‘<\/b>Vicious, gorgeous, and fiercely haunting<\/b>‘ CHLOE GONG<\/b>
\n‘Sublime’ AME<\/b>LIE WEN ZHAO<\/b>
\n‘Enthralling’ ANDREA STEWART<\/b>
\n‘Astounding’ CHELSEA ABDULLAH<\/b>
\n‘Lyrical’ K. X. SONG
\n‘Devastating’ KRITIKA H. RAO<\/b>
\n‘Fantasy at its best’ VAISHNAVI PATEL
\n<\/b>
\nTO KILL A MONSTER, SHE MUST BECOME ONE . . .<\/b><\/p>\n
As the emperor lays dying, the once-great Azalea Dynasty plunges towards civil war. While its princes plot for power, a more hidden war – to become the next empress – occupies the imperial court.<\/p>\n
Wei Yin – peasant girl turned concubine to the cruel Prince Terren – has already endured unimaginable suffering. Ripped from her family, she has no title, no allies, and no escape. But she does have a secret . . .<\/p>\n
In the shadows of the palace, surrounded by enemies, she is learning a skill forbidden to women. Because when words are weapons and poetry holds an ancient magic, the fate of a girl – and a nation – can both be rewritten. All she has to do is compose the perfect poem – a tale so powerful, it can kill any man, even the next emperor.<\/p>\n
The epic political arena of The Poppy War<\/i> by R.F. Kuang meets the intimate tragedy and luscious language of The Song of Achilles <\/i>by Madeline Miller in this sensational debut novel by visionary new talent Shen Tao, unmissable for die-hard genre fans as well as readers of literary fiction looking to make their first foray into fantasy.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PRE ORDER A SIGNED COPY – PUBLISHES 20TH JANUARY 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Young rice farmer Yin Wei was forced to become concubine to Prince Guan Terren – a monstrous wielder of poetry magic, and heir to the Azalea throne – to save her family from the famine blighting the land of Tensha. Now confined to the imperial court, Terren’s cruelty is not the only danger Wei faces. He and his honourable older brother are locked in a deadly succession war, while Terren’s thirty concubines are fighting a war of their own, for the position of future empress. To survive, Wei must harden her heart, rely on her wit, and become dangerous herself – even if it means learning the one forbidden poem that can kill Terren and save both herself and the nation. But there’s a problem – for the spell to work against a man she hates, it must be written with love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[225],"product_tag":[27511,26973,763,26871],"class_list":["post-113051","product","type-product","status-publish","product_cat-sci-fi-fantasy","product_tag-dark-romance","product_tag-epic-fantasy","product_tag-fantasy-romance","product_tag-historical-fantasy","pa_book_author-tao-shen","pa_cover-hardback","pa_dewey-813-6-edition23","pa_edition-hardback-original","pa_imprint-gollancz","pa_language-english","pa_pages-8562","pa_publisher-gollancz","pa_readership-general-trade-code-k","first","outofstock","sold-individually","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"\n