Along the road to Xinan, Shen Tai meets An-Lin, the fearsome commander of the 7th, 8th AND 9th armies of the empire. He also meets Wen Jian, the incredibly beautiful consort to the emperor himself. There is a host of intrigue happening here, and Kay is wonderful at telling the reader about the politics, ambitions, rivalries and plots around the royal court.

I thought that this novel would be an entertaining story of imperial intrigue and conspiracy, with our hero, Shen Tai - a man from outside the world of the imperial court, suddenly thrust into an untrustworthy morass of plots and danger. The major actors are all introduced - the evil prime minister Wen Zhou (ablely advised by Shen Tai's ambitious older brother!), the seductive Wen Jian, and the fearsome army general An-Lin. But almost as soon as the intrigues are set into motion, the novel fades into a strange format, which reads like a "detailed outline" but certainly not a fully written novel. I got the feeling the Kay got tired of writing this book, or faced a deadline, or something, because the writing switches into synopsis mode - Kay gives the rest of the tale, but it reads like a "Cliff Notes" version. I was really disappointed, because I thought the first three quarters of the novel were super impressive.