Book Review: An Empire in the Clouds by Ai Jiang
Title: An Empire in the Clouds
Author: Ai Jiang
Publisher: Titan Books
Publication date: September 15, 2026
Genre: Science Fantasy
An Empire in the Clouds is a Chinese-inspired science fantasy where one empire is comprised of lotuses and the other is a sinking continent. I wanted to love this one. I expected to love it. I was disappointed when I completely failed to sink into this one. I spent so much of the novel trying to make sense of the world building and urging the story to hurry up that it was difficult to enjoy. The premise felt ambitious, but half of the book felt like world building filler.
Xilian is a princess in Piao, the empire literally built onto massive lotuses hovering over the ocean. Her parents drowned in the Great Drowning decades ago (thanks to some creams and pills, aging virtually stops). One of her brothers has been crowned Emperor, but two advisors are plotting to drown him in another great accident, unless Xilian can stop them. For that, she needs her other brother, Lang, who was exiled to the drowning continent divided between Reboot and Revive (the only difference being one wants to destroy everything and start over and the other wants to save the environment. I think.). Lang, though, wants no part of the empire and family that never cared for him once he left Piao. Meanwhile a Performer in Revive, No Face, was separated from their mother on Piao decades ago and has been plotting to kill the advisors responsible for their separation. The time is approaching, whether or not anyone will help them.
An Empire in the Clouds felt like it could have been something amazing. Unfortunately, it completely missed the mark for me. It was too long, filled with what felt like filler on every other page. The world building, though meticulous, felt confusing. How did they make these giant lotuses? Why are the two empires so at odds? What do Revive and Reboot even look like? Despite all the details, I struggled to visualize how this world looked. It was interesting, especially since the Piaoren use koi to travel through all the water to get from lotus to lotus, which isn’t even allowed anymore, but I could not figure out for the life of me how and where buildings were constructed on these giant flowers. How are there gardens on them? I was so confused, which wasn’t fun because most of the novel felt like world building almost to the end.
The story itself is achingly simple. A princess fears for her brother’s life, a brother who has become cold to her, so she decides to do something about the two advisors intent on killing him. So she goes to her other brother, exiled by the same advisors decades ago. Except he, rightfully, wants nothing to do with her and Piao, until a Performer under his care takes matters into their hands and heads straight for Piao with something destructive because the same advisors separated them from their mother (I’d like to add the mother made the choice to stay in Piao, which meant her child had to be sent to Revive) decades ago, and they’ll stop at nothing for revenge. To me, this all read like a pampered princess who wants to do something without having any idea how, so she spends the whole story struggling to keep up while holding onto a very vague plan. No Face had so much more agency than Xilian, and yet Xilian gets to tell most of the story. It was maddening.
I wanted to like Xilian. I felt sorry for her for a while. She wants to do something, but has no idea how. The people around her are not trustworthy. There’s this whole bit about her, her maid, and No Face, but No Face’s chapters harped on so much about it that I figured it out before the reveal was made to Xilian. It ended up falling completely flat so, while I understood Xilian’s actions, it did not feel as tense and revealing and hard as it should have. It just made Xilian feel more like an ignorant, pampered princess who only ever cared about herself. No Face, on the other hand, has this rage building in them. Their thirst for revenge pushed them to do everything they did, and I loved it. I wasn’t so keen on how the performances went and every move that went into performing Chinese opera, but I loved this character. I felt all of their discontent and found myself wanting the advisors’ demise as much as they did.
An Empire in the Clouds may have fallen far short of my expectations, but it did feel like it was trying out some interesting things. I liked how Piao held to the old ways while Revive and Reboot basically went full tech. The divide between Revive and Reboot felt extraneous to me, but I could still appreciate the commentary. The plotting the characters engaged in was fun, the side characters felt like they had their own stories, and there’s some real emotion at the end when things are revealed and people are hurt and killed. But I found it hard to stay focused as most of the book focused more on the world building than the story, which didn’t get exciting until the last quarter.
How many cups of tea will you need?
3 cups
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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
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