Wrath of the White Crane by JF Lee ~ a Review

by MK French

The White Crane general is at war with the Black Tiger, and everyone in her way will be consumed. She won't even hesitate to use the Soul Fog, a weapon able to destroy entire cities. Shu Yan and her sworn sister plan to stop the use of this weapon, using her master's blade, Sorrow, for the task. Li Ming is now the last Swordsman of Blue Mountain, looking for a cure for the illness that continues to drain his strength. His journey shows him that he's not alone, but what can they do against the wrath of the White Crane?

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November 2025; Indie; 979-8305300222
ebook, print (708 pages); Asian mythology

Wrath of the White Crane is the fifth book in the Tales of the Swordsman series. (This includes The Fall of King Saber and Echo of the Blue Mountain) It's definitely worth it to check out the earlier books in the series, especially if you like wuxia novels. There's humor and a lot more context to this volume when you read them.

Commander Yao and General Peng Hai Rong (the White Crane) of the Northern Army are ruthless in taking down the Black Tiger faction. This means that anyone who harbored them gets swept up in the same net and are called traitors to the empire. The Soul Fog indiscriminately kills hundreds to thousands at a time, wiping out entire villages painfully and messily. Even if they don't use the Soul Fog, the White Crane is cruel in how she eliminates entire sects, towns, or villages if they don't immediately do what she says. 

Shu Yan has been tagging along with Feng Zemin, Captain of the Black Tiger; if captured, both would be executed as traitors. The pair travels to look for help, hiding among the people as they search. While there are some moments of levity, this is more serious than the others were. (If you want levity, check out the Magistrate novels.) With a novel as long as this one, there are many plot points and a lot of details, as well as the return of characters from prior novels. It's nice to see them again, and to see that some things about them really don't change.

Li Meng is retraining himself after the prior coma and his lingering illness, leading to reminisces of the past before the Black Tigers rebelled, and he devoted his life to finding the Black Tiger General. It was interesting to see his POV regarding the start of the conflicts between factions, and the differences in the training he had received, how he trained Shu Yan, and the training she received from an assassin. He doesn't magically get less grumpy when some of his grief is relieved, and he isn't any less stubborn. It's a fun thread to the story, offsetting some of the intensity of the White Crane thread in the second half of the book. I was really drawn to this aspect of the story, since it developed into a mystery regarding the Blue Mountain sect.

This novel is long and convoluted, mostly because of the different threads of story that eventually converge. It is a full-on war between the martial masters, and along the way are betrayals and reversals. It's unexpected, upping the ante even higher than the potential death of hundreds of thousands had been before. It's an epic story, with an ending that points to the next novel in the sequence. This drew me in and kept me guessing with each chapter.

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Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and a golden retriever.

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