Breath of the Dragon: Breathmarked by Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee is book one out of the Breathmarked duology. Fonda Lee, a Canadian author, was heavily inspired by Bruce Lee’s movies when creating these novels. She was able to reach out to Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, to help her create this work. This book came out early this year, and it is rumored that the second book will be released next year.
The book is about a teenage boy named Jun. He lives in a world where people are born with special abilities, while others are not. The country is split into two: One side where martial arts can be freely practiced and the other where only those with special abilities can practice the art. Jun does not have any special abilities but is talented in martial arts, while his twin brother does possess abilities and is sent to train for the military.
Jun and his father are sent to West Longhan, where martial arts can be freely practiced as his mother and twin brother are forever in East Longhan. His father is burdened by past mistakes that led to their family splitting and forbids him from participating in the elite Guardian Treatment. Hoping to restore his family’s honor, Jun enlists in the elite Guardian Tournament, held every 6 years to select the protector of the magical Scroll of Heaven and defies his fathers orders. Jun stows away with preformers Chang and Ren and begins his journey to the capitol, where the tournament is held.
As Jun advances through the tournaments, he faces many challenges and uncovers political tensions which make him realize the stakes of him winning are higher than his personal gains. The whole fate of Longhan is determined by his win.
After reading this book, I would say I really enjoyed it. The writing style was engaging and the plot always kept me interested. I liked the story line and how every small detail connected at the end. The character development of Jun was my favorite out of the rest, he was able to grow so much out of every experience he had. However, as this is based off of China and Chinese mythology, some of the vocabulary used were not explained and made the story confusing as it was hard to understand for people unfamiliar with the culture. I would suggest adding a glossary or index. Besides the small issue where the reader has to interpret the meaning, I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy mythical fantasy and mystery.