Secrets of Jin-Shei [Hardcover]

Alma Alexander (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2004

A sweeping epic set in medieval China; it is the story of a group of women, the Jin-Shei sisterhood, who form a uniquely powerful circle that transcends class and social custom. They are bound together by a declaration of loyalty that transcends all other vows, even those with the gods, by their own secret language, passed from mother to daughter, by the knowledge that some of them will have to pay the ultimate sacrifice to enable others to fulfil their destiny. The sisterhood we meet run from the Emperor's sister to the street-beggar, from the trainee warrior in the Emperor's Guard to the apprentice healer, from the artist to the traveller-girl, herself an illegitimate daughter of an emperor and seen as a threat to the throne. And as one of them becomes Dragon Empress, her determination to hold power against the sages of the temple, against the marauding forces from other kingdoms, drags the sisterhood into a dangerous world of court intrigue, plot and counterplot, and brings them into conflict with each other from which only the one who remains true to all the vows she made at the very beginning to the dying Princess Empress can rescue them.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This fast-paced, imaginative, and thoroughly engrossing fantasy explores the meaning of friendship and loyalty among eight young women--sisters of the heart--in a mythical Chinese realm. Ever since the dawn of time, mothers have passed on to their daughters a special language (jin-ashu) and the existence of special friendships (jin-shei) that cross boundaries of class and heritage. Accepting someone's offer of jin-shei brings both benefits and responsibilities, and Alexander's characters find their lives both complicated and enriched by these friendships. Kito-Tai, the poet daughter of a seamstress, is asked by Princess Antian, the emperor's oldest daughter (and empress-presumptive), to be her jin-shei, a request that will eventually change the course of the empire. Although Alexander has published four other novels in Australia and New Zealand, this is the first to be published in the U.S and will surely whet readers' appetites for more. Nancy Pearl
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'The Secrets of Jin-Shei is a completely original - and a completely magical piece of literature' Joanne Harris

Woven into the fabric of a medieval-like China, this is the story of ten girls, each destined to give up everything for Jin-Shei, the sisterhood. Set against a backdrop of the Imperial Court the girls are brought together by the hand of fate. The secret language of the Jin-Shei is passed on from mother to daughter, a tie more binding than death itself! Born out of necessity and transcending all social barriers this saga of a novel takes us on a journey from the cloistered women of the court, stifled by protocol, to the court of The Beggar King. An exciting journey of honour, betrayal, intrigue, love, alchemy, evil, corruption, sacrifice and the quest for immortality, this is a tapestry of human frailty and the gift of life. The journey is a long one but well worth the telling. Enjoyable and sad. (Kirkus UK)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins; First edition. edition (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007163738
• ISBN-13: 978-0007163731
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,740,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In a recent interview someone asked Ursula LeGuin what would be if she wasn't a writer; she replied, "Dead.". It's the same way with me. I have a most enviable occupation - I dream for a living. I love what I do. Welcome to my worlds.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant !, March 17, 2007

By 

Buns "The world is yours" (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secrets of Jin-shei (Hardcover)

This was such a fantastic read for me. From the very first page, I was hooked; Alexander's prose is poetical and evocative of a magical place and time.
The story follows a group of young girls, all different in age, as they grow up into adulthood. These girls are all from different social classes and positions in their society; medieval China. However, they are also linked - through jin-shei. Jin-shei is a secret society of women, bound to each other not by blood but by loyalty that makes them sisters of the heart. This special bond may mean that they merely share their secrets in life, their passions, and their upsets, just as any close friends do. However, their loyalty may be tested in harder ways and a favour asked in the name of jin-shei cannot be ignored.
As the girls pass into adulthood and they begin to find their place in the world, this bond begins to be tested as one of their number becomes the Dragon Empress. In her new place of power she lusts after complete control of her state. But the loyalties of her jin-shei sisters is really put to the test when she beigns to lust after the impossible; immortality. Suddenly, their seemingly idyllic world is a place of intrigue, treason, gossip and many dangers. Will the jin-shei group survive?
This book is fantastic for those people who enjoy complete new worlds where they can escape into for a while. There are essences of religion and philosophy, magic (dark and good), love and hate, and tragedy. It is a complex book as it follows quite a few characters. However, all the characters seemed very real to me, each one had personalities which had good and weaker sides. I really enjoyed this book, it is magical. . .

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MORE than pleasantly surprised ..., May 22, 2004

By 

Alex Jay Berman (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secrets of Jin-shei (Hardcover)

Having looked at the novel's plot and read some of the other books the author has published under another name, I thought I knew what to expect: A diverting novel, sweeping in scope, with deeply examined emotions. You know, a good book. Possibly heavy on the chick-itude.

Upon entering JIN-SHEI (note the choice of words; it's less like beginning a book than falling into its world), however, I was blown away. Yes, it's sweeping. Yes, characters are given to the deepest of emotions. And yes; the main characters are women.
But the book is so very well-constructed that the characters become real; are drawn with such verisimilitude that they become as friends to the reader.

As for the chick-itude? Well, on the occasions when I read fantasy, I go for the darker stuff: The Harlan Ellison-blow-your-scalp-off stuff. And though I can appreciate the talent of, say, an Amy Tan, it's not my thing.

JIN-SHEI, however, I find, IS my thing; I simply could not put it down--and in fact could not sleep until I had finished it.
Even one of my best friends, whose taste in fantasy is more given to the Thud-and-Blunder school, read it in a shot and was similarly taken by the book.
Though by a woman, and ABOUT women, THE SECRET OF JIN-SHEI is a book for ALL readers who appreciate a good story well-told, be they male, female, or whatever else is possible.

This is writing at its finest.
Wait--did I say "writing"? Scratch that. This is WEAVING--of a tapestry so rich and defined, you cannot help but be ensnared by its threads.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ten characters in search of a trilogy, July 16, 2005

By 

C. H. Osborne (San Jose, California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secrets of Jin-shei (Hardcover)

In her notes, the authoress describes the initial concept for this book as "ten characters searching for a plot" and admits that there was no story until she read about "nushu", a secret Chinese written language which had been used between women for centuries but which is now extinct. Given such a large cast of major characters, a secret tie which binds them all, and the sumptuous background of a fantasy Chinese society in which magic and alchemy actually work, the stage is set for a complex and compelling tale of epic proportions. You would expect publishers to be signing up for a trilogy, at least.

Unfortunately, the promise doesn't quite reach the fulfilment it deserves. The book starts well and although all the major players appear almost too rapidly, time is spent in their character development as children. Later though, as they assume their adult roles, they become facilitators of the larger plot and drift in and out as required to keep things moving. Months, and sometimes years pass between the primary and generally traumatic events in the plot, so that at least one character can be brought from childhood to old age before the back cover. Characters recover from major traumas far too quickly, or disappear to lick their wounds in some convenient place that doesn't interfere with the pace of action elsewhere. Major characters die and are too-quickly gone, and the plot moves on. A powerful enemy is defeated in a page, leaving a strong sense of anticlimax.

Some significant developments take place offstage and leave us with no feeling of involvement; they feel more like obligatory plot requirements than actual events. Given the promise of the early part of the book, this all feels like the constraints of having to produce and conclude a well-rounded story spanning perhaps almost a century and involving a huge cast of significant characters in 500 pages. There really is no room to explore all the characters in the depth that they deserve, so only one or two of them end up as principal players at the cost of the others. Even the implications of Jin-shei itself, which supposedly forms the premise for the whole idea, are not explored as there's really no time to do so.

Having said all this, it's a memorable story and a great concept. It could have been a classic in the feminist fantasy genre had there been fewer main characters and less situations for them to explore, or if the focus could have moved away from the traumatic to the more everyday now and again. Any one of these characters would have made a good, perhaps a better, book, but this one just doesn't give them enough room. You just know from the outset that, as with all adventures that feature a large cast of heroes (or heroines in this case), some of the characters are doomed and it's probably not worth getting to know them too well.

Still a great idea, and a good read, but could have been great.