Mistress of the Steppes

I daresay I shall do what many a shameless author has done before me, namely I shall post a review about my own work. And I am definitely not doing this for the 5 EXP points that come with reviewing. Not at all. You first of all wonder what has given me the absolute confidence to rank myself a perfect 5.0, the maximum score. Now, I could try to fake it till I make it and promise you the best read of your life, making myself sound like the postmodern, female reincarnation of Fyodor Dostoevsky (writing YY novels and being reincarnated? - checks out). I could. But I will not. Because, for what I know, false representation is a crime. But let us be honest, who will grease my wheels if not I, myself?! So what to expect from Yin Shui Si Yuan? For one, it is an atypical love story between a man and a woman from different ethnicities, on a background of inter-nation wars, struggles for power, tribal conflicts and the rise of the Xiongnu Empire on the North of China. But instead of focusing on the love story, this work attempts to understand the territorial struggles between the ethnic Chinese Han and the Xiongnu and the particularities of both societies. Rather than making on nation, its customs and lifestyle a foil for another nation, it tries to explore the social constructs in parallel through the meeting between a former Chinese Han Imperial Consort and a Xiongnu aristocrat of the leading Imperial Household. ¤ Writing Quality: I will do my utmost to, at the very least, offer the reader an agreeable reading experience where vocabulary, syntax, ponctuation and grammar in general are concerned. I cannot promise that everything shall be in perfect accordance with the rules of the English language (English ain't even me the mothertongue - I am not helping my case, am I?). But you can rest assured that I will always put in effort where writing is concerned. ¤ Stability of Updates: Updates are the one thing I cannot vouch for. I am a poor student whose obligations are robbing her of sleep more often than not. And unfortunately, my personal stories are the first ones to suffer from my lack of time. However, I will endeavour, to the best of my abilities, to update as often as is possible. ¤ Story Development: Expect a slow-paced story. I am often a little bit too interested in the psychology of the characters for there to be much action. Especially at the beginning of the story. The change of surroundings for the main characters will lead to pace picking up eventually. But for now, it will be slow development. ¤ Character Design: This depends on what a reader expects from a character. My characters are generally minds more than bodies. There is a stream of consciousness style is attached to this work that favors discovering the character from the inside, rather than from the outside. You might end up feeling that you know the character's personality more than his or her appearance. As well, expecting perfect characters when a story is inspired by history would be a bit unfair towards actual historical figures. Humans are flawed, imperfect, weak. Without flaws there is no growth and therefore no strength. The characters will say things that will infuriate you, do things that will infuriate you and you might even end up disliking the. But once again, this is not so much a story about the characters. Rather, the characters are tools through which you get acquainted with the story, and the underlying historical facts. ¤ World Background: The one weakness of novels of the psychological genre is that the world never seems to be much developed, if mentioned at all. However, since this world desires to introduce the reader to the mysterious world of the Xiongnu tribes, whom we know as the Huns in the animation movie Mulan, world-building will take up a certain part of the narrative. At this point in time, it is difficult for me to precisely tell you how big this part shall be and what it shall entail. Hopefully, the readers who will give this work a try shall find in it an agreeable way to pass their time. At the end of the day, those of us who write just wish to bring the readers a little bit of joy.

The story began with some archaeological findings. For someone who loves archaeology things, I find this story very interesting. The writing quality is very good, I just hope to see a quicker update. But yeah, inspiration doesn't come easy. It's understandable. Character design is good. Only the world background is a bit confusing to me since I'm not familiar with the whole history of Xiongnu.