Six Crimson Cranes: A Marvelous Work Teeming with Magic, Humor and Romance

What do you get when you combine Hans Christen Anderson’s famous work The Wild Swans with Chinese mythology, magic, and angsty dragons? You get the amazing world Elizabeth Lim has built in Six Crimson Cranes. She has written two books full of magic, chaos, and some romance—though that is explored more in the second book. 

The story focuses on Princess Shiori An’ma, the princess of the magicless country of Kiata. Shiori is a rebellious princess, procrastinating at her royal studies and only answers to her stepmother, Raikama, and at times, her father, the Emperor of Kiata. When Shiori messes up her betrothal ceremony (chasing a magic origami bird named Kiki), she ends up punished by her stepmother Raikama. At the same time, she meets a young dragon, Seryu, who offers to teach her magic from the magic-free Kiata (she is one of the rare bloodsakes of Kiata, the only ones able to free the Demons from the Holy Mountains). At first, she is reluctant but, eventually, Seryu coaxes her into performing magic.

But when Shiori accidentally discovers her Raikama’s secrets—she is a woman with a snake face for a…well, a face and possesses a cursed dragon pearl—Shiori tells her six brothers and flees. When they try to take on Raikama by themselves, they fail, and are turned into cranes. Shiori ends up being cursed to never speak, or her brothers will die, and to wear a ridiculous walnut bowl over her eyes, nose, and hair, so no one can recognize her.

Her brothers are stuck as cranes during the day, and at night, they become men again, although should they try to communicate with other humans about who they are, they will turn back into cranes. 

A suspicious enchanter tells Shiori that in order to free her siblings and herself from the curse, she must weave a starstroke net, a tool made from a painful substance that can be used to take a dragon pearl from its owner. Shiori begins to knit the net (after stealing the raw ingredients from the dragon king), cooks her hands in the process, gets taken by a sentinel, and—coincidentally—gets dumped in the castle of her former betrothed.

Eventually, Shiori gets the pearl from Raikama, but not before the Enchanter (the one who suggested the starstroke net earlier on) breaks his oath, an oath binding an enchanter to a master. After the Enchanter stabs his master, he turns into a demon named Bandur. 

The second book picks up in Ai’long, where the Dragon King seeks Raikama’s pearl since it is broken and cursed and contains the power to destroy all living beings. The Dragon King imprisons Shiori for a week, which is equal to half a year in the mortal world. She eventually escapes with the help of Seryu, the young dragon friend of Shiori’s, and his cousin. She makes it back to Kiata and crashes another wedding between one of her brothers and the princess of a neighbouring kingdom. 

Shiori ends up trying to figure out how to put the demon Bandur back in chains, and how to bring peace back to Kiata, where they hate any and all forms of magic. Because of this, the loyal citizens of Kiata constantly attack Shiori and her allies. And of course, Shiori and her friends travel to a cursed island pursued by Bandur, because nothing is better than visiting an island full of demons. 

Both books have a lot of interesting secrets and lots of fun romance, mostly light romance that is constantly overshadowed by Bandur. The magic and mechanics of the world are very fun to learn, and the creativity of this world makes amazing sense.

This is such an engaging book with a strong female lead and interesting lore. There were a lot of fast-paced action scenes, balanced with really calm scenes that focused on nature and the environment. It is pretty clear that the characters were well developed, each one with a great backstory that tells a lot about them. There are some vague parts and some odd details but it was mostly clear and made sense.  I think the character that resonated most with me was Shiori’s best friend Kiki, who was an inspiring motivational speaker and an upbeat and hilarious companion. She was a very well-developed character, changing as the story goes, yet keeping her upbeat and slightly sarcastic demeanor. 

Also, the funny scenes were worth a good long laugh. I’ll be honest, I’ve reread this book 10 times!

Another thing that pulled me in was how Lim created the story. The world building is clear, and the story was put together in a great way, especially with the demons and all the unexpected plot twists. This mystery and suspense were what really pulled me in and for many magical hours, I was lost in her world. 

In short, Six Crimson Cranes is a very good duology that I highly recommend. I absolutely love this series and if you like magic, dragons, lighthearted romance, and Chinese mythology, I’m sure you’ll like it too!