Under Heaven

The Under Heaven novels use the invented empire of Kitai to explore two decisive eras of imperial Chinese history. Under Heaven evokes the cosmopolitan splendour and political instability of the Tang dynasty before the An Lushan Rebellion; River of Stars moves four centuries forward to a Song-inspired court facing northern conquest and the loss of its historic heartland.

The books are linked by setting and historical pattern rather than by recurring characters. Both contrast refined court culture, poetry and scholarship with military weakness, factional government and frontier war. Their protagonists must decide what loyalty to family, state and memory means when imperial institutions can no longer control the forces gathering around them.