While the position of imperial tailor would restore honour to her family and provide for them financially, Maia also wants to win for herself, to prove her skills.
Unlike in Mulan, Maia’s decision to compete in the trial is not treated as a total self-sacrifice. The premise indeed has Mulan vibes, but Spin The Dawn also takes the feminism of the Chinese legend further. When the palace summons a man from her family to compete for the chance to be the imperial tailor, Maia decides to disguise herself as Keton and represent her family at the trial. The war hit Maia Tamarin’s family hard by causing a decline in their tailoring business, but most of all, when it took the lives of Maia’s two older brothers and her third brother Keton returned with broken legs. It’s also a kingdom torn by violence: we are introduced to A’landi in the aftermath of the Five Winters War, a civil war between the Emperor Khanujin and the shansen (the imperial military leader) that ended with a shaky truce. She immerses the reader in an ancient Chinese-inspired setting known as A’landi, a vibrant kingdom with a rich history.
Lim draws on various fairy tales and mythologies from East Asia and the Middle East to create the fantasy world. Written by Elizabeth Lim, Spin The Dawn is the first book in the Blood of Stars duology. Still, it just scratches the surface of the novel, which abounds with magic, palace intrigue, adventure and romance. That is not only an attractive pitch for the young adult fantasy novel Spin The Dawn it is also an accurate comparison.
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