In K. X. Song's adult debut, The Night Ends with Fire--an action-packed fantasy reimagining of "The Ballad of Mulan" and Romance of the Three Kingdoms--an ambitious young woman enlists in the army to escape a bleak future. Hai Meilin's nobleman father is addicted to opium and has gambled away the family's fortune, plunging them into deep debt. Her stepmother and ally, Xiuying, has kept the household running so far by selling family treasures, but now they've reached a breaking point. Meilin will be sold off to whichever man will pay the most for a noble bride.

Meilin is matched with Master Zhu, a merchant whose previous wives allegedly died from consumption. Suspicious, she walks by his home and sees him viciously strike a servant girl, reminding her of the abuse she suffers at her father's hands. She sees clearly the future before her: "I would flee Father only to fall under another master. And even if I were to bear him a healthy son... that son would one day grow up to become a man, and then he too would command me... I would be under the whim of men for the rest of my days."

The kingdom of Anlai is at war to defend itself from the southern kingdom of Ximing, and Meilin sees a chance for freedom by pretending to be a bastard Hai son and enlisting in her father's place. Before she leaves, Xiuying gives her a jade pendant, one of four spirit seals, left to Meilin by the mother who drowned herself, with the instruction to "Give this to Meilin when she is ready to die." Soon the spirit of Qinglong, the Azure Dragon, begins whispering to her, urging her to use his power to secure her own. But using spirit magic is dangerous. The warlord who rules Anlai has outlawed all spirit worship, and the sea dragon's magic puts Meilin at risk of losing her moral compass and her life.

Meilin's other secret, that she is a woman, is even more dangerous. As she enters the world of men, she experiences freedom for the first time, even as her actions are dictated by her military superiors. Smaller and weaker than her male peers, Meilin trains harder than anyone else. She is placed under the command of handsome, honorable Prince Liu Sky, seventh and youngest son of the warlord. A chance encounter with him shortly before she enlists sparks an immediate attraction. Will he be able to see through her disguise?

At first, using the sea dragon's power is abhorrent to her, but as time passes she relies on and even relishes the control it gives her--over water, over battles, and over her opponents' very minds. Meilin's ambition, what Qinglong calls "an ocean's hunger," drives the story as much as the race to find the lost jade pieces of the phoenix Zhuque's broken spirit seal.

The search begins when Qinglong shows Meilin a vision of the future, one in which Chancellor Sima has destroyed not only the Anlai capital Chuang Ning but also Meilin's family, and sets her on a quest to find the remaining jade pieces--if she does, she can change the fate of the Three Kingdoms. Sima needs the pieces to destroy Anlai, while one of the Ximing princes, scheming, beautiful Ming Lei, also seeks the pieces for his own reasons. Meilin is pulled into Lei's household; hemmed in on all sides, she cannot free herself and save her family alone. Who can she trust? The sea dragon? The men with whom she is romantically connected? Her fellow soldiers? And what is she willing to give up for power?

Some characters and plot points are reminiscent of Disney's 1998 Mulan adaptation, such as an outdoor bathing scene in which Meilin's secret is almost discovered, and a budding romance with her dashing military commander. This is no humorous cartoon, however. The dragon spirit is greedy and encourages Meilin's darker impulses. Gender-based violence is prevalent, as is war violence. In one memorable scene, Chancellor Sima uses the phoenix Zhuque's fire powers to kill 10,000 Anlai soldiers, including almost all of Meilin's platoon. Song also builds something of a love triangle with two enemy princes, similar to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and casts her heroine not as the obedient daughter but as a morally gray young woman who will do whatever it takes to free herself from the life laid out for her.

The Night Ends with Fire blends historical fantasy with Wuxia martial drama and action into a compelling, complicated story of ambition, secrets and betrayal. The magic system is as fully realized as the political maneuverings of Song's characters, and the first-person perspective gives the book wide appeal, especially for readers aging out of the young adult fantasy genre. This epic adventure takes Meilin from her home in Anlai to the heart of Ximing and back, to palaces and battles, and to an ending that torments Meilin and readers. Song's audience will be eager to see how Meilin triumphs--and what that looks like--when Song concludes this planned duology. --Suzanne Krohn

K. X. Song (photo: Ruan Yunong)

K. X. Song is a diaspora writer with roots in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Raised between cultures and languages, she enjoys telling stories that explore the shifting nature of memory, translation, and history. She is the author of the YA novel An Echo in the City and The Night Ends with Fire  (Ace, July 24, 2024), her adult fantasy debut. This reimagining of "The Ballad of Mulan" and Romance of the Three Kingdoms thrusts readers into the chaos of war in an alternate historical China, a world ruled by men... and magic.

The "Ballad of Mulan" dates back more than 1,500 years and has been adapted, translated, and retold countless times. You must have read or watched many while researching this book. Did any stand out to you? Where does The Night Ends with Fire fit into the greater story of Mulan?

I found it fascinating to learn how the many variations of Mulan differed, yet also shared similarities across time and space. For example, in the 1998 Disney version, upon saving the kingdom, Mulan is praised by the emperor for her brave deeds, welcomed home by her father, and even courted by her army captain and true love. In comparison, in the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, written in 1695 by Chu Renhuo, Mulan is summoned by the emperor to become a concubine after the war. Forced to choose between duty and honor, she commits suicide on her father's grave, thereby preserving her unyielding virtue. What ties these disparate versions together is a commitment to the status quo.

Although Mulan is generally considered a progressive symbol of gender equality, in many of these versions she does not defy existing structures of power because she is ultimately motivated by her filial piety and duty to her country. Critically, when the war is over and her duties to her father and emperor are fulfilled, she returns home, content to resume life in the conventional roles expected of women.

In The Night Ends with Fire, I sought to explore what would happen to Mulan if she were no longer content. What if, upon experiencing independence and freedom disguised as a man, she no longer wished to confine herself to the restrictive gender boundaries of her society? Would society accept her as she was, or, by transgressing the norm, would they punish her for daring to aspire for more?

You blend history with fantasy and folklore elements. How did you decide which events to alter, and how does your timeline differ from reality?

I decided which events to alter and how to set up the timeline based on my main characters' personalities and narrative arcs. At the very beginning, I first crafted the characters, then chose plot arcs based on what would exploit their unique insecurities and weaknesses--essentially, the questions they are asking themselves over the course of the novel. From there, I developed the plot around these character arcs and consequential character decisions. Most of these plot choices involved fantasy elements and some folklore elements. As for the events that resembled history, often the connection is very indirect. This is because The Night Ends with Fire is inspired by both the Ballad of Mulan and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is a 14th-century Chinese classic written by Luo Guanzhong, about the Three Kingdoms period in China (220-280 AD). Through Night, I hoped to explore some of the themes also touched on in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, such as the question of what makes a hero.

Meilin is not Mulan. She isn't fighting for honor, but to escape an abusive father and fiancé. The original poem and many adaptations place honor and duty at the center of her story. What role does her gender and the rigid patriarchal structure she grows up with play in her actions in the war?

There is a quote in the novel that illustrates Meilin's patriarchal culture: "The Tian word for slave is made of two characters: girl and hand. For the girl is the slave, and the hand is the means with which she serves." Because of this specific upbringing, Meilin learns from a young age that her ambition is a depravity, something not meant to exist in the hearts of women, who are born and raised to serve. As such, Meilin treats her desire for power like a sign of corruption, and tries to smother it, to hide it even from herself. Of course, she isn't quite successful, and many of her actions in the war are driven by this inner hunger or "greed," as she calls it. Through the character of Meilin, I wanted to explore the strained relationship women can have with ambition, and the resulting cost of acquiring power.

The Azure Dragon spirit, Qinglong, encourages that ambition, and Meilin eventually embraces her desire for power. What does this mean for her as a character?

Through the magic system, I wanted to explore the costs of acquiring power. In the book, while spirits can imbue humans with incredible strength and power, their magic does not come without a cost. In Meilin's case, because her desire for power grows over the course of the novel, so too does the cost she will have to pay. And yet, although the costs are great, this desire that Meilin possesses is what differentiates her from the crowd--what allows her to escape her terrible fate and survive in the first place. Rather than depict these themes in a binary, black-and-white way, I hoped to explore them through character arcs, and pose questions around them for the reader, leaving room for nuance and ambiguity.

The Night Ends with Fire is clearly different from Disney's 1998 adaptation Mulan, but it was difficult for this '90s kid not to imagine Prince Liu Sky as the handsome, kind, honor-driven Li Shang. Was this intentional?

Actually, Liu Sky is based on Liu Bei, one of the heroes of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The character of Liu Bei is an upstanding, noble man who goes to great lengths to always do the right thing. I appreciated the juxtaposition in Romance of the Three Kingdoms between Liu Bei, this virtuous, classic hero archetype, and Cao Cao, who is Liu Bei's rival warlord and nemesis. Cao Cao is an antihero type; while Liu Bei is noble, Cao Cao is self-serving, pragmatic, and cunning. Cao Cao acts for his own gain, but his sharp intelligence and personal moral code earn him the respect of even his rivals and enemies. After reading the novel, you may find another character that reminds you of Cao Cao.

What are you reading?

I'm currently reading and loving The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon. I also just reread the Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee, which is one of my favorite fantasy series of all time. --Suzanne Krohn