The Jasmine Throne

How it reads

The Jasmine Throne is fantasy (epic fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in an invented world, in no single period, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are power and politics, identity and love. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It opens a series. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. It's a long book, and a real commitment. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.