Inclusivity, Justice, and Asian Americans in Matt Mikalatos’ The Story King

By Dr. Michelle Ami Reyes

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cannot recall a single Asian character in the Christian fantasy novels I read as a child. Growing up, I lived on a steady diet of elves, dwarves, orcs, and fauns who lived in realms where the battle between good and evil always had a distinctly Black-white aura. Falling into the trappings of correlating moral attributes with certain skin tones, the Christian fantasy that many of us know and even love has not served us well when it comes to nuanced conversations about race, multiculturalism, and even justice. Instead, we were taught that blackness represents the darkness of this world, and light and white crown the protagonists and saviors. As a result, the erasure of a wide spectrum of peoples, including Asians, went unquestioned.

We haven’t made much progress in the Christian fantasy genre over the past 70 years. Though non-Christian Asian fantasy literature has risen in popularity over the past decade with the release of Cindy Pon’s debut novel, Silver Phoenix, in 2009, even this sub-genre has struggled to gain recognition due to its lack of perceived relevance. Stories that feature Asian main characters and take place in settings directly influenced and shaped by Asian cultures are often deemed non-American and thus niche. In other words, there is a belief that readers will not want to escape to a world with Asian heroes, because they do not believe it is an accurate depiction of their actual world. Sadly, with its continued commitment to European mythology, Christian fantasy lags even further behind in its depictions of inclusion and belonging. 

Matt Mikalatos’ Sunlit Lands series, however, shines as a bright exception. Its multicultural world explores good and evil, racism and justice with not only a Black protagonist named Darius Walker but a Chinese American hero, Jason Wu, who must work together to bring leadership and a new vision for a better Sunlit Lands where all people are equal and can flourish. Darius and Jason need each other. These two characters break the unjust system plaguing the Sunlit Lands together and pave the path to a more just future. Instead of competing with their struggles, they make space for each other’s stories and pains, and it’s their friendship and solidarity that enables their plan to succeed. I’ve written about the second installment, The Heartwood Crown (2019), and I had the joy of reading an early version of the third and final book, The Story King, which releases today, Tuesday, June 8, 2021. **Please note there are spoilers below**

In The Story King, the Sunlit Lands are in disarray. The dominant group, a fair-skinned people called the Elenil, are seeking to reinstate their power over the other creatures in the land, including the gray-skinned Scim, who they have enslaved and oppressed for centuries. An Elenil dictator, Hanali, now sits on the throne and is not only more ruthless than his predecessor, but is seeking to restore “order” through genocide. A band of human teenagers are caught in the midst of this war, each wrestling with what true justice looks like. How can the Elenil and the Scim as well as humans live in peace with one another? What sins of the past need to be addressed and what parts of their society need to be changed? In many ways, these are the same questions we are asking in our own racially divided nation right now. 

Throughout this final installment, Jason Wu rises as a leader in the Sunlit Lands with a unique role to play in bringing forth justice. Interestingly, Jason doesn’t fit the stereotypes of Asian Americans—he’s loud, doesn't do what he’s told, and is always honest, usually to a fault. He is neither cast as a perpetual foreigner nor a model minority, but rather a goofy teenage boy with a love for mischief, playful banter, and chocolate pudding. Yet Jason also wrestles with some of the deepest pains and struggles within the Asian American experience—he feels unequal, unworthy, unwanted, and much of his sarcasm and goofiness masks these insecurities. For this reason, in the first two books, Jason is more of a comedic sidekick. He knows how to annoy the Elenil, get under their skin, trick them, and misdirect their efforts. The Story King, however, flips the script and finally gives Jason the character development we’ve been longing for. Before the final battle, Baileya, Jason’s fiancée, sends him out into the desert so he can learn to love his story and by extension learn to love himself. Baileya sees Jason’s full potential and knows the power he will hold if he can both embrace his own narrative and understand how he fits within the larger story.

The path to justice looks different from one community to the next. For the Asian American community, learning about our past and growing in our racial consciousness is essential to our ability to speak up and advocate on behalf of the poor, the widow, and the orphan. In fact, tapping into lost or hidden memories—usually caused by a mysterious illness or mental health issues—has become a common trope in Asian fantasy novels. We must learn our own history and our place within it before we can rise.

There is a biblical precedent to seeing the bigger picture. God encourages Abram in Genesis 13:14 to “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west.” His words are a divine challenge to look ahead and behind, to the left and to the right; to see all sides of a story and to understand your own position in it. This is what we see Jason learn to do in The Story King. He gains a bigger picture of Asian America, but also of his own family’s story. By the time Jason completes his time in the desert and learns his whole story, he develops a self-confidence that empowers him to embrace his real name, Wu Song; his physical appearance; his unique perspective on justice; and his place in the world.

Not only that, but Jason becomes king of the Southern Courts, thereby positioning himself as a true leader in the final fight for justice. This is one of the most significant elements of The Story King in my opinion as it challenges the fantasy genre, and Christian fantasy in particular, to not only include Asian characters, but to have them lead. According to researchers at the University of California, Riverside, Asian Americans are still seen as less ideal than white Americans when it comes to serving as leaders in the US. The counter-cultural and truly delightful narrative in The Story King, conversely, is that Asian American leaders are central to conversations on justice and systemic change. It’s precisely because Jason falls outside the Black-white divide that he is able to bridge the gap between dominant and subdominant cultures, between the Elenil and the Scim. In fact, Jason’s leadership catalyzes education and bridge building, albeit in his quirky, unconventional ways, which include chocolate pudding, something called Wendy juice, and chants for “snack time.” Moreover, the people of the southern court, shape-shifters who appear as lizard-like in their original form, want to be like Jason and many take on his appearance so that there are in fact many Jasons by the end of the book. These copycats are not intended to communicate that all Asians look the same, but rather that Asian voices and leadership are not only worth following but worth emulating as well. 

In the midst of skyrocketing anti-Asian racism due to COVID-19 over the past year, this book is a breath of fresh air. I hope that we will see many more Asian characters and heroes in future Christian fantasy novels. The story of Jason who ends up as king, who marries the queen, who helps bring justice to the land, and lives happily ever after is a story we all need right now.

Photo courtesy of Tyndale House Publishers
Photo by Gülfer ERGİN on Unsplash

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Michelle Ami Reyes, PhD, is the Vice President of the AACC. She is also the author of Becoming All Things: How Small Changes Lead to Lasting Connections Across Cultures.