Ji and her nagging soul sword arrive in a backwater village to check out reports of a possible insurrection against the Emperor. What they find instead are a whole lot of monkeys and precious few humans. It doesn’t take long before Ji finds out first-hand what happened there.
This is a fun, light fantasy story which doesn’t take itself too seriously but also doesn’t drown in its own irreverence. It feels very much like a good saturday morning cartoon. The only slightly negative note is that the solution to Ji’s predicament is very obvious early on. I definitely wouldn’t mind reading the further adventures of Ji and her soul sword. Hopefully Cunningham will revisit them soon.
(F&SF, June 2008)
