The Poet Empress

This is going to sound weird, but I’m surprised by how much I liked The Poet Empress by Shen Tao. Epic fantasies are not always my thing - I always feel like I’m going to have to invest all my time on a dozen 800 page books - but this one was recommended to me, and good job whoever that was. 

Wei Yin is smart, but it’s forbidden for girls to read, so the only hope for her family - and her whole starving village - is to find a way to pay for little brother to go to school, like by marrying a city boy.  Then the chance comes to be sent to court as a potential concubine for the (notoriously cruel) emperor to be, Prince Terren. Though smart, Wei is too sheltered to know a rice farmer’s daughter doesn’t stand a chance against more genteel village and city girls, but whether due to her bravado, fortune’s twisted sense of humor, or various political machinations (probably a combination of all three), she is sent to court. But she is not selected to be a mere concubine - the Prince announces she is to become his empress. 

She quickly finds herself at his mercy while trying to navigate the politics at Azalea Court. She soon realizes the key to her survival will be to arm herself with knowledge, so she uses her newfound court canny to manipulate a servant into teaching her to read so she can then teach herself literomancy (magic using the written word). 

The court intrigue, history, and magic are thrilling, and the characters are larger than life but feel real at the same time. Shen Tao dos an amazing job making the villains sympathetic and the heroes imperfect. Most importantly, she stuck the landing. The Poet Empress has one of my favorite conclusions in recent history.

Katharine Chen and Eric Yang were perfect narrators for the audiobook and brought the story to life. 

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor, and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy for my unbiased review. Pub. date 1/20/26