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Kohōpeh is a French author based in Thailand. Their historical and science fiction explores the intersections of linguistics, systemic power, and human autonomy. Currently, Kohōpeh splits their time between querying a novel set in Shōgun-era Japan, finalizing a novella, adapting Thai oral tales, and researching.
Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Kohōpeh’s Lotus, Mud, Blade is set in the Siamese city of Vimaya. Moo Hring is a guard whose kitchen knife and public daring make her feared across the market. She secretly loves Preah Ponhea Chan, a Khmer prince pressured by Governor Luang Borommanant to accept a political marriage. Preah’s heart turns toward Sorya, a frontier recruit newly assigned to palace service, but Sorya cannot speak in the style of courtship he expects. Moo Hring begins supplying the words that bring them together, even as her own feelings remain hidden behind the borrowed voice. When the Governor sends the guard company to the siege of Meuang Sema, Moo Hring must protect Sorya, preserve Preah’s hope, and decide how much of herself she can give away before the truth and answers are commanded.
Kohōpeh’s Lotus, Mud, Blade is brilliant historical fiction, and the author places the story right in sixteenth-century Siam, under Ayutthaya rule, with excellent period detailing. Leaf decrees are treated as binding orders, and the Golden Silk Sash of Command is used for military signaling. Kohōpeh goes the distance in making rank, ritual, and court obligation part of every move. I love Moo Hring, even though I want to wring her neck sometimes. She is generous and brave, spending her allowance to pay the troupe, then shielding Sorya despite a despondent heart. The settings have texture: Bun’s bakery joins rice cakes with poems cut into wrappers, while Meuang Sema’s swamp camp shows hungry guards living on dwindling supplies. Readers who enjoy historical fiction and tragic romance in the classic literary style will adore this, as I have. Very highly recommended.
