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    The Bird and the Blade
    The Bird and the Blade
    The Bird and the Blade
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Bird and the Blade

    Written by Megan Bannen

    Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    A sweeping and tragic debut novel perfect for fans of The Wrath and the Dawn and Megan Whalen Turner.

    The Bird and the Blade is a lush, powerful story of life and death, battles and riddles, lies and secrets from author Megan Bannen.

    Enslaved in Kipchak Khanate, Jinghua has lost everything: her home, her family, her freedom . . . until the kingdom is conquered by enemy forces and she finds herself an unlikely conspirator in the escape of Prince Khalaf and his irascible father across the vast Mongol Empire.

    On the run, with adversaries on all sides and an endless journey ahead, Jinghua hatches a scheme to use the Kipchaks’ exile to return home, a plan that becomes increasingly fraught as her feelings for Khalaf evolve into an impossible love.

    Jinghua’s already dicey prospects take a downward turn when Khalaf seeks to restore his kingdom by forging a marriage alliance with Turandokht, the daughter of the Great Khan. As beautiful as she is cunning, Turandokht requires all potential suitors to solve three impossible riddles to win her hand—and if they fail, they die.

    Jinghua has kept her own counsel well, but with Khalaf’s kingdom—and his very life—on the line, she must reconcile the hard truth of her past with her love for a boy who has no idea what she’s capable of . . . even if it means losing him to the girl who’d sooner take his life than his heart.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 5, 2018
    ISBN9780062840783
    Author

    Megan Bannen

    Megan Bannen is a librarian and the author of The Bird and the Blade. In her spare time, she collects graduate degrees from Kansas colleges and universities. She lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, their two sons, and a few too many pets with literary names. She can be found online at www.meganbannen.com.

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    Reviews for The Bird and the Blade

    4/5

    62 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I just finished this book and I’m WOAH! I thought I was prepared for this story and had an idea how it would go and how it would end...

      I was SO WOEFULLY UNPREPARED for this!

      I don’t know everything I think or feel right now - this story is SO loaded and just WOAH!
    • 5/5
      THE BIRD AND THE BLADE was an excellent historical fiction novel set in the Mongol Empire around the year 1280. It's star is Jinghua who is a young woman with lots of secrets. She is a slave in the Kipchak Khanate. When the Khanate is overrun by the il-khanate she chooses to go on the run with the deposed Khan Timur and his only surviving son Khalaf who is both kind and brilliant.As they flee ahead of both the il-khanate's forces and soldiers sent by Turandokht, the daughter of the Great Khan, Khalaf and Jinghua fall in love. A more hopeless love would be hard to imagine since he is a prince and she is a slave and considering that Khalaf's one road to restoring his position in society is to win the hand of Turandokht. However, Turandokht is not making the task easy. Any suitor has to answer three impossible riddles. Failure means a gruesome death.The story is woven between the contest of riddles and how Jinghua and Khalaf got there. It is filled with romance and danger and a twist I didn't see coming. The Author's Note talks about her inspiration coming from the opera Turandot which, since what I know about opera could be written on the smallest Post-It Note with plenty of room to spare, came as a surprise for me. Some of the plot elements are certainly operatic in nature. I also enjoyed the poetry and songs that were part of the story.I enjoyed the setting which takes place in a time period and part of the world unfamiliar to me. I also loved the relationship between Khalaf and Jinghua. I thought Jinghua was an intriguing character who was quite mysterious. Part Six answered quite a few questions I had about her past. Fans of historical fiction and romance will enjoy this story.
    • 3/5
      As dramatic as the ending was, I really am not convinced the protagonist grew or changed much.
    • 4/5
      Based on tales I wasn't familiar with, this fantasy/historical novel is set a long time ago in Mongolia. Told in alternating views past and present, by Jinghua, a slave, but something more earlier in her life, It's the tale of a prince and his deposed emperor father who escape the destruction of their kingdom, leaving with little to sustain what becomes a long, dangerous and twisty journey. There are some excellent twists at the end that are shocking and sad, but make sense in the scheme of things. Take time to read the author's notes at the back as they are well worth it.
    • 3/5
      I was with it right up until the very end. And I understand that it was based on a tale that has ended this way for centuries, but this is a case where I really, really wish the author had taken a little artistic license. The book was beautifully written and the relationships between Jinghua and Khalaf and Timur unfolded on the page like the petals of a flower opening to the sun. Had the author chosen to write her own ending, this would have been in high four-star, edging into five-star territory. And even though the ending was written beautifully and worked in the context of what had gone before, it still left me feeling frustrated and disappointed.

      But take this with a grain of salt. I want to re-write every opera so that the heroine gets a Happy Ever After.
    • 5/5
      I cried so hard at the end of this book. Beautifully written with rich characters who make you care about them and their growth. It's lovely real love story with a romance that makes your heart ache and swoon was inspired by the opera Turandot. I cannot wait to read what Megan Bannen writes next.
    • 4/5
      The Bird and the Blade was a great read. From the start I loved Jinghua and Khalaf, and even old Timur, Khalaf's father, grew on me by the end. Even though the instra-love Jinghua felt towards Khalaf was annoying, I could understand her feelings as he was such a sweetie, and he treated her with respect and kindness from the very beginning.For me, the one thing that spoilt this book was the inclusion of modern terminology and swearing. Considering that the novel was set in 13th century Mongolia, I found this very jarring.I did not see the end coming and it broke my heart. I desperately wanted a happily-ever-after for Jinghua and Khalaf after everything they had gone through together, but alas.