Review: Yellow Sky Revolt by Baptiste Pinson Wu
Blurb:
China, 184 CE
An empire will shatter.
Dark clouds loom over the Han dynasty. The Yellow Turbans, simple folks turned rebels, threaten the power in place with their sheer numbers and burning anger. Among them, Liao Hua, a young peasant boy, becomes the symbol of the uprising’s vengeful spirit.
But what should have been a short revolt turns into a bloody war for survival. As untrained farmers face the full might of the empire, Liao Hua forges himself a will of iron and vows to do whatever it takes to become the greatest warrior of his time. However, when his path crosses that of the bearded warrior, he understands ambition won’t be enough to come out on top.
An age of chaos is beginning. Men will fall, warlords rise, and warriors clash, but only the strongest will leave their names to be praised for the centuries.
Review:
An amazing story from the get go, Yellow Sky Revolt sucked me in from the very beginning, taking me on a tour of China as it was many centuries ago, inviting me to see how this rebellion played out on the big stage, while also enjoying Baptiste’s creativity and prose. In short, this was a fantastic book, and is pretty firmly set in my top reads for the year, and I expect it won’t be topped as my favorite historical fiction for 2025. Some of you might be asking “so what, it’s only January.” And to that I say “yeah, ok.” But seriously, through about 10 reads of the year, this has to be one of my favorites, and it’s got my eyes looking not just for books 2 and beyond, but for more of Baptiste’s works and also for smash indie-hits in historical fiction as well.
Now, time for the actual review.
We start off with our main character, who changes names enough times that I will refer to him only as Eagle-eye, in the present, which is many decades before much of the story takes place. He is riding to see the new dynasty of China (though it was not called China back then), alongside a man tasked to get an account of his life. A man that knows little of the world and less of war. Here, Eagle-eye regales him with his life, all the way from the beginning, at roughly 7 or 8 years old. Throughout the story, we see bits and pieces of the storytelling between Eagle-eye and the scribe taking place, but much of the story is told as though taking place in the past, during Eagle-eye’s youth.
This is, loosely, a dual timeline, which I love. You all know that. I say it every review. I somehow tend to read many books with dual timelines. Strange. But I’ll take it nonetheless.
It begins with Eagle-eye (who was yet to earn that moniker, actually) at his farming village with his father and younger sister. The father was an uninspiring man, in Eagle-eye’s approximation. Nothing like his uncle, who was a veteran of many battles and heroics. Now THAT was a man worth following, worth aspiring. Why would Eagle-eye want to be a farmer when he could be a hero of battles? He said as much, to the discontent of his father and the disappointment of his uncle. There is much good that can come of a simple farmer’s life, the uncle says, it brings stability and life, whereas a hero brings only death and ruin. That doesn’t matter to Eagle-eye, so when he goes off with his uncle to a nearby city to watch a member of his uncle’s order be killed, he vows that one day he’d help his uncle’s faction, one trying to undermine the current government.
That day comes sometime later, when the uncle returns to the village, is captured, and the villagers hatch a plan to free him and join the Yellow Turbans, the revolution of his uncle’s faction. They succeed in their freeing of the uncle, and so begins the revolution. Traveling across the countryside has many hardships, all displayed expertly by Baptiste’s prose and storytelling, until they reach HQ of the rebellion. Along the way, battles are fought and won, people are saved, die, and lost, including many close to Eagle-eye.
Eventually, at HQ, they’re tasked with defending a certain part of China, and in doing so they are tricked, slaughtered, and many, including Eagle-eye, are captured. One man kills his uncle, and Eagle-eye is hell bent on revenge, though how he will do it is anyone’s guess. Thus begins his life as a prisoner, until a lord takes pity on him and brings him to his estate. This part of Eagle-eye’s life is that of a would-be scholar, and he spends much time learning, gaining new enemies off the battlefield.
As we continue, we begin to learn of politics, of the lord, the estate, the dynasty in power. And Eagle-eye gets a chance to see his uncle’s killer, his arch nemesis, killed. Does that happen? I’m not sure, READ THE BOOK. Anyways, this book was awesome, and I felt for Eagle-eye at every turn and twist. He was a fantastic character, and I’m so excited to see what happens on his journey then onward.
The side characters were equally compelling, with their own unique desires and motivations. Some of them I hated, some I loved, some of them were gladly given their comeuppance, which I appreciated wholly. Baptiste’s prose was a joy to read, and to be in this world was so much fun from cover to cover. The scenery was described beautifully, the dialogue masterful and fitting, and the story itself compelling and also so interesting to learn of this from a creative perspective. Now I have researched the inspiration of this rebellion on my own time, and it’s just as cool, just as intriguing, and just as bloody.
My only small point about it is the ending, while good, and wraps up one of the threads, is a little flat. There is a lot of build up, and rather than a climax, it’s more a plateau. I enjoyed it, truthfully, but I was wanting a little bit more. Will I get it in the next book? Most definitely. And that’s good enough for me.
Yellow Sky Revolt is a masterful retelling of an ancient rebellion, full of its own unique twists, characters, and subplots, that I could not get enough of. If you’re looking for a historical fiction book with fantastic prose, look no further, for you’ve found it with Yellow Sky Revolt by Baptiste Pinson Wu.
