Episode 52: The Magnolia Sword by Sherry Thomas

For today’s episode, Fable and the Verbivore enjoy themselves far too much discussing Sherry Thomas’ novel The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan.

Spoiler alert for this episode as we dissect some of the plot twists and the end of this book.

We dive right into our conversation talking about how Sherry Thomas uses the locations, food, fighting sequences, cultural rituals, and historical setting to ground the story firmly within its rich and complex world. The great dialogue, well-rounded and interesting personalities, and the limited viewpoint of Mulan navigating these unfamiliar spaces in disguise all help create story tension around what each character knows and what they are each hoping to achieve.

Throughout this episode, we also talk about how the author used each character’s weaknesses and strengths to build and change relationship dynamics while also adding layers and dimension to her characters. We felt that she took a lot of care to make Mulan’s abilities feel well earned through her practice and dedication, and greatly enjoyed that Mulan’s character journey was grounded in her identity and finding her place in the world rather than simply whether or not she would be able to win the fight. We also discuss the breath of fresh air that is Sherry Thomas’ character development of Kai, with all of his strengths and flaws, who comes off as such a believable, appealing, and supportive partner.

We previously discussed Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series in Episode 17: Being kind to your readers and writing subtle character growth. Sherry’s author website also contains information on her many other books including historical romance novels, the Elemental fantasy trilogy, and a science fiction/fantasy novella titled The Heart is a Universe.

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode, we sure enjoyed recording it! And keep reading, and writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Fable and the Verbivore previously discussed Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series in Episode 17: Being kind to your readers and writing subtle character growth. We both greatly enjoyed this mystery series. Her 5th novel in this series, Murder on Cold Street , releases on October 6th, 2020.

The Ballad of Mulan was originally a lyrical poem titled Hua Mulan, and there appears to be some debate over when it was first written (5th or 6th century). It was compiled in an anthology created by Guo Maoqian in the 11th or 12th century titled Music Bureau Collection.

The Verbivore references several quotes. Here are the full quotes:

  • “But I am nobody’s xiong-di. Nobody’s younger brother.”

  • “Did he help me without understanding what I said? Or did my revelation make no difference because I was telling him something he already knew? Throughout our travels together, in his unobtrusive way, he has created more space for me and made it easier to slip aside for privacy.”

  • “This earns me another smile. ‘Let’s by all means avoid that sort of trouble. And by the way, Hua xiong-di, you’re a good man.’

    I smile back at him. ‘That I am, my brother. I’m nothing if not a good man.’”

Sherry’s author website also contains information on her many other books including historical romance novels, the Elemental fantasy trilogy, and a science fiction/fantasy novella titled The Heart is a Universe. Her website tagline is “finely wrought stories, with an edge”; which is just fantastic.

Books Mentioned

Films Mentioned:

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

book clubBethany Stedman