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The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water Kindle Edition

by Zen Cho (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 618 ratings
Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy
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A 2021 Locus Award Finalist!

A Lambda Literary Award Finalist

A Book Riot Must-Read Fantasy of 2020

Amazon's Best of 2020 So Far

“Fantastic, defiant, utterly brilliant.” —Ken Liu

Zen Cho returns with The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, a found family wuxia fantasy that combines the vibrancy of old school martial arts movies with characters drawn from the margins of history.

A bandit walks into a coffeehouse, and it all goes downhill from there. Guet Imm, a young votary of the Order of the Pure Moon, joins up with an eclectic group of thieves (whether they like it or not) in order to protect a sacred object, and finds herself in a far more complicated situation than she could have ever imagined.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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  1. Print length
    155 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Tordotcom
  5. Publication date
    June 23, 2020
  6. File size
    5364 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Fun and full of adventure."―John Scalzi

“Fantastic, defiant, utterly brilliant.” ―Ken Liu

“A fun and sweet wuxia-inspired tale of banditry, faith, and changes both of the world and of the self. By turns hilarious, sharp and heartbreaking, it will keep you turning the pages late at night.” ―Aliette de Bodard

“Both hilariously fun and deeply moving, this tale has shenanigans and soul.”―Karen Lord

Praise for Zen Cho

“Zen Cho unpins the edges of the canvas and throws them wide.” ―Naomi Novik

“A sheer delight from beginning to end.” ―Samantha Shannon

“Complex and rich.” ―Genevieve Cogman

“A winning combination of magic and thrill.” ―The Washington Post

About the Author

Zen Cho is the author of a short story collection and five novels. She is a winner of the Crawford Award, British Fantasy Award, and the Hugo Award and has been a finalist for the Locus and Astounding awards. Born and raised in Malaysia, she now lives in the United Kingdom.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07WPNGGGB
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tordotcom (June 23, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 23, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 5364 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 155 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1250269253
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 618 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Zen Cho

Zen Cho

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Zen Cho is the author of the Sorcerer to the Crown novels, Black Water Sister and various shorter fiction. Her work has won the Hugo, Crawford and British Fantasy Awards, and the LA Times Book Prize/Ray Bradbury Prize. Born and raised in Malaysia, Zen now lives in the UK.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
618 global ratings
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5 Stars
Beautiful
So. Perfectly. Lovely. I loved this book. It was literal magic. It transported me to a world of heartbreak and pain but also kindness and beauty and the divine. It surprised me a million times along the way. Also, all the cheers for representation!!!
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Top reviews from the United States

Elisabeth Carey
5.0 out of 5 stars Not your average bandit adventure
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2021
Verified Purchase
A bandit walks into a coffeehouse and is quietly drinking his tea when a dispute breaks out between a waitress and a customer. Soon it becomes a major fight, in which the bandit, Lau Fung Cheung, and another bandit, Tet Sang, play a major role.

Guet Imm, a young votary of the Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, is working as a waitress in the coffeehouse after her tokong was attacked and everyone else killed. She's alive because she was an anchorite, protected by her walls until she realized it had been too long between food deliveries. She emerged to find the devastation. She's not really a very good waitress, and she's a worse assistant cook, so she's fired without hesitation for the fight.

Guet Imm then joins the bandit gang, whether they want her or not.

She has no idea what she's getting into, but then, neither do the bandits. Or, as they prefer to call themselves, contractors.

The contractors are transporting a very special load of goods to a very particular buyer. Lau Fung Cheung, head of the gang, has perhaps not kept all his promises to his men. Tet Sang, second in command, and maker of many of the important decisions, has secrets he'd prefer the rest of the contractors don't know. Guet Imm really is a young and somewhat naïve votary of her order, but she's something more than just that.

Also, this is just a really interesting world to wander around in.

There are things I would love to comment on that would be major spoilers.

Highly recommended.

I bought this book.
One person found this helpful
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Art Spain
4.0 out of 5 stars Delightful
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2020
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What a delightful novella! I thought it was a great story, just very different and unexpected. Very interesting characters and again, very different an unexpected.
2 people found this helpful
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Jennifer C.
5.0 out of 5 stars Such a great novella!
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2022
Verified Purchase
This book kicks off in a coffeehouse, with a waitress being accused of hexing a customer after he assaulted her, another customer coming to her assistance, and a brawl breaking out. As a result, the waitress is fired, the owner (who was provided funds by the two men assisting the waitress against the offender to cover the damages from the fight) pays a little too much attention to the identity of the two men when they didn't want it, and some plans go awry (though that part isn't discovered immediately).

The fired waitress, Guet Imm, then tracks down the two men with the rest of their group of "contractors" and invites herself along on their journey, despite the protestations of Tet Sang, one of the two men who had been involved in the brawl.

With that auspicious beginning, it's not surprising that the rest of the story doesn't go smoothly. Yet, even with all the bumps in the road that come up, there does appear to be some divine providence at work.

I loved the agency that Guet Imm has in this story. She is a character that would normally be looked down upon and taken advantage of in other stories, yet that doesn't happen here, in large part because she refuses to let it happen. When the men in the group begin to casually remark that she can repay them for letting her join their group by sleeping with them, she lets them know with a straight face and complete sincerity that that's fine - as long as they're okay with the sacrifice that she would have to give afterward. It takes Tet Sang, who is somewhat familiar with the rules of her Order, telling them that the sacrifice she means is their castration before they begin to rethink their approach and realize that she is more than her vulva.

But the discussion on gender doesn't end there. Zen Cho addresses gender identity and gender fluidity in a way that is refreshing because of the way it is accepted in the universe. The Oder of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water accepts female acolytes into their Order, but not all the acolytes were female before joining the Order, nor do they all remain female when they leave the order.

After reading this book, I am definitely looking forward to reading more books by Zen Cho - and I already have The Sorcerer's Crown and Black Water Sister on my list. I encourage you to read this book as well, and experience this author, so that you can also look forward to reading other books by her.
3 people found this helpful
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Jennifer Nash
3.0 out of 5 stars Fun, Playful Asian Fantasy
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2020
I have not read Zen Cho before, but she is well know for her fantasy novel, The Sorcerer's Crown, so it was an easy request when I saw this novella available on Netgalley.

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water is a fantasy novel set in Imperial China during wartime, and focuses on a bawdy band of men just doing the best they can when they are joined by Guet Imm, a member of The Order who is also struggling to find her footing after her temple is destroyed. Guet Imm, however, soon realizes she might be getting more than she bargained for, as do the men in letting her join their adventures.

I really enjoyed the upbeat tone of the novella and the witty, playful dialogue is so much fun, however I do think these things separated the reader a bit too much from the high stakes of the times these characters live in. I also appreciated how Cho incorporated LGBTQ characters into her story in a natural way, without much fuss. Overall, an enjoyable quick read to spend an afternoon with.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor for my free review copy. All opinions are my own.
2 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Very atmospheric.
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2021
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I enjoyed this story. It took me but to settle in to it, but I liked the characters. The nun is a boss.
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Toby
5.0 out of 5 stars A gorgeous book - inside and out
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2020
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The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water is a fascinating wuxia-inspired fantasy, gorgeously written by Zen Cho. Great pacing and amazing characters which leap off the very first page. I especially loved the layers to the story, the mysteries surrounding the Order and the character dynamics between Tet Sang and Guet Imm, in particular. It's hard to pull yourself away from this one. The cover is an absolute work of art too - makes me wish I had the hard copy instead of the digital version.
4 people found this helpful
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ocelotn
4.0 out of 5 stars Fun read
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2020
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You know when you can't stop yourself reading good bits across the breakfast table... and realize that you've effectively ready half the book aloud without realizing it? It was the book I needed, and my chief regret is that it ends appropriately but all too soon.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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MR D PENNOCK
5.0 out of 5 stars I could fall in love with a Buddhist nun (and wuxia fantasy)
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2020
Verified Purchase
I have read some other books by Zen Cho, a Malaysian fantasy writer and accordingly wanted to read all her works. I am afraid of not doing her justice or putting people off, which would be a shame. The story is about a group of bandits who meet up with a Buddhist nun and together they go to sell some stolen temple artifacts. (All of that is superficially true but not the whole truth) I think I learnt more about Buddhism, empathy and corruption in one book than if I had studied religion and politics for a year. Humour runs through it all and I felt like I had been given a genuine insight into third world characters and a situation far more complex than instant sound bites. At the end of the book I was glad I had purchased it and feel a more rounded person for having done so. I gather the label is wuxia fantasy, regardless of that read it.
2 people found this helpful
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Anna
4.0 out of 5 stars The Nun and Bandit Delivery Service
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2020
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So fun! Smiling, laughing or wanting to hit them over the head... the band of bandits are travelling across the country and traveling with them you’ll want to know what happens and how it goes wrong, because it has to. Doesn’t it? In a war torn nation where the war has long since become a silent one, what’s anyone to do? The characters really make this one: The Nun and The Bandits.

Other reviews have mentioned and I have to agree, I wish this was longer! Having said that the story starts and ends at all the right points so I just have to hope Zen Cho comes back to this world. (Please?)
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Georg Egger
4.0 out of 5 stars Gut aber Preis exorbitant
Reviewed in Germany on October 10, 2020
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Eine amüsant Geschichte, wenn man Chos andere Bücher gelesen hat, die ja sehr im englischen Stil geschrieben sind hat man hier den Eindruck sie möchte sich da von einem Image lösen, uu deshalb manchmal unnötige viele vulgäre Ausdrücke im Text. Aber, es ist halt ihr Stil und so liest es sich dann eben auch.

Was ich aber als Frechheit empfinde ist der EXORBITANTE preis für diese paar Seiten Text. Dies ist der Preis eines teureren Buchs und man bekommt eine Novella mit 150 Seiten....
2 people found this helpful
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Nichola F
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly delicious
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 27, 2020
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This had me from the moment I heard the concept - that it’s a queered fanfic novella for a Wuxia TV show that doesn’t exist, loosely inspired by my precious space husbands in Star Wars: Rebel One.

I now CRAVE a fat pile of fanfic about this nonexistent TV show, dammit - hopefully this will gradually come into existence with the passage of time? In the meanwhile, if you have a penchant for wuxia and/or wish to read about former nuns kicking ass and resisting colonisers, and if you’re delighted by the prospect of a trans man as the main character, hie thee hither and buy the living daylights out of this lovely little book.
3 people found this helpful
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Sandlings
4.0 out of 5 stars This is a great beginning.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2020
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This is a novella and just as it gets really interesting it finishes. I really hope this is the first of many more. I love Zen Cho's writing.
2 people found this helpful
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