Fireborn

Abstract

Fireborn is a heroine-led fantasy adventure Young Adult (YA) novel based on pan-Asian mythologies. It is a folklore-inspired story that reimagines fairy tales and god myths of the Far East, Central Asia, and the Silk Road for the modern YA audience. The fictional world of Suguo is underpinned by Buddhism, Taoism (Daoism), Shintoism, Confucianism, and other East Asian philosophies and religions, which coexisted and co-influenced one another. Themes of good vs. evil, inner nature, self-development, enlightenment, and spirituality are inscribed in interconnectedness with the natural world and interwoven in the main plot. The novel reconciles depictions of kitsune (Japan) or huli jing (China), bai ze, and other magical creatures as both common in Asian provenance, while also regionally and locally developed, conjuring a speculative world in which they exist alongside gods and immortals referential to mythologies dating back to the 16th century Ming dynasty. When sixteen-year-old Vana discovers that her caretaker Shu has fallen deeply ill with the Centennial sickness, whose cure (The Empyrean elixir) can only be found in the famed city of Itablaz, near the western steppes, she sets out on a mission to save her. Along the way, questions about Vana’s identity arise, and she learns the true story of her birth as an immortal and the range and extent of her supernatural powers. With her expedition companions, including friends and foes alike, Vana must brave encounters with beastly monsters, austere terrain, and societies unlike those familiar to her in an epic tale of self-discovery and self-actualization.