The second installment in the epic historical trilogy that began with "Taming Poison Dragons," set in Song and Yuan Dynasty China, charting the trials and adventures of the Yun clan Central China, 1264. When Mongol armies storm into the Middle Kingdom, the descendents of Yun Cai are trapped in a des[...]

Western China, 1196: Yun Cai, a handsome and adored poet in his youth, is now an old man, exiled to his family estates. All that is left to him are regrets of a growing sense of futility and helplessness and the irritations of his feckless son and shrewish daughter-in-law. But the 'poison dragons' o[...]