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An Empire in the Clouds
Not yet published
Expected 8 Sep 26Riveting and highly inventive Chinese-inspired science-fantasy of a royal family torn apart, painful betrayal and deadly secrets. Set on a drowning continent full of corruption and deception and strange technology this is a richly envisioned and powerful debut novel from the winner of the Bram Stoker® and Nebula Awards.
On Piāo, the floating empire of lotuses, Xīlián discovers the royal advisors’ ploy to overthrow her brother, Yún, the emperor, in the same way they had murdered their parents, by creating a deadly flood that will make Yún’s death seem as though an accident. She flees to the drowning continent of Opera, a place of high tech and near environmental collapse where companies vie to sell a chance at immortality. There Xīlián seeks out her exiled brother Làng to help in her efforts to disrupt the advisors’ plans and remove them from court.
Also residing on Opera is the outcast, No Face. Abandoned by the empire of Piāo, they plot to destroy those who tore their family apart. When Xīlián is caught and imprisoned and No Face discovers the shocking truth about their past, the two must work together to stop the advisors and unify their two lands or lose everyone they love to flood and revolution.
On Piāo, the floating empire of lotuses, Xīlián discovers the royal advisors’ ploy to overthrow her brother, Yún, the emperor, in the same way they had murdered their parents, by creating a deadly flood that will make Yún’s death seem as though an accident. She flees to the drowning continent of Opera, a place of high tech and near environmental collapse where companies vie to sell a chance at immortality. There Xīlián seeks out her exiled brother Làng to help in her efforts to disrupt the advisors’ plans and remove them from court.
Also residing on Opera is the outcast, No Face. Abandoned by the empire of Piāo, they plot to destroy those who tore their family apart. When Xīlián is caught and imprisoned and No Face discovers the shocking truth about their past, the two must work together to stop the advisors and unify their two lands or lose everyone they love to flood and revolution.
384 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication September 8, 2026
About the author
Ai Jiang
105 books487 followersAi Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian writer, Ignyte, Nebula, Bram Stoker Award winner, Hugo, Astounding, Locus, Aurora, and BFSA Award finalist, and an immigrant from Changle, Fujian currently residing in Toronto, Ontario. Her work can be found in F&SF, The Dark, The Masters Review, among others. She is the recipient of Odyssey Workshop's 2022 Fresh Voices Scholarship.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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July 31, 2025a tale of royal siblings striving to survive in a world of murder and corruption.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to Netgalley for an early arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I’m an atheist but I am choosing to believe this book came to me through some sort of divine intervention.
I’d been mourning The Spear Cuts Through Water and the unique, immersive, largely second person narrative that offered me. I read it way too quickly and fell in love. Then - like a light through a tunnel, I open Netgalley and this glimmering gem is on my suggested page.
and goddamnit I read it way too quickly again.
The Empire in the Clouds was simply stunning. I can’t begin to describe with remote adequacy just how beautiful I found everything in these short pages. The prose is lush and mythic, this absolutely incredible blend of decadent Chinese inspired fantasy that invokes this almost fairytale feel, mixed with such incredible Sci-Fi and hypertechnological world. I’ll be so honest I didn’t think it would work and would like to sincerely apologise to Jiang for ever doubting her. It really really worked, and so many of the details like the Mimics were both highly inventive and honestly creepy af 😂.
We follow Xīlán and No Face in a world where corruption has rotted the roots of the world and immortality is a commodity bought and sold. Everything about An Empire in the Clouds was engaging and addictive. The plot is disorienting in a way I honestly really enjoyed, it kept my guessing and my heart racing to the very last page. This is truly a book you can’t decide who to trust even yourself sometimes, and it worked so well in this plot’s favour.
One of the things I loved best about this was the emotional core of the story. Yes there’s plenty of action and adrenaline, tonnes of truly beautiful prose. But where it shone the best for me was the emotional bits. The discourse around fragmented identity and unusual familial relationships was done fantastically by Jiang. I’d be in the middle of something action packed then get hit by a brick wall with emotion that did universal even in this truly unique world.
Praise to the chef, truly.
Yes the second person narrative can be a bit throwing, but let yourself get used to it. Here it’s done so well and in such an immersive way I’ll bet money you’ll struggle to read anything outside of second person ever again.
If you will excuse me I’m running to buy the rest of Jiang’s repetoire, asap.
I’m an atheist but I am choosing to believe this book came to me through some sort of divine intervention.
I’d been mourning The Spear Cuts Through Water and the unique, immersive, largely second person narrative that offered me. I read it way too quickly and fell in love. Then - like a light through a tunnel, I open Netgalley and this glimmering gem is on my suggested page.
and goddamnit I read it way too quickly again.
The Empire in the Clouds was simply stunning. I can’t begin to describe with remote adequacy just how beautiful I found everything in these short pages. The prose is lush and mythic, this absolutely incredible blend of decadent Chinese inspired fantasy that invokes this almost fairytale feel, mixed with such incredible Sci-Fi and hypertechnological world. I’ll be so honest I didn’t think it would work and would like to sincerely apologise to Jiang for ever doubting her. It really really worked, and so many of the details like the Mimics were both highly inventive and honestly creepy af 😂.
We follow Xīlán and No Face in a world where corruption has rotted the roots of the world and immortality is a commodity bought and sold. Everything about An Empire in the Clouds was engaging and addictive. The plot is disorienting in a way I honestly really enjoyed, it kept my guessing and my heart racing to the very last page. This is truly a book you can’t decide who to trust even yourself sometimes, and it worked so well in this plot’s favour.
One of the things I loved best about this was the emotional core of the story. Yes there’s plenty of action and adrenaline, tonnes of truly beautiful prose. But where it shone the best for me was the emotional bits. The discourse around fragmented identity and unusual familial relationships was done fantastically by Jiang. I’d be in the middle of something action packed then get hit by a brick wall with emotion that did universal even in this truly unique world.
Praise to the chef, truly.
Yes the second person narrative can be a bit throwing, but let yourself get used to it. Here it’s done so well and in such an immersive way I’ll bet money you’ll struggle to read anything outside of second person ever again.
If you will excuse me I’m running to buy the rest of Jiang’s repetoire, asap.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
3.5 rounded up to 4/5 masked stars 🎭🎭🎭🎭
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader's copy.
An Empire in the Clouds follows the POVs of two individuals fighting against the iron fist of the Piaoren Empire--an advisor-led dynasty forcing the split of two continents for their own greed.
The first POV follows Xilian, daughter of the late emperor and empress--who wished to unite the floating lotuses of Piao with the drowning continent of Opera before their untimely deaths. The second follows No Face, a piaoren who escaped to Opera and found a home within the House of the Water Sleeves. No Face was forced away from Piao due to the advisors, and wishes to exact revenge on them. We see both Xilian and No Face reckon with their pasts and hopes for the future as they separately plot to take down the advisors.
While a beautifully written and imaginative story, I found myself struggling with the POV switches. No faces's were particularly off putting being in the first person while Xilian was in third.
I appreciated the author's attempt to convey Opera's slang, but the lack of explanation for the sudden spelling changes made me think there were printing errors until the "x" slang was mentioned halfway through the book. This should've been explained the first time the reader encounters it.
Additionally, I wish we could have better understood the motivations of Advisor Liang and REBOOT's leaders. Their malice would've been more convincing if we had more of an explanation behind their actions. I found the REBOOT vs REVIVE dichotomy ineresting and would've loved to see more of how each faction headbutted and which would lead Opera in its new era. The inclusion almost felt too ambitious since it wasn't fully fleshed out.
I also found many of the characters endearing (Gubao, Lang, Yōu, and Uncle Lian), however, some like Gael and Okwi were introduced so quickly it was hard to tell them apart and I felt little when they were in danger.
Overall, An Empire in the Clouds is a beautifully written, hopeful, and reflective read that is a little difficult to get into, but worth the leap.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader's copy.
An Empire in the Clouds follows the POVs of two individuals fighting against the iron fist of the Piaoren Empire--an advisor-led dynasty forcing the split of two continents for their own greed.
The first POV follows Xilian, daughter of the late emperor and empress--who wished to unite the floating lotuses of Piao with the drowning continent of Opera before their untimely deaths. The second follows No Face, a piaoren who escaped to Opera and found a home within the House of the Water Sleeves. No Face was forced away from Piao due to the advisors, and wishes to exact revenge on them. We see both Xilian and No Face reckon with their pasts and hopes for the future as they separately plot to take down the advisors.
While a beautifully written and imaginative story, I found myself struggling with the POV switches. No faces's were particularly off putting being in the first person while Xilian was in third.
I appreciated the author's attempt to convey Opera's slang, but the lack of explanation for the sudden spelling changes made me think there were printing errors until the "x" slang was mentioned halfway through the book. This should've been explained the first time the reader encounters it.
Additionally, I wish we could have better understood the motivations of Advisor Liang and REBOOT's leaders. Their malice would've been more convincing if we had more of an explanation behind their actions. I found the REBOOT vs REVIVE dichotomy ineresting and would've loved to see more of how each faction headbutted and which would lead Opera in its new era. The inclusion almost felt too ambitious since it wasn't fully fleshed out.
I also found many of the characters endearing (Gubao, Lang, Yōu, and Uncle Lian), however, some like Gael and Okwi were introduced so quickly it was hard to tell them apart and I felt little when they were in danger.
Overall, An Empire in the Clouds is a beautifully written, hopeful, and reflective read that is a little difficult to get into, but worth the leap.
July 16, 2026
What I liked:
- Sibling dynamics (Triplets! Yesssss!)
- The short, quick chapters.
- I like some of the cool unique climate world building in this, like the smog eaters.
Things I struggled with:
- Visualizing the world. Like Tron with masks but underwater for traveling? I need more artwork please. And then sometimes the details took away from the political court threads. So I often had to go back to see what was being talked about.
- I felt like we lost the focus on the siblings and I wanted more of them. I wanted a clearer more satisfying ending.
- This is probably because I’m dyslexic- but the changing of word spellings to have X in them hurts my brain. I also didn’t think certain things didn’t need to be in all caps. It draws my eye before I want to get to it.
I loved the dedication:
“For all those wearing a thousand faces and more. For those those wearing a single face without choice. It starts with the individual but ends with the community. It takes first an understanding of the past to change the future. It begins with ourselves before it spreads, like a drowning sea.”
And this part:
“Have you ever wished to simply let the world drown? Even if it meant you yourself’ d drown with it?”
…. “What I needed, I think, was simpler than I thought,” they continue. “Hope.”
Thanks Netgalley & Titan Books.
Even though I struggled with fully to connect, I know this will be someone’s jam.
3/5
- Sibling dynamics (Triplets! Yesssss!)
- The short, quick chapters.
- I like some of the cool unique climate world building in this, like the smog eaters.
Things I struggled with:
- Visualizing the world. Like Tron with masks but underwater for traveling? I need more artwork please. And then sometimes the details took away from the political court threads. So I often had to go back to see what was being talked about.
- I felt like we lost the focus on the siblings and I wanted more of them. I wanted a clearer more satisfying ending.
- This is probably because I’m dyslexic- but the changing of word spellings to have X in them hurts my brain. I also didn’t think certain things didn’t need to be in all caps. It draws my eye before I want to get to it.
I loved the dedication:
“For all those wearing a thousand faces and more. For those those wearing a single face without choice. It starts with the individual but ends with the community. It takes first an understanding of the past to change the future. It begins with ourselves before it spreads, like a drowning sea.”
And this part:
“Have you ever wished to simply let the world drown? Even if it meant you yourself’ d drown with it?”
…. “What I needed, I think, was simpler than I thought,” they continue. “Hope.”
Thanks Netgalley & Titan Books.
Even though I struggled with fully to connect, I know this will be someone’s jam.
3/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from Author
My blurb of An Empire in the Clouds:
“A lush and inventive tale exploring duality in its many forms, beginning with the clash between lands: the ancient beauty of traditionalist Piāo and the gritty neon of tech-obsessed Opera. Against this vibrant backdrop, Jiang deftly combines gorgeous prose, complex characters, and subtle commentary to build a powerful story about the ways we help and hurt each other—whether intentional or not. Don’t miss this heartbreakingly beautiful debut novel from a rising star in speculative fiction!”
“A lush and inventive tale exploring duality in its many forms, beginning with the clash between lands: the ancient beauty of traditionalist Piāo and the gritty neon of tech-obsessed Opera. Against this vibrant backdrop, Jiang deftly combines gorgeous prose, complex characters, and subtle commentary to build a powerful story about the ways we help and hurt each other—whether intentional or not. Don’t miss this heartbreakingly beautiful debut novel from a rising star in speculative fiction!”
Review of advance copy received from Author
Loved every minute of reading this book the different worlds from modern to old. Enjoyed the charectors growth and adversity it is a very good read
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews