Buckle up folks because Xiran Jay Zhao is back with another book, their middle grade debut, and they’re back with a bang! If Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor wasn’t on your radar before, make sure it’s there now. If you like books in the vein of Percy Jackson, this is one for you.

And don’t forget, you can follow Xiran on twitter.

Zachary Ying never had many opportunities to learn about his Chinese heritage. His single mom was busy enough making sure they got by, and his schools never taught anything except Western history and myths. So Zack is woefully unprepared when he discovers he was born to host the spirit of the First Emperor of China for a vital mission: sealing the leaking portal to the Chinese underworld before the upcoming Ghost Month blows it wide open.

The mission takes an immediate wrong turn when the First Emperor botches his attempt to possess Zack’s body and binds to Zack’s AR gaming headset instead, leading to a battle where Zack’s mom’s soul gets taken by demons. Now, with one of history’s most infamous tyrants yapping in his headset, Zack must journey across China to heist magical artifacts and defeat figures from history and myth, all while learning to wield the emperor’s incredible water dragon powers.

And if Zack can’t finish the mission in time, the spirits of the underworld will flood into the mortal realm, and he could lose his mom forever.

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor

Xiran Jay Zhao

Goodreads

Rep: Hui Chinese American Muslim gay mc
Release: 10th May 2022