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Book: “Ebony Gate” by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle
Publishing Info: Tor, July 2023
Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org |Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Emiko Soong belongs to one of the eight premier magical families of the world. But Emiko never needed any magic. Because she is the Blade of the Soong Clan. Or was. Until she’s drenched in blood in the middle of a market in China, surrounded by bodies and the scent of blood and human waste as a lethal perfume.
The Butcher of Beijing now lives a quiet life in San Francisco, importing antiques. But when a shinigami, a god of death itself, calls in a family blood debt, Emiko must recover the Ebony Gate that holds back the hungry ghosts of the Yomi underworld. Or forfeit her soul as the anchor.
What’s a retired assassin to do but save the City by the Bay from an army of the dead?
Review: I’ll be honest, I had no idea this was a modern day, urban fantasy novel until the moment I started reading it! I mean, it does mention San Francisco right there in the summary, so I really have no excuse. I think I just focused on the first paragraph and the overall feel of the cover art style. But I was definitely pleased when I did get it all straight in my head! I’m always on the look out for a good urban fantasy series, and this one definitely had a lot of unique ideas being presented right off that set it out to a good start.
While this book wasn’t the perfect fit I was hoping for, there was a lot to like, starting with the aspects that make it unique from other urban fantasy and paranormal novels. For one thing, I really enjoyed the use of San Francisco and China Town as the main location for the story. The location felt fresh and vibrant, and I loved how Chinese culture was woven throughout this aspect of the story. I particularly enjoyed how the various magical families had their own territories and would compete for power and wealth. This book has been marketed as a “female John Wick” story, and you could definitely see how this comparison could be made with this secretive, often violent, society operating within the borders of what we think is regular life.
There were also a lot of interesting magical elements to be found. In particular, the gates themselves and how access and use of them are managed. I also liked the choice to have Emiko herself not being a magic user, instead having to rely on her fighting abilities to make her way through this world. This was especially interesting for her having come from a supremely powerful magical family, and how this lack of magic has defined her life and choices. However, this did lead to times where I found myself becoming more interested in Emiko’s mother’s story than Emiko’s own.
And that speaks a bit to where the story started to come apart for me. Emiko is a pretty straight-forward urban fantasy heroine. I’m not sure quite why this is, but there is a bit of a standard to be found in urban fantasy and paranormal fiction where the leading character isn’t necessarily super complex with loads of depth or personality. And the same can be said about Emiko. Was she the worst? No. But was she particularly compelling on her own? Also, no. Much of the book is spent with her fixating on her own lack of magical abilities and her resistance to falling back into a life of killing (a resistance that is obviously futile as is seen within the first few chapters even). I kept hoping we would get a bit more from her, and it just didn’t come.
But my main struggle came with the style of writing itself. It’s a very straight-forward, “telling” sort of writing. In many ways, again, it does fit with the style of writing often found in urban fantasy/paranormal fiction. But here, I really did find some of it wanting. There was a very repetitive use of language and sentence structure that immediately hit me. Within the first few pages, there was a paragraph where the word “thug” was used to describe a group of people three times. On my kindle, this one word was literally stacked upon itself in three lines. Not only is this an unforgivable lack in creative vocabulary, but it speaks to the overly straight-forward approach to style and substance that the same word needed to be used three times in such quick succession to describe a scene and its action. From there, it really was hard to not be continuously distracted by the weak points of the writing itself. There were filler words dropped in everywhere, and an overall lack of any unique style or expression. Readers who really enjoy urban fantasy and paranormal fiction may be less bothered by this than I am, however, as there is a standard set in this subgenre for a fairly straight forward, “telling” sort of writing.
While I did struggle with this book, I am intrigued by the overall concept and world. Emiko also seems like a great character that can grow a lot in future books, even if all we got here was the very basic foundation for who she is. I will likely continue this series, just to see where it’s all going, and hopefully some of the writing wrinkles will smooth over in future books, as well.
Rating 7: A vibrant new urban fantasy world, if only held back by some weaknesses in the writing and a lack of overall depth to the main character.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Ebony Gate” isn’t on any Goodreads lists yet, but it should be on Urban Fantasy Books.
The Library Ladies 