My favorite character was Arazi, whom you see on the cover. The romance is far from the only important relationship in the book there's a really complicated sibling relationship at the heart of this, tense and with a lot of conflict but also love.Īnd if you love animal companion stories, you probably really want to read this.

Also that sex scene.) and because I, too, would be really into the beautiful woman who is the enemy prime duelist. I also loved the romance, because it appealed to me on so many levels (.characters who grow close physically first and then learn to trust each other? Yes. I ended up really liking them, and it was probably the 'must absolutely paint with mud' scene that made it for me. I didn't feel strongly about them at first, but something about their sometimes misplaced obstinacy, their ordinary nature paired with odd artist habits, the way they trusted too easily and were paranoid at less rational moments. I just need the book not to try to pass it as smart, you know?Īnd Jebi grew on me. I also know that it's easy, as a reader, to say 'well that wasn't smart', but would have I, another ordinary person who would be out of their depth, made better decisions in that situation? No, probably worse. I may prefer to read about really competent people because many things are more fun that way, yes. The book never lets them forget that, and neither do the characters, in a myriad of ways that vary from 'subtle' to 'outright laughing in Jebi's face because couldn't believe they could be so dense'. This is deliberately a story about a very ordinary person, one good at painting but not a prodigy, who is caught in a place where they're way out of their depth. They aren't good at manipulation or even that charming they aren't the type of larger-than-life character that leaps off the page like in Machineries of Empire, because this isn't a space opera.

The main character of this book isn't a genius. oblivious about anything that isn't art) as they get caught in the middle of political machinations involving a revolutionary movement in Hwaguk, a fantasy country heavily inspired by Korea under Japanese occupation. Phoenix Extravagant is the story of Gyen Jebi, an artist married to their profession (read: kind of. Sometimes a worldbuilding is as steampunk as it is folktale, and sometimes a family is an obstinate non-binary artist, a prime duelist and a philosophical mecha dragon, and isn't that just perfect?

Phoenix extravagant