Spirit Mirror

Chia Black Dragon #1

by Stephen Marley

First of the Chia Black Dragon series, Spirit Mirror is, compared to the other novels, the nearest to a conventional fantasy. That said, this dark fantasy set in Han dynasty China already possesses most of the elements that make up Stephen’s sub-genre which he dubbed ‘Chinese Gothic’.

Chia, a beautiful woman who possesses an immense lifespan from her non-human father (whom she murdered) is introduced as a lesbian, part-demon, sometime vampire! In this tale, Chia is lured by her unhinged and deadly brother into releasing beings from a mirror dimension in his attempt to corrupt the newly-laid roots of Buddhism in China.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Claus Appel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read Stephen Marley's 1988 novel _Spirit Mirror_ in 2009 or thereabouts, and I just reread it this year. It is a historical fantasy/horror story set in Han Dynasty China circa AD 200.

The protagonist is Chia, the Black Dragon Sorceress, a 3000-year-old immortal. The villain is the necromancer Nyak, who uses spells of madness to gradually mind-control the world.

This book has the best example I've seen of an _extensively utilised soft magic system_. The magic is strongly inspired by Chinese (Tao) and Indian (Buddhist) mysticism, with some Egyptian mythology thrown in because Chia has travelled widely in her long life. The magic is used a lot and plays a huge part in the story, and we gradually learn a few rules about how the magic operates, but it remains largely mysterious. I think Marley strikes a really great balance here - the magic is just hard enough that the major plot points make sense, but soft enough to still _feel magical_. It helps that the magic is subtle - instead of fireballs, it works mostly by illusions, mind control, poison and disease.

There are many moments of horror and some gruesome descriptions of gore, but it's not exactly dark fantasy. There are clearly defined good guys. It's no darker than _The Lord of the Rings_, just more gory.

There are also moments of light lesbian erotica.

_Spirit Mirror_ works perfectly well as a standalone novel. There are also two sequels, _Mortal Mask_ and _Shadow Sisters_. Back when I first read them, _Spirit Mirror_ was my favourite of the three, but other people disagree. My opinion might change when I get around to rereading the sequels.

There is no ebook, but used print copies are easy to get, I think.

I rate this book 5/5. I have never seen it mentioned here, so I consider it a forgotten gem. Not perfect, but lots of great elements. Horror and magic and a cool high-powered female protagonist in an unusual setting.

[Mrs. Watermelon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting book. The (anti)hero Chia is such a memorable character, a lesbian immortal vampiric half-demon Chinese sorceress (did I miss anything?). She is well-written and flawed. There are sprinkles of her wit here and there to add light to a very dark story. I could really empathise with her amd what she went through. It all makes for a fantastic protagonist.
You don't get many fantasy books set in ancient China, and with Stephen Marley's expansive knowledge of the country's history it all feels natural. The writing style is unconventional, but it works very well with the dark themes and the mystery of what's happening with the mirror dimension.
This book isn't one for the squeamish and I'd definitely call it a horror book as well as a fantasy book. The violence feels realistic to the plot.
And not to mention that spellbindingly beautiful cover...

[Ozdaae · Rating 1 out of 5]

I normally don't write reviews, and I feel bad making an exception with a negative one, but I felt there ought to be at least one in English.

I picked up this book hoping for a story about a Chinese lesbian demon hunter. I had bought it with exactly that much of a description to go on and didn’t know what to expect…
...what I got was a bizarre, poorly written, randomly illustrated novel beneath a beautiful cover.

Marley’s writing is so odd, and it was this I simply couldn't get past. Every other line was an alternate phrasing of the same description made in the previous sentence, and he had a terrible habit of using pairs of adjectives to describe everything. It was like the horror story version of purple prose—yet even with all those words he didn't achieve any emotional depth; every character felt distant and cold. I suffered through as best I could, lacking completely in enthusiasm and interest, and then switched to skim-reading before realizing I was just wasting my time.

For me this was an absolute disappointment -- but in Marley's defense, I do not read science fiction, which a friend advised me this book fell under, and many a book has been written off by me purely because of a writing style I could not deal with. Perhaps frequenters of sci fi and those less anal about prose will find much more here than I did.

[Helmut · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chinoiserie

"Spirit Mirror" ist eine gelungene, düstere Fantasygeschichte. Lovecraftsche Einflüsse erzeugen eine dunklere Atmosphäre als dies bei Fantasy-Geschichten im allgemeinen der Fall ist. Sprachlich interessant und auch von den Charakterisierungen her gelungen, stört mich an diesem Roman eigentlich nur, dass die Verortung nicht so recht wirkt. Man hat einfach nicht den Eindruck, dass die Handlung wirklich im antiken China spielt; mit wenig Aufwand (Namensänderungen) versetzt man die Handlung einfach ins mittelalterliche Europa, ins Südamerika der Mayas oder ins Australien der Aborigines.

Deshalb auch die Überschrift meiner Rezension - es handelt sich um Chinoiserie, also ein Produkt, das so tut als käme es aus China, letztlich aber nur oberflächlich diesen Anspruch erfüllt.

Wenn man sich davon aber nicht beeindrucken lässt, sollte man diesem Roman eine Chance geben; die 3 Sterne sind der Ausdruck meines Missfallens an der oberflächlichen Verortung, andere Leser sehen dies bestimmt weniger kritisch.