Ebony Gate
Ratings1
Average rating3
15
Ratings1
Average rating3
Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle's Ebony Gate is a female John Wick story with dragon magic set in contemporary San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Emiko Soong belongs to one of the eight premier magical families of the world. But Emiko never needed any magic. Because she is the Blade of the Soong Clan. Or was. Until she’s drenched in blood in the middle of a market in China, surrounded by bodies and the scent of blood and human waste as a lethal perfume.
The Butcher of Beijing now lives a quiet life in San Francisco, importing antiques. But when a shinigami, a god of death itself, calls in a family blood debt, Emiko must recover the Ebony Gate that holds back the hungry ghosts of the Yomi underworld. Or forfeit her soul as the anchor.
What's a retired assassin to do but save the City by the Bay from an army of the dead?
Featured Series
2 primary booksThe Phoenix Hoard is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2023 with contributions by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle.
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This was an easy, fun read, but what really threw me off were my own expectations going in. This book was sold to me with the tagline of "female John Wick story with dragon magic set in contemporary San Francisco’s Chinatown." (emphasis mine), and that set me up into thinking this would be just a continual action, revenge whirlwind. What I got was a retired assassin having to re-enter the world they thought they'd escaped. Definitely John Wick-esque, but skewed differently than I was expecting. The world-building is solid and there's a lot of interesting and unique ideas thrown at you, but again like John Wick, expect to have to pick up the majority of things by context clues. I'll be reading the sequel.
