The first in a series set in the world of the Phoenix Feather quartet, Tribute is inspired by the great Chinese epics such as Water Margin and Dream of Red Chamber as well as wuxia and xuanhuan series such as Nirvana in Fire and Joy of Life.Bu is an unwanted daughter sent to audition for a music academy. If she fails, she can't go back. Elderly Granny Zim, who knows that soon she must retire as head of the music academy, is fascinated by YinYin, a student who might not be human. Life is settling down when ships show up on the horizon. It's the imperials, here to demand tribute. They take Bu, YinYin, and Granny Zim to a new, uncertain life in the troubled empire, where their only skill is their music.But Granny Zim knows that music is a knife without a hilt.

Like the Phoenix Feather series, Tribute takes the reader on an adventure from the human world to the realm of the transcendent.