The Night Ends with Fire: The darker, fantasy version of Mulan

Author: K. X. Song

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

You might think that a fantasy retelling of Mulan that mirrored major points in the Disney film would be boring and unnecessary, but I was impressed by what K.X. Song did with this reimagining of one of my favourite childhood movies (and a Chinese myth, but I don’t know enough about the original myth to make comparisons).

The Night Ends in Fire is a Mulan re-telling following Meilin, a young woman in a Chinese-like fantasy kingdom who is set to be married off for the dowry that her opium-and-gambling-addicted father needs to replenish the family coffers. When war comes to the kingdom, Meilin’s father is determined to dodge the draft, and she decides to take his place, not out of love for the abusive bastard, but to escape the other abusive bastard he’s trying to marry her off to.

As she begins to train as a soldier, she starts to hear the voice of an ancient dragon in her mind—though this one is much more threatening than the beloved Mushu in ways Meilin isn’t even fully aware of. This signals that she has access to magic, which is illegal in her kingdom, so in addition to being at risk of death if she is found to be female, she also risks execution for magic if her power is discovered.

I  thoroughly enjoyed this version of Mulan. As I said, I know nothing of the original Chinese legend other that what may have potentially been accurately portrayed in the Disney version, but this follows variations of some of the same story beats as the Disney film, though it is both different and darker.

I really enjoyed the characterisation in this one. Meilin is a young woman whose society has given her no agency, no right to be anything other than a man’s property. At the beginning she knows she is likely to die in the war, but she would rather die free on her own terms than at the hands of her future husband (who has not had a good track record with wives). I loved the camaraderie and bond that Meilin had with her stepmother as well as other female characters in the book, something that we don’t get a lot of, for obvious reasons, in the movie.

I felt that Meilin’s character struggle and the way she interacted with the other characters, not just trying to survive but to live, made her an interesting protagonist. Mulan wanted to protect her family. Meilin wants to make a life of her own.

This book is the first in a series and does not end as the film did, so I’m on the edge of my seat to see what will happen next.