Dreaming of Paradise
core novel 2001 The Twelve Kingdoms
Record
| First published | 2001 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  JA |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.07 (137 ratings, collected 2026-08-31) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9784101240602 |
| Internal chronology | 5 |
Synopsis
Dreaming of Paradise is the seventh novel in the Twelve Kingdoms series in its original Japanese publication order. It centers on the Kasho Kada, the Imperial Regalia of the kingdom of Sai, an object of immense symbolic and political weight tied to the fate of the kingdom's ruler. As instability threatens Sai's throne, characters connected to the regalia must confront questions of legitimacy, loyalty, and succession within the kingdom's fractured court. Woven through the larger Twelve Kingdoms mythology, the story explores how the regalia's fate is bound to the wellbeing of the land itself, and how those entrusted with it are tested by the burdens of rule. The novel expands on the series' broader themes of kingship and celestial mandate established in earlier volumes.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Twelve Kingdoms
- Series: The Twelve Kingdoms Novels core; position 5 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Fuyumi Ono
Notes
- From the series record (The Twelve Kingdoms Novels): Fuyumi Ono's ongoing Japanese-language high fantasy sequence, originally published as prose novels (1992-2019, still ongoing); an anime adaptation exists but is not the source medium. A sixth title once catalogued here, "The Book of the Blue Phoenix," was removed 2026-08-31: no real Twelve Kingdoms volume under this or any similar title exists in the series' actual bibliography, English or Japanese.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Twelve Kingdoms Novels: position 5 of 5: previous The Shore in Twilight (2001)
- Internal chronology, within The Twelve Kingdoms: position 5 of 5: previous A Thousand Leagues of Wind (1994)
Sources
- Wikipedia: The Twelve Kingdoms
- https://readfrom.net/fuyumi-ono/220958-the_twelve_kingdoms_dreaming_of_paradise.html
- https://eugenewoodbury.blogspot.com/2009/04/the-twelve-kingdoms-novels.html
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