individual strengths. Few fantasy writers are better than Lindskold at this. The villains may be flawed, but one can sympathize with...more
It was an interesting plot and I love reading books about the Chinese Zodiac (and okay okay, this is because I 'm a Fruits Basket fan) but it seems like the first two hundred pages are spent explaining every minute detail of how the Thirteen Orphans came to be and how magic works. This wouldn't have been as much of a problem if not for the fact that everytime the characters sit down for a meaningful period of explaining something some one in the know says something to the effect of, "For now we'...more
Two elements of this book attracted me: the author (who wrote "Through Wolf's Eyes" and its sequels, which I love), and the relation to Chinese Mythology. I was slightly wary, as the moment I saw the title I knew it related to the Chinese zodiac, and feared clichéd-ness. Granted, there have been some brilliant stories related to the zodiac, but it's still been done a lot. Also, the plot sounded very cliche. Still, I loved what I'd read of this author's works so far, so I gave it a shot.
All in al...more
All in al...more
Very cool idea for a plot. Although it was pretty long i finished it in two or three days (despite the need to do other, more useful, things).
The story is about the twelve signs of the zodiac having people to represent each animal. A girl named Brenda discovers early in the book that she is the future Rat, and she has to help regain the memories of her father and other animals with stolen memories of their identities. She is forced into a battle she wasn't aware of until just weeks before, and a...more
The story is about the twelve signs of the zodiac having people to represent each animal. A girl named Brenda discovers early in the book that she is the future Rat, and she has to help regain the memories of her father and other animals with stolen memories of their identities. She is forced into a battle she wasn't aware of until just weeks before, and a...more
Read from 11/27 to 12/2. Great idea for a story that's marred by the fact that most of the book consists of people sitting around in a house and talking about what they ought to be doing.
Oct 22, 2012
Lindsey Duncan
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
urban-fantasy
When college sophomore Brenda Morris' father drags her along to meet eccentric chocolatier Albert Yu, they instead encounter a sinister plot to steal the memories of the Thirteen Orphans - the descendants of twelve advisors and their emperor, exiled long ago from a land of myth. Luckily, some of the senior Orphans have survived, in particular the aging Tiger, Pearl.
The greatest strength in this story is the setting and the way the characters interact with it. The Chinese zodiac determines the na...more
The greatest strength in this story is the setting and the way the characters interact with it. The Chinese zodiac determines the na...more
I was all set to give Thirteen Orphans 3 stars. Even though it had a lot of flaws, it kept me interested and entertained. However, I downgraded it because of the way it ended. Rather, I downgraded it because of the way it stopped rather than ended. It was as if someone had taken a bigger book and just arbitrarily chopped it in half. I can't even call the ending a cliffhanger, it was just a non-ending. It may have been the worst non-ending ever.
As I said, up until the non-end, Thirteen Orphans wa...more
As I said, up until the non-end, Thirteen Orphans wa...more
What started out as a promising take on Chinese myth turned out to be....a little boring. The beginning of the book totally had me hooked. The mah jong tiles were cool, the fact that the Chinese zodiac was based on wizards who were exiled from a faraway mythical land and passed their powers on to their children, the whole mysterious attacks on the descendants of said zodiac. All very cool. However, somewhere in the middle...something slowed way down. Even the characters commented on the inactivi...more
Like _The Silver Ship and the Sea_, this book is half a book's worth of content in a whole book's pages. I wanted to like this book, since much of it takes place in the Bay Area and I love the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, but so little happens and there's a lot of talking and hanging out. It was bad enough that even one of the characters in the book got bored of it! That should have told the author something.
There were only five action scenes (one at the beginning to fool you), and t...more
There were only five action scenes (one at the beginning to fool you), and t...more
Jane Lindskold has created a complex world and I love it. I enjoyed the connections to mahjong and the zodiac animals. I also loved the magics that could be done using the game pieces. I found myself playing mahjong on the computer more often just so I could see the tiles more and understand the look better.
The view point switches many times throughout the book without being confusing. Usually it's between Pearl, an old child actor & the Tiger, and Brenda who will one day be the Rat. Brenda...more
The view point switches many times throughout the book without being confusing. Usually it's between Pearl, an old child actor & the Tiger, and Brenda who will one day be the Rat. Brenda...more
Duality: that is something that this book revolves around more than any other theme. And in that sense, it is very successful. Brenda Morris never knew about a specific aspect of her father's past until it attacked them, and she is thrust into a world where 12 descendants (plus one emperor), each identified under a specific Zodiac sign, are under attack from an unknown enemy. We follow Brenda as she learns of her inherited past and fights to regain what was stolen.
The book switches POV, though i...more
The book switches POV, though i...more
as always, Lindskold has a way of blending a believable, existing modern world with fantasy that makes one question how close the overlap of those liminal spaces really are. this book is a promising start to a new series that explores a whole new trove of mythic material: China. the protagonist, Brenda, who is part-Chinese, is thrown into a world of sorcery and timelessness that overlaps the world we know when her father, who turns out to be the “Rat” of the Chinese zodiac, has his memory compro...more
The main character dicovers that she is descended from someone who comes from a land where China's myths and legends are fact. That in fact, her father is the avatar of the rat (i.e. as in the year of the rat) and that she is his heir. I like the use of mah jong to access magical ability. When others come from this other world and steal her father's memories of being the rat she joins forces with others to try to find a way to bring back the memories of her father and others who have been simila...more
Wonderful! It was, at times, a little sticky but the plot and characters were so unique and interesting that the story was simply intoxicating! The story revolves around the ‘13 orphans’- the banished emperor and his 12 advisers. Each banish-i is associated with an animal form the Chinese zodiac, with the emperor being the Cat. Now, about a hundred years after they were banished, the descendents of the heir and the 12 advisors are being prosecuted and their memories stolen by a mysterious foe… I...more
Breaking the Wall:Thirteen Orphans is the start of a new series by Jane Lindskold, author of The Firekeeper Saga and Lord Demon (co-written with Roger Zelazny) among many other novels. It’s an urban fantasy of the “magic is known to be real to a select few” variety with “people from the universe next door” as protagonists. It’s using a primarily Chinese and other Asian mythologies, though it’s also clearly indicated that other magical systems/mythoi also exist. (Culture appears to define Percept...more
It took me a week to read to read this book, which for me is a ridiculously long time, especially since I really liked it. It is fantasy set in our world, where the characters are the descendants of an ancient China- like universe that they call ‘the Land Born from Smoke and Sacrifice.’ Brenda and her friends’ forefathers were exiled here after an imperial coup, they were magic users whose magic system -- at least here-- is based on the Chinese zodiac and mah jong. Brenda’s father is the Rat, bu...more
I usually save the bad stuff for later on in my review, but let's deal with it first this time, shall we?
The first half of this book was a miserable and boring slog through lots of dinner conversations about really awesome sounding stuff that wasn't happening. I wanted to throw Thirteen Orphans against the wall more than once. Seriously, conversation after conversation over expensive chocolates, oolong tea and almond cookies, California cuisine, burgers and fries, jasmine tea and almond cookies...more
The first half of this book was a miserable and boring slog through lots of dinner conversations about really awesome sounding stuff that wasn't happening. I wanted to throw Thirteen Orphans against the wall more than once. Seriously, conversation after conversation over expensive chocolates, oolong tea and almond cookies, California cuisine, burgers and fries, jasmine tea and almond cookies...more
This is a YA readalike for the Percy Jackson/Kane children series, in my opinion. Same storyline of modern kids (in this case a 19 year old and a 20-something dude, but they really feel teenagery) suddenly discovering they are part of a mystical/magical race and they suddenly have to learn all this magic to protect themselves from the magical danger threatening the world that only they can stop given their unique heritage - except it centers around Chinese mythology and mahjong magic. BUT, there...more
The folklore of the British Isles, and of Western Europe in general, is well-trodden ground in fantasy fiction. So, when I heard that Jane Lindskold had begun a series based on Chinese mythology, I was eager to read it. It would be something fresh and unusual, and I’ve greatly enjoyed Lindskold’s writing in the past.
Thirteen Orphans is the first novel in the Breaking the Wall series, which I would classify as “old-school urban fantasy.” The phrase “breaking the wall” comes from the game of mah-j...more
Thirteen Orphans is the first novel in the Breaking the Wall series, which I would classify as “old-school urban fantasy.” The phrase “breaking the wall” comes from the game of mah-j...more
On summer vacation from college, Brenda Morris travels with her father Geharis to California to meet one of his old friends, Albert Yu. Albert is missing when they arrive though and despite evidence of a struggle, her father calls Pearl, another friend, rather than the police. Geharis and Auntie Pearl then begin to share details of an astonishing tale. Their ancestors are from The Lands Born from Smoke and Sacrifice; decades ago an emperor and his 12 advisors were exiled and most of their descen...more
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Jane M. Lindskold is an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels. Lindskold grew up in Washington, D.C. and Chesapeake Bay. She studied at Fordham, where she received a Ph. D. in English, concentrating on Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern British Literature. Mentored by her friend, Roger Zelazny, she started publishing stories in 1992, and she published her first nov...more
More about Jane Lindskold...
Jun 18, 2009 05:32pm