A bold and adventurous book. Taking all of its inspirations and turning it into something great. Weaving together a story blending the modern world and Chinese mythology, in fun and creative ways. It is a truly standout novel. ( )

A stellar urban fantasy to the brim with chinese mythology. I highly recommend it for fans of Percy Jackson. It's action packed, hilarious and endearing. A worthy read for anyone. ( )

An amazing story inside a mythology-rich rich inspired world. It has incredible action scenes, endearing characters, and an incredible number of cool monsters from mythology. ( )

A really great first book! I really loved how much it emphasized talking about Chinese history and culture. It was really neat! Although this was heavily influenced by "Yu-Gi-Oh!", I felt like I learned a lot more about the culture at the heart of the story than I did there. I also adore the cover art by Xiao Tong Kong, as ever. It's so gorgeous!

While the inspiration for this is kind of obvious even outside the acknowledgements, despite the fact that I never got into "Yu-Gi-Oh!", despite multiple attempts, I honestly really enjoyed it, possibly in part because it is very similar to "Percy Jackson & the Olympians", and I love that story universe. The characters were wonderful, the magic system is cool, and the story universe is really compelling. I love Zack and am looking forward to learning more about him in book 2. ( )

Xiran Jay Zhao’s Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor follows twelve-year-old Zachary, whose mother fled China after his father was arrested and executed for speaking out about Hui oppression. Growing up in the United States, he never learned much about Chinese history and felt pressured to assimilate. Unfortunately, he soon discovers how much he doesn’t know when confronted by spirits possessing people in his life in order to attack him. He learns that he is descended from Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, whose spirit needs Zack to work with other spirit emperors – Tang Taezong and Wu Zetian – who posses their own descendants – Simon and Melissa – in order to reseal a spirit plug that Emperor Qin placed in his tomb to lock away the spirit world. Otherwise, spirits will run amok in the mortal realm and one will devour Zach’s mother’s soul. Unlike Simon and Melissa, however, Zack is not fully bonded with Emperor Qin. Knowledge of the emperor’s legends helps to forge a connection though Zach’s ignorance about Chinese culture makes a full bond impossible. Instead, Emperor Qin communicates with Zack through his XY Technologies Portal-lens, an augmented-reality gaming headset created by Jason Xuan, a wealthy techno-industrialist who is aware of the sprits aids the Yellow Emperor, the enemy of the three protagonists’ imperial guides, but his high-profile means he cannot openly challenge them even as they use his technology. Now Zack, Simon, and Melissa travel to China to collect the magical items they will need in order to reseal the emperor’s tomb.

Drawing upon Yu-Gi-Oh!, Zhao describes a fictional augmented reality game called Mythrealm in which characters form teams, collect powers and creatures from the various world mythologies, and compete against each other in tournaments. XY Technologies’ Portal-lens is thus similar to the Duel Disk in Yu-Gi-Oh!, though resembling more recent technologies like Pokémon GO. Zhao uses the trope of legends conveying power to mystical beings, similar to what Neil Gaiman did in American Gods, Bill Willingham’s Fables, and David Duchovny’s Miss Subways. Unlike some of those stories in which gods and legendary people can actively shape their own myths, Zhao inverts the trope such that those from the spirit realm are powerless to control how their legends are reinterpreted or altered over time. Unfortunately for them, they must abide by the constraints of popular consciousness. Zhao’s best and funniest example of this is Emperor Qin being subject to The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (p. 168). Zhao also works to distinguish the differences between the spirit and mortal planes when the emperors clarify that the Chinese people are not the Chinese government just as popular legends differ from official narratives; after all, legends may even have several alternate and contradictory versions themselves (p. 44). Zhao crafts characters with all the complexities of their first novel, Iron Widow, with each having their own agendas and most being “horrible in different ways” (p. 318). A great middle-grade adventure with a lot of depth and history! ( )