Quick Take
- Narration: Emily Woo Zeller’s Audiofile-praised narration brings the South China Sea setting and the sapphic dynamic between Xiang and Anh to vivid life across 11 hours; C.B. Lee reads the closing author’s note.
- Themes: Asian diaspora identity, sapphic adventure romance, the myth-making behind legendary figures
- Mood: Adventurous and richly atmospheric, with found-family warmth beneath the pirate danger
- Verdict: A Treasure Island retelling that earns its place in the Remixed Classics series by doing genuine literary work, not just relocating the cast.
I spent a Saturday morning with A Clash of Steel the way I rarely spend Saturday mornings: standing at the kitchen counter with breakfast half-made, unwilling to sit down because putting on headphones while standing felt like a better excuse to keep listening. The 1826 South China Sea setting pulls you in fast. C.B. Lee does not ease into the world. Xiang’s circumstances, her mother’s ambitions, her dead father’s unexamined legacy, the pendant she has always worn without knowing why, establish themselves in the first chapters with the confidence of a writer who knows exactly where this is going.
The Remixed Classics series operates on a particular promise: take a canonical adventure narrative and put it in conversation with perspectives the original excluded. Lee works with Treasure Island, which is as foundational an adventure story as exists in English literature. The work of transposition is considerable: repositioning from the British Caribbean setting to the South China Sea, replacing Jim Hawkins with Xiang, a Chinese girl from a merchant family, and encoding a sapphic romance at the center of a story that, in its original form, is entirely male and entirely uninterested in who anyone loves.
Our Take on A Clash of Steel
What Lee does especially well is the relationship between Xiang and Anh. One reviewer notes that Lee went against the grain with many characters, and the Anh characterization is the clearest example. She is not the Long John Silver figure, not exactly. She is more complicated than the template allows, and Lee uses that complication to give the romance a specific texture of wariness and attraction that develops over shared danger rather than through convenience. The map reveal, the joining of the motley crew, and the gradual shift from reluctant alliance to something deeper are all handled at the pace they require.
The Dragon Fleet mythology gives the book its most distinctive material. The Head of the Dragon, a woman known only by her title, haunts the story as a legend rather than a presence, and the way Lee handles the gap between who this woman was and what history has made of her says something real about how heroism gets mythologized. Xiang’s father is part of this mythology too, and his legacy complicates her sense of identity in ways that the treasure hunt alone could not.
Why Listen to A Clash of Steel
Emily Woo Zeller’s narration received specific praise from Audiofile Magazine, and that recognition is deserved. The South China Sea setting requires someone who can render the multilingual, multicultural texture of the 1826 maritime world without making it feel like a geography lesson. Zeller handles Cantonese words and names with care and gives the ensemble cast of the crew enough distinction to be followed across 11 hours. The author’s note read by C.B. Lee at the end adds a personal frame that situates the creative choices in the author’s own experience, and it is worth staying for.
This is a Macmillan Audio production from Feiwel and Friends, and the production quality reflects that. The audio is clean, the pacing is well-edited, and there is no sense that the material has been truncated or rushed.
What to Watch For in A Clash of Steel
Listeners who have strong attachments to the specific characters and plot points of Treasure Island will find this a loose retelling rather than a close one. Lee is working with the emotional architecture of the original, the map, the quest, the crew, the danger, the ambiguous mentor figure, but the specific beats and the character-to-character correspondences are not rigid. One reviewer came to this without having read Treasure Island and found it fully satisfying on its own terms, which suggests the book does not require the original to work.
The secondary characters are less developed than Xiang and Anh, which one reviewer notes, though they also note these are not stereotypes or cardboard cut-outs. Lee gives them enough presence to matter without giving each one a full arc, which is a reasonable trade-off in a book that already has two very well-developed leads.
Who Should Listen to A Clash of Steel
This is for listeners who want adventure fiction with sapphic romance at its center and Asian history woven into its world-building rather than applied as surface detail. Fans of Treasure Island who have found the original’s demographics limiting will find this a genuine reconsideration rather than a derivative exercise. New readers who have not encountered the original can come to it fresh. The pirates are here, the map is here, the danger is here, and the love story is real.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to have read or listened to Treasure Island before starting A Clash of Steel?
No, and at least one reviewer came to this book without prior knowledge of Treasure Island and found it completely satisfying on its own terms. The plot is self-contained. That said, readers who know the original will pick up on the structural parallels and the ways Lee diverges from the template, which adds a layer of pleasure without being a prerequisite.
How is the sapphic romance between Xiang and Anh developed across the audiobook?
The romance builds slowly through shared danger and growing trust rather than through early declaration. Xiang and Anh begin as reluctant allies with a specific exchange of favors at the center of their partnership, and the romantic dimension develops as that practical alliance becomes genuine care. The development is patient and earns the emotional weight of the later stages. It is not explicit.
How does Emily Woo Zeller handle the Chinese cultural and linguistic elements in the narration?
Woo Zeller renders Cantonese words, names, and the cultural texture of the 1826 South China Sea setting with consistency and care. Audiofile Magazine specifically cited her narration as exciting, which reflects the energy she brings to the adventure sequences. The multicultural ensemble of the crew is differentiated clearly without stereotyping.
Is A Clash of Steel part of an ongoing series or does it stand alone?
It is listed under the Remixed Classics series designation, but this is a series of standalone retellings by various authors rather than a continuing story. A Clash of Steel has its own complete narrative arc and does not require or lead into another book by C.B. Lee in this world. It is self-contained.
