Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

Description from NetGalley:

Percy Jackson meets Tristan Strong in this hilarious, action-packed middle grade contemporary fantasy that follows a young boy as he journeys across China to seal the underworld shut and save the mortal realm.

Zachary Ying never had many opportunities to learn about his Chinese heritage. His single mom was busy enough making sure they got by, and his schools never taught anything except Western history and myths. So Zack is woefully unprepared when he discovers he was born to host the spirit of the First Emperor of China for a vital mission: sealing the leaking portal to the Chinese underworld before the upcoming Ghost Month blows it wide open.

The mission takes an immediate wrong turn when the First Emperor botches his attempt to possess Zack’s body and binds to Zack’s AR gaming headset instead, leading to a battle where Zack’s mom’s soul gets taken by demons. Now, with one of history’s most infamous tyrants yapping in his headset, Zack must journey across China to heist magical artifacts and defeat figures from history and myth, all while learning to wield the emperor’s incredible water dragon powers.

And if Zack can’t finish the mission in time, the spirits of the underworld will flood into the mortal realm, and he could lose his mom forever.

---

My Review:

I was really excited to read this book because I loved Xiran's other book Iron widow and I was excited to fall in love with another series similar to Percy Jackson. Not going to lie, this was a slow start for me. I do think part of it was me being in a reading mood but overall I just wasn't fully interested. I didn't get hooked until the 5th chapter.

I really enjoyed the banter between the characters. I thought was very funny at times and found myself chuckling a lot. Even though I felt there wasn't much time with each character. The pace of the book was very fast so there was no time to really think about what was going on. For example, I'm really not the biggest fan of Melissa. I'm sure this will probably change in the next book but there was no character development to really make me like her. Zach and her didn't share any moments. I don't mean romantically of course, but I wanted them to become friends. I felt the same way about Simon for the first half of the book as well. I really liked the many times he took the time to help Zach learn about his heritage and the many legends that helped shaped their journey. Again, I do get the sense of urgency the author was trying to create. By having a short timeline, it makes the fast pacing makes sense, but at the same time it sacrificed a lot of character development.

I have to say if you have any interest in Chinese culture or mythology you will absolutely love this book. The author does an amazing job adding important descriptions or bits of information without slowing down the story or making it boring. I feel like the gaming aspect makes it perfect. While the book didn't feel like playing a game it did have so many aspects that I didn't have any trouble understanding what was happening. If you're not interested in Chinese culture or mythology, this probably isn't the book for you, however, if you do give it a shot the introductions of these myths are simplistic and easy to understand.

Overall, this wasn't a bad first book. It had some great twists that I wasn't expecting at all. The lack of character development was my main issue with this book. I'm hoping there will be more in the next one. I'm very curious about how this story will go, especially since it seems like the plot could be wrapped up in the next book. I am hoping it would be a longer series as I think the premise is super fascinating. Honestly, if this book piques your interest in any capacity, then you should definitely give it a chance.

---

Read the book? Tell me your thoughts below!!