The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water (Zen Cho)

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water
Zen Cho
Tordotcom
Fiction, Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: When the handsome-faced bandit walked into the small coffeehouse, one of many nondescript coffeehouses in a nation slowly being crushed by the heavy boot of a foreign Protectorate, trouble was almost inevitable... especially when that bandit intervenes in a rude customer's ill treatment of the waitress. That should've been the beginning and end of it, a brief incident and crossing of paths - until the waitress, fired by the coffeehouse, tracks down the bandit and insists on joining his small crew. They are reluctant, naturally; not only is she a woman, but she has the shaven head of a former nun of the Order of the Pure Moon, and there are rumors about them dabbling in forbidden magics. But Guet Imm is persistent, and the bandits may turn out to be very much in need of her assistance, as their latest scheme is about to go horribly awry.

REVIEW: Set in an Asian-inspired world where outsiders have turned the nation against itself as soldiers target the heart of the culture and bandits, once the heart of the resistance, degenerate into infighting and thuggery, this novella had many ingredients that were intriguing, though for some reason I never quite found they clicked together as they should have. The characters are all scarred to varying degrees by what's happening to their country; Guet Imm was a nun in seclusion for many years before emerging to find the rest of her Order slaughtered, and is still a bit of an innocent in the ways of the wider world, while the bandits - particularly the jaded second-in-command Tet Sang - have given up their own former idealism to some degree; while they are trying in their own way to preserve what they can of their nation's heritage, doing so requires compromises that largely undermine whatever integrity they try to preserve, and more and more it's about the money rather than the honor. Tet Sang hides further secrets that are endangered by the presence of the former nun, which come out as their scheme is revealed and unravels before their eyes. Despite the terrible things that have happened, Guet Imm remains a devout follower of the Lady, insisting that the goddess still protects Her people and Her faithful and punishes their enemies, all evidence to the contrary... claims which might have a grain of truth behind them as events proceed. For some reason, I never really felt I was drawn into the story, kept a little at arm's length from the world and the people, making the resolution feel less cathartic and satisfactory than it should have been.

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