Take a photo of a barcode or cover
In all honesty, this could have been cut in almost in half and it probably would have been a much better read. The first half was just mostly unnecessary. The prose was getting so bogged down with all of the political explanations and issues being brought up. All of them are important issues and deserve to have their own space and be fully fleshed out, so when they are all forced into one space, it gets to be overwhelming, heavy handed, and then overly boring.
I was very close to DNF-ing this in the first half because of all of that and though the second half did get better, I don't know if it was necessarily worth it.
I did not know going into this that it was going to be a longer series. I was definitely under the impression that it was going to be a duology and would end with this book, but instead this one ends on a pretty big cliffhanger. This didn't bother me too much because I like longer series, but it definitely should have been marketed and noted as such so readers would know ahead of reading the book.
Finally, the actual plot and substance of the book is much different than the first one, which is fine, we were warned about that, but I feel like it literally took away everything that was good about the first one and just left this mess here instead. I loved the polyamorous relationship in the first book, but this one took both of those love interests out almost completely. I expected Li Shimin to be absent because of the events at the end of the first book, but Yizhi was still around and I definitely expected to see more of him and Zetian together than what we got. Instead, Yizhi was strictly a background character and couldn't even hold Zetian's hand or hug her at any point in the book. He also did something absolutely heinous and I don't know if even I can forgive him for it let alone Zetian.
Instead we have a new guy, the long ago emperor Qin Zheng who is kind of morally grey and starts off by hating Zetian. Now these are usually my favorite types of love interests and I did enjoy their romance, but I still felt too distant from it. I never knew how the characters actually felt about each other and kept second guessing if they even liked each other or if it was just because they were basically forced together. I don't know if that was the point or not, we'll probably have to finish the series before we know that for sure, but it was just a little too distant for me to fully get into it.
Anyway, I was very much looking forward to this book after the first one and I'm sad that it let me down so much. I do think I'll try to read the next one though whenever that comes out.
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
I missed the interaction between Yizhi, Shimin and Zetian, which had real chemistry; Qin Zheng is just not as strong a character, he feels underdeveloped, and I didn't get a clear idea of his psychology. I really enjoyed the fleshing out of the world and its history and the way qi works - I would have liked more interaction with the hunduns, I thought that part near the beginning was particularly strong and engaging, but I suspect that's coming in the third novel, which I definitely will be reading.
Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, War
Minor: Medical content
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, War
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Violence, War
Moderate: Pregnancy
Minor: Child death, Sexual content, Torture
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, War
Moderate: Death, Medical content, Pregnancy, Colonisation
Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts
I really enjoyed watching Zheng's rule and how Zetian not only learned from it, but created her own group within it. Book 3 will likely still have some remnants of these factions and I'm curious to see how they're put to use.
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Classism
Minor: Sexual content
Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual violence
Minor: Miscarriage, Pregnancy
Lives up to the excellence of the book before.
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, War, Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Torture, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment
Graphic: Death, Blood, Medical content, War
Also, Taiping and Wan'er -I loved how their history was humorously revealed, and how their characters developed. More of them, please.
Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Violence, War
Minor: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail