The Poet Empress

A LIBRARY READS PICK!

DELUXE EDITION―featuring gorgeous gilded edges, detailed endpapers, and beautiful case art under the book jacket!

Debut author Shen Tao introduces readers to the lush, deadly world of The Poet Empress, a sweeping, epic and intimate fantasy perfect for fans of The Serpent & the Wings of Night, The Song of Achilles and She Who Became the Sun.

Wei Yin is desperate. After the fifth death of a sibling, with her family and village on the brink of starvation, she will do anything to save those she loves.

Even offer herself as concubine to the cruel, dissolute heir of the blood-gutted Azalea House--where poetry magic is power, but women are forbidden to read.

But in a twist of fate, the palace now stands on the knife-edge of civil war, with Wei trapped in its center. . . with a violent prince.

To save herself and the nation, she must survive the dangers of court, learn to read in secret, and compose the most powerful spell of all. A ballad of love. . . and death.

The Poet Empress is an epic fantasy that explores darker themes, subjects, and scenes that may not be suitable for all readers. Please see the author’s content note at the beginning of the book.

Chinese-Canadian author Shen Tao has dreamed of publishing fantasy stories since she was seven. An engineer with roots in Nanchang and Toronto, she later moved to Seattle to be closer to the mountains and the ocean, where she currently resides with her partner, her piano, and her menagerie of stuffed critters. Shen is a finalist for the Mike Resnick Memorial Award for science fiction, a two-time finalist for the PNWA unpublished novel contest, and a graduate of several speculative fiction workshops including Taos Toolbox, Viable Paradise, and Odyssey.