Mia Tsai is a Taiwanese American author of speculative fiction. Her debut novel, a xianxia-inspired contemporary fantasy titled Bitter Medicine, was published in 2023. Her new novel, The Memory Hunters, is an adult science fantasy.
Tsai applied the Page 69 Test to The Memory Hunters and reported the following:
From page 69:Visit Mia Tsai's website.“Those of you not going to see the curator, would you be interested in hearing about our most recent exhibits? There’s some literature by the ticket window.”While the proper introduction of both Jing and Cal is important to the book overall - we see them show up in a previous chapter, but there's no real time to slow down and spend a minute with them - this doesn't get at the heart of the plot in The Memory Hunters. It does, however, hint at the dynamics between the two hunter-guardian pairs, which come into play later in the book. Jing and Cal are foils and mirrors for Key and Vale but are also outsider points of view that help give the reader a sense of what is right or wrong about the city of Asheburg. Prior to this, the reader is introduced to the Museum of Human Memory during business hours, as opposed to its earlier introduction where Key arrives at work, hoping to be the first on the job (mild spoiler: she isn't).
Alec continued his speech, and Key’s group broke off toward the bank of elevators to their right. As they approached, Jing and Cal came up alongside Key, each of them wearing a smile. “Managed to say hi to Vale, but not to you,” Jing said, his smile going roguishly lopsided. He swept his forelock of impeccably styled black hair back into place. “So, hi.”
“Hi.” Key supposed Jing was handsome in a pretty, symmetric way; that was probably why Vale liked him. He had an easy charisma and breezy nature that put everyone at ease, even Vale, which Key counted as a small miracle. Objectively speaking, his features were youthful and pleasing to the eye, with cut-glass cheekbones and soulful, dark brown eyes that could be melancholy and haunted in one moment and sparkling with mischief in the next.
She smiled at Cal while Vale poked the down button. “Hey, Cal.”
“Hey, Key.” Calamus’s resonant baritone voice was a pleasure to hear, and his singing even more so. Whereas Jing was supple and wiry and an unassuming height, his tan skin evoking the warmth of early autumn, Cal was a thick and looming sort of tall, the pin-tight curls of his black hair kept close to his scalp, his deep brown skin glowing with the robustness of summer. His sweet, earnest face and placid nature had drawn Key instantly at their initial meeting, and they had been fast friends since.
Jing slung an arm around Vale, who grunted, staggering with the unexpected weight before bracing herself to hold him.
I'll be frank: I've been told I read chaotically. When I pick up new books, I read beginnings, then ends, then middles, and then will go back to where I left off at the beginning and read all the way through. Spoiling the end is a way to ensure I'm not so anxious or nervous about what'll happen that I can't focus on what's presently happening in the text. So the Page 69 Test appeals to the chaos in me!
Q&A with Mia Tsai.
Writers Read: Mia Tsai.
--Marshal Zeringue
