Threads of Silk

By: Amanda Roberts

Narrated by: Leanne Yau

Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Born in the middle of nowhere, Yaqian, a little embroidery girl from Hunan Province, finds her way to the imperial court, a place of intrigue, desire, and treachery. From the bed of an Emperor, the heart of a Prince, and the right side of an Empress, Yaqian weaves her way through the most turbulent decades of China's history and witnesses the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

©2016 Amanda Roberts (P)2017 Red Empress Publishing

brilliant

no new idea exists under our sun. I am inspired and awed by colorful tales told about a feminist who left her final judgment to the reckoning of time.this empress and her embroidery maid are honored in this story and make me grateful to he who I am on this earth.
subject, author and narrator are all top quality.
thank you for writing this story. ♡♡♡

A Great Story in Historical Context

Overall enjoyed this interesting story about embroidery and a girl's rise from poverty in the 19th Century China. Great details about silk, silk worms, eunuchs and the ancient art of embroidery as well as palace intrigue in the Forbidden City.

Several times the dialogue of the character made her seem unnaturally clueless. Overall good narration but at times a bit over-dramatic and shrill. Despite this, we stuck with it and enjoyed the story.

A peek into late 1800's Chinese culture

This is a fascinating story about a talented Chinese girl who made beautiful silk embroidery that sold well and supported her parents. They despised her for being a girl and thought of her as worthless, so they sent her to become an apprentice of a well known embroidery master and didn’t see her for 10 years. Her talent… and bounded feet called the attention of the emperor and she was taken to the Forbidden City…

Leanne Yau’s narration is excellent - I enjoyed the British/Chinese accent, as well as the character voices.

I received this audio-book free for an honest review by the author, narrator, or publisher. Thank you!!!

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First-Rate Historical Fiction

This novel ends with the selection of China's last emperor, a boy of only three years. The epic story is told in the first person by a female Han servant to the Manchu dowager empress and covers the last half of the 19th century and the first few years of the 20th century. This is a tale rife with court intrigues, power struggles, illicit love affairs, and unspeakable violence. It rings true in every event. The most fascinating aspect of this novel for me was the clarity of explanation of the Boxer Rebellion. I feel as though I now have a much better understanding of how those bloody days came about and how they actually unfolded. This is a first-rate work of historical fiction. The writing is excellent. The history as presented feels authentic. The narration is absolutely impeccable. I cannot think when I have enjoyed any audio book more.

Loved it

Embroidery and Chinese history. The last empress. Appropriate for teens Lovely stories. Three more words.

Absolutely wonderful story !

What did you love best about Threads of Silk?

It is a lovely story that follows one main character from the age of six well into her senior years and also follows the historical events during that time period. The story peaked my interest in a place and time that I was unfamiliar with and I often found myself stopping the book to do a little side research to expand my knowledge. The main character was so well written and the story so nicely developed that it had me questioning whether this main character was a real person in history.

What other book might you compare Threads of Silk to and why?

Any book in Ken Follett's Pillars of Creation or Century trilogy. These books, as well as Threats of Silk, are wonderful stories intertwined amongst history to create a very realistic tale. The research that went into creating the characters and plot must've been astounding.

What does Leanne Yau bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Correct pronunciation of the places and people's in the story.

Another reviewer commented that Leanne Yau had an American accent, it is actually English. It was also mentioned that it was a disappointment that she spoke without a Chinese accent because the main character could not speak English. Personally, I do not have an issue with the fact that this book is narrated with an English accent because I speak English and I would not have understood the book if it was read to me in Chinese (which would be only way to stay true to a character that does not speak English).

Any additional comments?

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review

I would love to listen to another book by this author or narrator.

A lot of story for one book

The story itself is fine and I love the characters. I learned a lot about ancient China and it's customs. However I felt there was more than enough content to write two or three more books. Instead of having the main character skim over months and years worth of storyline, I wish the author would've taken more time to actually write it out as part of the story. The narrator took some getting used to as her voice is quite nasally and only has about two or three vocal variations. She reads well but it was a bit awkward hearing a European accent narrating a story set in East Asia with an Asian lead stating that she doesn't understand English.

Wonderful story.....

What a wonderful story, it was very hard for me to put the book down.

Engaging Story!

I found this book to be very engaging. It held my attention throughout, although I often found myself thinking early in the book that main character, the embroidery girl, to be quite arrogant, full of herself and reckless in her youth. I don’t believe boldness such as hers would be tolerated in a male dominated society, much less with a regent of the court during that time period.

Apparently, with some other characters in this story, this trait was very appealing.

I have read “Empress Orchid,” by Anchee Min and “Imperial Woman,” by Pearl S. Buck (by FAR my favorite!) and found this book similar in its storyline, yet also different. I enjoyed the book very much and am glad I spent the credit on it.

Two things that caused me to give four stars instead of five in the performance category:

1. The habit of several of the characters of giving a sigh (often as if exasperated) before speaking — usually the main character; and

2. Three or four times within the story, words repeated themselves within sentences (this is an editing problem).

The narrator, Leanne Yau, gave an exceptional performance and greatly added to the story (with the exception of the unnecessary sighs before speaking).

I would listen to this narrator (and indeed this entire BOOK!) again!

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!

This book was not just a section of someone's life, it was about her whole life. From the age of 6 until her 50s. I would not put this book down! To see the main character grow into herself and how the story develops. This is a book everyone should read. It is a great depiction of how China used to be.