“The Poet Empress” is a new release by Shen Tao, released Jan. 20, 2026. “The Poet Empress” is a standalone book set in a fantasy of Ancient China, the leading character, Yin Wei, who is the daughter of a poor rice farmer in a village plagued by famine. This book contains many sensitive topics and is an Adult Fantasy Novel. Readers should read through the content warning before purchasing. I rate this book at 4.25/5. “The Poet Empress” is set in a kingdom named Tenzha, where the Emperor is sick and has passed this title to his second-born son, Guan Terren. This book has an in-depth power system, where royalty is born with Heavenly Sigils on their faces and noble people, men, can become literomancers. Using poetry as spells, though the book doesn’t have as much poetry as the name may lead along. Yin Wei, in an attempt to save her family from poverty and send her younger brother Bao to school, goes to the city in hopes of being chosen as a concubine for the crown prince, Terren. Women in “The Poet Empress” are barred from learning to read or write, as being literate is a crime punishable by death. But after being chosen by the cruel crown prince, Wei forms a plan with her to take him down before he can come into power and send the dynasty into ruin.
In “The Poet Empress”, the book includes multiple important characters to the storyline, as well as Lady Autumn, Terren’s mother, who haunts the narrative throughout the book until the end. The firstborn prince, Maro, harbors an evident hate for his younger brother Terren for taking his birthright place as heir, which assists in moving the storyline along. Terren’s Heavenly sigil, 刀 (Dào), gives him the ability to control and conjure any form of blades, including arrows and swords. While the firstborn, Maro’s heavenly sigil is 路 (Lù), which gives him the power to control the land, whether it be rock or water. “The Poet Empress” is a book with an interesting storyline. A reason it ranked what it did was its lack of world-building. Although the powers and characters were built perfectly, the book lacks building on the world it’s set in, multiple times mentioning names of other countries but not where they were and how they affected the storyline.
The book focuses on understanding why Terren is as cruel as he is, while also slowly watching the development of Yin Wei and how her thought process changes throughout the book. In the beginning, she was afraid of the power of royalty, but then she began to crave having that same power. “The Poet Empress” focuses much more on the way humans work and how trauma can affect people’s later actions and personality. It has a strong concentration on politics. I found this book to be quite a hard read, despite its good parts. As someone who strays away from books with depictions of very dark topics, this book was full of them. Despite that, I heavily recommend this book for those who are interested in fantasy, ancient China, and politics. Wei struggles with the opinion of the court numerous times in “The Poet Empress. The book is 386 pages long, and took me approximately 4 hours to read. This book is a great read for older audiences or those who can stomach dark topics. It focuses greatly on the growth of its characters, more so than any world-building.
