Empress by Shan Sa is historical fiction based on the life of China’s only female Emperor, Empress Wu (AD 625-705) who lived and ruled during the golden age of the Tang Dynasty.

Her story is written in the first person, beginning by narrating her own birth. EmpressWu, known as Heavenlight in the novel, rises from obscurity through her own intelligence and determination to become China’s only female Emperor in 5000 years. She is wise and strong and sometimes very cruel. Its hard to know how much of the novel is based on truth and how much is imagined.

It was an interesting and rather depressing look at life inside the Forbidden City- full of gossip, scandal, power struggles, murder and intrigue (not at all unlike life in the Imperial Zenana of Mughal India described in the Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan.)

However, I did not love this novel. I found it often slow and indulgent, caught up in too many minor details, and by the end, depressing and difficult  to read. It is obvious that Shan Sa has the heart and mind of a poet and a feminist and is immensly talented, but here her talent was somehow lost. I love historical fiction, but this was not the best.