NEW YORK (AP) — The author of a highly-anticipated fantasy trilogy is postponing the first book as she faces allegations of racism.
Amelie Wen Zhao, whose "Blood Heir" was scheduled for in June, wrote Wednesday in an online statement that she was "so sorry" for any pain she might have caused. "Blood Heir" is set in the imagined Cyrilian Empire, and was promoted as showing a world in which "oppression is blind to skin color." Fantasy author L.L. McKinney was among the critics, tweeting that the book was "anti-black" and expressing disbelief that oppression could be colorblind.
Zhao responded that she was drawing upon Asia's history of human trafficking and indentured labor. But she added that she could recognize that in addressing slavery she wasn't just writing in her own "cultural context."
