The True Queen

Written by Zen Cho

Narrated by Jenny Sterlin

When sisters Muna and Sakti wake up on the peaceful beach of the island of Janda Baik, they can't remember anything, except that they are bound as only sisters can be. They have been cursed by an unknown enchanter, and slowly Sakti starts to fade away. The only hope of saving her is to go to distant Britain, where the Sorceress Royal has established an academy to train women in magic. If Muna is to save her sister, she must learn to navigate high society, and trick the English magicians into believing she is a magical prodigy. As she's drawn into their intrigues, she must uncover the secrets of her past, and journey into a world with more magic than she had ever dreamed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781501949975

Zen Cho

Zen Cho was born and raised in Malaysia and now lives in Birmingham. She was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer for her short fiction and won the Crawford Award. Her debut novel, Sorcerer to the Crown, won the 2016 British Fantasy Society Award for Best Newcomer. She is also the author of The True Queen and Black Water Sister.

Reviews for The True Queen

[kmartin802_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This entertaining fantasy tells the story of two sisters - Muna and Sakti - who washed up on the beach of Janda Baik without any memories of their past. They are taken in by Mak Genggang, primary witch of the island. Sakti becomes an apprentice magician while Muna, having no magic, finds work in the kitchen. Muna is determined to break the curse on her sister but Mak Genggang can't do it. She decides to send them to England and her friend the Sorceress Royal in hopes that she can break the curse. She sends them on a path through faerie to save them the year-long sea voyage. Only Muna and Sakti are separated and on Muna manages to arrive in England. Muna needs to hide her lack of magic and find a way to rescue her sister. But faerie is closed from England and the queen of the fae has declared war on England. It seems that a magical ornament has been stolen and she is convinced that the culprit is in England. As Muna learns more about the conflict and more about the past she doesn't remember, she makes friends with Henrietta Stapleton who is teaching at the academy for young women learning magic. Henny is a good friend of the Sorceress Royal. She is also hiding her magic from her family since it is not at all socially acceptable for a woman to use magic. Muna also gets involved with dragons in her quest to find her sister and finds herself on a rescue mission to save a mortal magician kept confined in the dragon lands until he can be gifted to the fairy queen as a snack and in reparation for the dragons having lost the queen's ornament. This was a fun story with entertaining worldbuilding and a nicely developed main character in Muna. Fans of fantasy will enjoy this story.

[Deepa Budhoo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another amazing story. Captivating and and sometimes very funny. I laughed at the way they talked about the Dutch! So true. I am Dutch but with Hindu roots. I loved it.

[fred_mouse · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I probably missed some of the subtleties of this book, not least in what to expect from various characters, not having read book 1. My assumption is that the protagonist, Muna, is new to this books, as is the original setting in Janda Baik, but by chapter 5 the story has moved to England, and introduces rather a lot of characters in a hurry -- I did not at any point get some of them sorted out, and I'm not sure how much of that is because they weren't particularly relevant to this story, and how much was that they are generally back ground characters.The plot is a relatively simple one in places, but there are a lot of twists and turns to get from one point to the next. I'm not sure how obvious the author meant for some of those twists to be, but it was certainly relatively obvious in places what was going to happen later. This isn't a complaint -- I like seeing how a story unfolds, regardless of whether I know what is going to happen. There are places where the story is quite nasty. Not just in terms of 'period appropriate' misogyny and racism, but in terms of the individual interactions. There were a couple of sections where I thought the number of twists and turns of the story meant it was about to devolve into farce, and was pleased that it did not. On the positive, there are some lovely explorations of what family means, in particular how sisters interact. This isn't necessarily all positive interaction, but the cross-cultural nature of the narrative means that there are some very different perspectives to explore.

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book, a follow-up to Sorcerer to the Crown, makes for a fun read that, while featuring characters from its predecessor, can be read as a standalone. Muna and her sister embark on a journey to see the Sorceress Royal in England (Prunella), but the sisters are separated and Muna arrives alone. The story picks up with plenty of schemes from the fairy world, annoyances from family members, and nontraditional romances. If there's a flaw, it's that sometimes this story felt like it was expanding in too many directions at once. However, most of the storylines came together by the end for a satisfying conclusion. Overall, fun reading and I hope to read more from this author.

[phyllis2779 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked the first book in the series but this was a disappointment. It just seemed kind of thin. Some of the things that should have been a surprise were obvious immediately. The Regency flavor from the first book was weak in this book. The main characters n the first book were side characters in this one and the main characters in this book weren't that interesting, more repetitious in displaying their traits.

[glennis.leblanc · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The book is a sequel, but you could read this without having read the first one since the main POV from the first book is barely in this one. Two sisters, one with magic and the other without travel to England from Janda Baik. They have no memory of their past but with a knowledge of languages they must have been the children of someone important. The sisters are trying to figure out who cursed them, and the trail leads to England. While traveling through Fairy to get there quickly the sisters are separated. Muna arrives in England at the school of the Sorceress Royal and pretends to have the magic that Sakti has. English society doesn’t approve of women using magic especially high-born ones and this causes no end of friction that Prunella is in charge of all the Sorcerers in the land. Muna wants to get her sister back from Fairy and Fairy wants to go to war with England over a missing magical amulet. Everything braids together by the last part of the book and works out well for everyone.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story starts with two women waking up on the shore of Janda Baik in the Malay Archipelago with no memory of their past, one has magic, Sakti and the other doesn't, Muna. They are taken in by a powerful witch who decides that the only way to deal is to send them to England via Faerie. Sakti disappears in Faerie and Muna has to work out how to find her and fix their problem. Muna has to navigate Regency England and the politics of magic in this world. It's interesting and involved and I was sucked into knowing where the story was going with a lot of intertwined relationships that really made me care. I did guess the twist but it was interesting to get there.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sakti and Muna are sisters who awake on a beach with no memories from before. The sorceress of Janda Baik tries to help them, but ends up sending them to England—only Sakti is swept away into Fairy on the journey. As Muna, who lacks magic, tries to make her way with the Sorceress to the Crown, she begins to learn that her connections to Fairy are far deeper than she suspected—as are her connections to the beautiful Henrietta, one of the Sorceress’s companions. Regency-ish fantasy with dragons who have impeccably British nicknames.

[herenya_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This took a while to hook me, but once the story got underway, I enjoyed guessing where it was all headed.It is a delightfully diverse Regency fantasy, with some satisfying twists. If I have any quibbles, it’s that I wanted a better resolution for something -- and maybe also just more of the ending? I don’t quite know... I didn’t spend much time analysing my reaction and it was now over half a dozen books ago. “I don't dislike cabbage,” Muna found herself saying, “but I should not consider marrying it. Not disliking seems a poor foundation for future happiness.”

[quondame · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

All sorts of silliness, no real sense of place and culture beyond tired old tropes. Fairyland was dreary and painful, but so was London. And the characters were as interesting as the settings. No one worth caring about or remembering.

[shrike58 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Considering that writing this book was apparently a real exercise in sweating blood (see Cho's blog post on the topic) I wish that I could honestly say I liked it better. While it does have it's charms this novel might be a little too fairy-tale like for my tastes and I'm not sure that there's an adequate build-up to the violence of the climax. Further, there is the reality that the characters I'm invested in from the first book are mostly walk-on, secondary figures in this one. Another thought that comes to mind is that at the core of "Sorcerer to the Crown" there was a father-son relationship and I responded to that more strongly than this story about sisterhood and friendship between women.

[kishs-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found this sequel to Sorcerer to the Crown delightful. I enjoyed the first novel, and think this second book was even better. Cho seems to have found a rhythm and tells a fun, fairy-tale like story in The True Queen. The reader is taken through the story through the vantage of some new characters, with an occasional trip with a character or two from the first book. We're introduced to two sisters, Muna and Sakti, who have washed up on shore with no memories except their respective names. It becomes apparent that the two sisters are cursed, and the great witch Mak Genggang has no idea how to cure them. The sisters eventually get into some trouble and are sent off to England's Sorceress Royal as a sort of peace agreement. This is the start of the adventure as one sister is lost in the Unseen World when traveling to England. I was slightly put-off in the beginning to not get the same characters from the first book, but found that I enjoyed seeing the world through new eyes (so to speak). I feel that Cho made the world more three-dimensional for the reader by doing this, and I’m looking forward to the third book. I would highly recommend this book to fans of Cho's first book.

[jean_sexton-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Oh my goodness, the wait was worth it! I read Sorcerer to the Crown years ago and pre-ordered this book. While Prunella, now the Sorceress Royal is in the book, she isn't the main character. Muna, a young girl from Malay, and Henrietta Stapleton, the best friend of Prunella, shine in this book. The inter-mixture of traditional British mythology and Malaysian mythology are well-done. The villains are ones you like to dislike.While I was reading this book I lost track of time. There was enough foreshadowing that some events were expected. However, there were also genuine surprises at the end. There seems to be a sub-genre of Regency fantasy; this is at the top of that group. While I would suggest that you read Sorcerer to the Crown first, it isn't necessary to do so. Highly recommended to people who like witty banter and well-written fantasy.

[ladycato · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley.I adored the first Sorcerer Royal book and I've anticipated this sequel for years. Therefore, I was surprised when I had more difficulty getting into it and found important elements of the plot predictable.Muna and Sakti wash ashore in Malaysia without any memories. They are soon taken in by a powerful local witch, where it becomes clear that Sakti is magically gifted and Muna is not. When the sisters' investigation into the mysteries around them results in trouble, the witch hustles them off to England where they hope the new Sorceress Royal will help--but on the short cut through fairy land, Sakti vanishes. Muna arrives in England, determined to find her sister.What works: The characters are fantastic. I love the diverse perspectives throughout the book, with Muna's voice shining the brightest. Prunella (the lead from the first book) plays a role throughout and is a joy to visit again. Muna's growing friendship with Henrietta feels natural and charming. The banter made me giggle at times; this really nails the regency-era wit.What faltered: The start of the book felt slow and awkward to me, including a rather odd long flashback. But even once Muna arrived in England, I found myself pulled toward other books rather than continuing this one. The story became more engaging once characters carried their investigation to fairy realms and Muna and Henrietta's partnership grew stronger. Some of the big secrets of the book--like Muna and Sakti's past--were surprisingly blatant early on; the big climax of the book didn't feel that big because of that. There were some strange point-of-view shifts through the book, too; a few chapters from the view of Henrietta's sister were charming but felt totally unnecessary within the main plot.In the end, I enjoyed the book, but I can't help but feel a bit let down, too.