Scale-Bright

I read the Kindle edition of this novella. I wish I had known that the related short stories that Srikuangkaew has written about these characters and this world were located after the novella. If I had known this, I would have read them before I read the novella. You should really read the associated works first. Reading them is not crucial, but I think I would have felt more grounded if I had done so. The three stories are "The Crows Her Dragon's Gate," "Woman of the Sun, Woman of the Moon," and "Chang'e Dashes from the Moon." The middle story is the weakest in my opinion. I liked the first one the best.

I wrote the following before I read the stories. As I say above, reading them first would have helped. However, the same characters from different perspectives did get a bit monotonous after a while. By the end of the third story, which could be a novelette, I was very ready to be finished with them, no matter how much I liked them.

SCALE-BRIGHT

I did feel a bit lost within the world of the story because I don't know anything about Chinese mythology, which Srikuangkaew uses as a source. However, I did like the novella very much. It is an urban fantasy set in modern Hong Kong. The worlds of gods and demons overlap with the mundane world. Living in this mundane world is Julienne, a saleswoman at a jewelry store. She feels as if she can't get her life on track. She has had a series of girlfriends but can't find one who helps her chase away the loneliness. She is an orphan, but before this novella begins, she learns that her aunt is Chang'e, the Chinese goddess of the moon. Her other aunt--her aunt's wife--is Houyi, the archer who shot down the sun. Here Srikuangkaew is rewriting Chinese mythology by changing Houyi's gender and creating Chang'e and Houyi as a lesbian couple. There is a lot of humor in Srikuangkaew's portrayal of them as a "modern" couple trying to figure out how to parent a grown-up (but somewhat screwed up) niece.