Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor

By: Xiran Jay Zhao

Narrated by: Eric Yang

Percy Jackson meets Tristan Strong in this hilarious middle grade “edge-of-your-seat adventure” (James Ponti, New York Times bestselling author of City Spies) that follows a young boy as he journeys across China to seal the underworld shut and save the mortal realm.

Zachary Ying never had many opportunities to learn about his Chinese heritage. His single mom was busy enough making sure they got by, and his schools never taught anything except Western history and myths. So Zack is woefully unprepared when he discovers he was born to host the spirit of the First Emperor of China for a vital mission: sealing the leaking portal to the Chinese underworld before the upcoming Ghost Month blows it wide open.

The mission takes an immediate wrong turn when the First Emperor botches his attempt to possess Zack’s body and binds to Zack’s AR gaming headset instead, leading to a battle where Zack’s mom’s soul gets taken by demons. Now, with one of history’s most infamous tyrants yapping in his headset, Zack must journey across China to heist magical artifacts and defeat figures from history and myth, all while learning to wield the emperor’s incredible water dragon powers.

And if Zack can’t finish the mission in time, the spirits of the underworld will flood into the mortal realm, and he could lose his mom forever.

Story telling

thenarrator and story made me feel as if I were there in the narrative.
the listener is along for the ride.

Awesome!

What I really liked about the story was the diversity and inclusivity. I’ve enjoyed other works by this author and she is a master at world building.

A lovely YA novel

A lovely novel set in modern times. I really appreciate that it did not try to avoid modern technology because the plot couldn't adapt to.

The book also brings historical characters into the modern day with out striping them of their history

loved it

Fun story, can’t wait for the next one.

I chose to listen to this book after listening to the book Iron Widow , as it’s by the same author. This story did not disappoint. Great listen. I am a solid fan of this author now.

Excellent adventure!

This book is one that I would wholeheartedly recommend for any young reader. Its descriptions of how it feels to want to fit in and how hard it is to stand up to people who are pretending to be your friends are all chefs kiss. The back and forth of not knowing what is right and wrong are so on point for that age group. The relationships in general are great. I like how they dealt with the mother character. SPOILER




Unlike in Percy Jackson where you think you’re seeing a murder it is made clear that the mother is alive. Yes, she is in peril but from the jump you know she can be saved. That was one thing my daughter hated about the Percy Jackson series, she was convinced I was misleading her and that the mom died and she wouldn’t touch the series for a long while.

10/10