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'Jade Princess' Coia

Princess Jade

Coia Valls
Suma de Letras / Columna Edicions
1st edició in Castilian, January 2011
1st edition in Catalan, October , 2010

Genre: Historical fiction

360 pages ISBN: 9788483652121 (cast.)
ISBN: 9788466411196 (cat.)

Coia Valls writer has debuted on the adult literature with the novel Jade Princess, which has won the Prize of historical genre Néstor Luján. Here, the writer offers us a journey from Corinth to China accompanying a group of characters who aim to get the secret of silk, to fulfill the last wish of Theodora, the wife of Justinian, Emperor of Byzantium.

Princess jade is more an adventure story in the context of the year 551, a historical novel itself, since, in reality, the historical incidents appear only at the beginning (when the group receives the order of Justinian) and end (when they come to China). The rest, the bulk of the novel, is a journey goes on either side of the world where the story revolves around the experiences of these characters (and especially how it relates n among them), but there is no many leaks historical (data or facts) beyond descriptions of the landscapes they encounter. This makes reading very fast and, Indeed, one of the successes of the author, leaving aside what is not really necessary because the characters do not have time to waste in each city they walk.

As a reader, I have to say that Coia Valls has made me feel flyer with this novel, and although this is his literary debut, it is undeniable narrative solvency and especially its ability to evoke many exotic NDOS and, in turn, make the reader an active part of history. However, I have to mention a couple of aspects that, to me, fail to Princess Jade.

The first is that I see female characters very underutilized. The first woman to appear (Najaah) is too much in the background throughout the novel and the real impact is in a couple of very specific occasions. And second, the headlines that the work has a very short appearance, and above all, leads to very implausible situations. In fact, the entire third of the novel (the outcome) is rather weak and does not match the pace of the rest of the story. Perhaps the author wanted to go with a more commercial end and exotic, and that, readers stories we like to believe us, causes us some sense of disappointment. In any case, Princess Jade has made me have a good reading time and I am sure that Coia Valls give us great stories in the future.