Empress Orchid

By: Anchee Min

Narrated by: Alexandra O'Karma

Length: 17 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

The critically acclaimed author, Anchee Min, paints a fresh portrait of the last Chinese empress in this brilliantly fictionalized tale set during the waning days of the empire.

Seventeen-year-old Orchid belongs to an aristocratic family that has fallen on hard times. Unexpectedly, she is chosen as one of the emperor's lesser concubines. Within the Forbidden City are thousands of women hoping to bear the emperor a son and become his empress. Orchid, determined and resourceful, schemes her way into the royal bed and seduces the emperor. But as the opium trade erodes the might of the Ch'ing dynasty, Orchid find herself at the center of a crumbling nation.

A colorful depiction of one of history's least understood women, The Empress Orchid is another enthralling masterpiece for Anchee Min.

©2004 Anchee Min

Critic reviews

"Powerful and brilliantly conceived....[An] insightful, magnetic, and quietly revolutionary resurrection of a remarkable woman." (Booklist)

Mostly dull

I found the writing style very difficult to tolerate. The story was interesting, but the journey to get there was far too long winded, with lots of mind numbing detail. The lack of emotion in the writing (and hence the narration) may have been purposely done to illustrate the fact that all the characters were subject to very strict controls on their lives, but I found it very distracting. And there has been enough said about the swallowing etc. - also very distracting. I don't recommend this book.

HORRIBLE narration

This might be the best book in the world, I'll never know because I couldn't get beyond the ragged breathing & salavating of the reader. My fault, I should have previewed it prior to my purchase... next time I'll know better!

can't finish it

sadly, I can't get past the reader who swallows too loudly and whose narration is too plodding.

Disappointing.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator kept swallowing her spit....ew. She occasionally stumbled over the names of characters or places, and at some points it was really obvious she was just reading. Very monotone.

What character would you cut from Empress Orchid?

Maybe it's a cultural disconnect, but I found the main character's passivity extremely frustrating. Frequently throughout the novel I found myself wanting to yell "YEAH OK SO STOP COMPLAINING AND DO SOMETHING".

Any additional comments?

I really enjoy historical fiction, but this felt like a waste of my time...

Don't Waste Your Time!

What would have made Empress Orchid better?

The writing is terrible! Anyone who studies writing knows that an author should "show" and not "tell." Anchee Min only tells. I could have survived the telling if she had used the beautiful language and metaphor that I enjoy so much in Asian themed literature--of course she did not.

What was most disappointing about Anchee Min’s story?

I listened for 3 hours. The girl talks to a few characters, submits herself to the registry office, is nervous in front of the Emperor, watches while they get ranked, and finally visits the punishment chamber as a warning to the girls selected. The story DOES NOT MOVE.
I enjoy most Asian literature because of the beautiful language and also because of the Buddhist themes of duty, destiny, honor, accepting pain, etc. This story lacks those elements.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

I read many reviews before I purchased the audiobook about how the narrator is terrible. But I didn't find the narrator nearly as awful as the story itself. It's true the narrator takes a long breath between sentences and is heard to swallow and smack a few times (4 times I noticed in the first 3 hours).

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Sickness. I finally decided this book was not worth listening to when I got to the point where the main character visits the punishment chamber to find the old Emperor's favorite courtesan. The courtesan had her legs and arms chopped off and was forced to live in the dungeon with "green oozing down her chin" and further disgusting description. The author has successfully focused on all the gruesome faults without any of the wonderful virtues of Asian culture.

Any additional comments?

Like I said, the narration is poor, the story is absolutely awful--just don't read this one.

Slow, slow, slow

I couldn't finish this story. The narrator was the worst ever, for all the reasons noted by other reviewers. About a quarter of the way through, I turned my player to 2X speed and that helped a lot--speeded up the narrative and dampened the mouth noises. But that still didn't save the story itself and I stopped listening about two-thirds of the way through. The story is slow and boring. I got tired of the endless LISTS of things that passed for descriptive details. The characters are flat, unsympathetic and whiny. Empress Orchid herself is alternately naive and a know-it-all, a very irritating combination. We don't know much about what the real Empress Orchid thought, but I highly doubt she supervised the emperor's diet to make sure it had "roughage and fresh fruits and vegetables" and "worked side-by-side with the emperor as equal partners." These are 21st century ideas that have no place in a 19th century novel. I know this is historical FICTION and as such, the author has license to mess with the facts somewhat. But this novel revises so many well-known facts that it is a story killer for me. For example, it is known that the British burned the Summer Palace in response to the Chinese capturing and gruesomely torturing to death two British officials. However in Empress Orchid, the British officials are captured and then released unharmed but the British still burn the Summer Palace. To me, this was a disappointing simplification of the event. All parties acted badly and it would have made a much better story if the author had given us a more complicated scenario including the capture, decision and motivation for torture, reactions to the Brits' deaths, etc. As it is, there is a throwaway line about their release, and then everyone is shocked and saddened at the burning of Summer Palace and simply cannot understand why the Barbarians did it. This is such a glaring revision that it makes me doubt the authenticity of any of the "facts" in the story.

Disappointing

I was recommended this book because enjoyed The Good Earth, but it is only similar in that it is based on the Chinese culture in a historical era.

There are a few interesting parts, but mostly it is about politics in the court and country. And the interactions of the main character and a few other characters, but with very little character development and a slow, jumpy plot. The end came so abruptly with no closure on any aspect that I literally cried out, “WHAT??” when I heard “The End.”

I hope I will be able to return this book as it has sat in my library for a very long time.

The lip smacking narrator makes listening unbearable

I’ve never heard narrators swallow and smack their lips like this. I only got through two chapters. It doesn’t happen in the sample so it’s not evident right away.

Wrong choice in narrator

The lack of emotion in voice throws off the pace of the story. Orchid Yehonala is relatively young throughout the 1st person story. This furthers the disconnection between the narrator and character.