The Phoenix Empress
core novel 2018 Their Bright Ascendency
Record
| First published | 2018 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.93 (1,308 ratings, collected 2026-08-26) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780765392572 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
The Phoenix Empress opens roughly eight years after the events of The Tiger's Daughter, as Barsalai Shefali and O-Shizuka reunite following Shefali's long quest to retrieve a phoenix feather, the condition set for ending her exile from Shizuka's side. In the years apart, Shizuka has led a devastating military campaign against the demons threatening her empire and endured trauma of her own, leaving both women changed in ways neither fully anticipated when they were reunited. As they work to reconcile who they have become with the destiny they were raised to fulfill together, casting down the cause of the blackblood plague afflicting their world, Shefali carries a secret from her journey that complicates any hope of a peaceful future: a god has told her the date of her own death, and that date is drawing near.
Where it sits
- Universe: Their Bright Ascendency
- Series: Their Bright Ascendency core; position 2 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: K Arsenault Rivera
Notes
- From the series record (Their Bright Ascendency): An epic fantasy trilogy drawing on East Asian and Mongolian-inspired settings, told through letters between two women warriors bound by fate and a shared destiny to fight the returning Traitorous Son.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Their Bright Ascendency: position 2 of 3: previous The Tiger's Daughter (2017) · next The Warrior Moon (2021)
Sources
- Their Bright Ascendency series bibliography (specialised series-tracking site)
- https://reactormag.com/book-reviews-the-phoenix-empress-by-k-arsenault-rivera/
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