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lores's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I think this was a fitting end to the duology if you can make it to the last pages. I continue to love what Parker-Chan does with gender and power although I think the women do get absolutely pushed to the sidelines here. Unfortunately I found the mid-section to be a bit of a slog of violence and misery. It’s inevitable when you have almost an entire cast of realistically self-hating characters but I still found it really hard to read at times and some of it grew a little repetitive. Zhu, Ma and Xu Da were the lights in the first book and while I found the other characters fascinating; I also think they were drowning too much for me to enjoy following them instead.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Murder, and War
rarity's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Self harm, Sexual content, and War
softanimal's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
sad
tense
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Deadnaming, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, War, and Injury/Injury detail
girljames's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Self harm, Violence, and War
heather_harrison's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book is the sequel to the novel “She Who Became the Sun” and rounds out the Radiant Emperor Duology.
The book picks up shortly after the end of the previous one. The land is ruled by the Mongol The Great Kahn. It very helpfully begins with a synopsis of the standing of armies and alliances in their search for power;
1. Zhu Chongba, (who took her brothers identity after he died and became a monk)
2. General Ouyang, unic and former slave.
3. Lady Zhang is a second group.
4. Lord Wang Baoxiang, the prince of Henan and brother of Esen.
I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Ouyang and Zhu - and the exploration of gender and identity attached to it. They are so different and yet have so many tangents. With the absence of Esen it did really highlight I only appreciated Ouyang as a foil to others characters, and not on his own merits.
On the flip side, the relationship between Ma and Wang Baoxiang practically gave me an emotional breakdown and I still don't know how I feel about it. Wang Baoxiang was a train wreck - in that it is catastrophic and yet I cannot look away.
The ending gave me goosebumps and I know I'll need to organise a re-read once I've emotionally processed just *everything*
The book picks up shortly after the end of the previous one. The land is ruled by the Mongol The Great Kahn. It very helpfully begins with a synopsis of the standing of armies and alliances in their search for power;
1. Zhu Chongba, (who took her brothers identity after he died and became a monk)
2. General Ouyang, unic and former slave.
3. Lady Zhang is a second group.
4. Lord Wang Baoxiang, the prince of Henan and brother of Esen.
I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Ouyang and Zhu - and the exploration of gender and identity attached to it. They are so different and yet have so many tangents. With the absence of Esen it did really highlight I only appreciated Ouyang as a foil to others characters, and not on his own merits.
On the flip side, the relationship between Ma and Wang Baoxiang practically gave me an emotional breakdown and I still don't know how I feel about it. Wang Baoxiang was a train wreck - in that it is catastrophic and yet I cannot look away.
The ending gave me goosebumps and I know I'll need to organise a re-read once I've emotionally processed just *everything*
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and War
artemisg's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
While this was a genuinely really great sequel, this book was a bit too brutal for my taste.
In this book, we follow Zhu on her journey to become the emperor. She hatches some insane plans and joins in a tentative alliance with Ouyang, the eunuch general. I genuinely really liked most of their dynamic, both being outsiders in their society and outsiders to themselves. In addition to Zhu and Ouyang, we see many more surprising alliances and follow more ruthless players in their quests for power. While I appreciated the attempts at complexity within the characters, there were slightly too many people being genuinely evil for my tastes and too much torture and abuse. Some of the torture has its place (the examinations of grief and pain were somewhat interesting), but most of it was gratuitous, and the point of the brutality of Mongol-occupied China would have come across without it.
Like the first book, I enjoyed the discussion of gender, power, and identity. It was interesting to see powerful women (who were still powerless in many ways). I didn’t like the absolute refusal to acknowledge any forms of emotional attachment, and I hated Baoxiang. Also, like the violence, there were a few too many violent sex scenes. It got to a point of gratuity, and while the relationships were complex and interesting, the sex was not. I did like how Parker-Chan weaved the different parties together into a coherent overall scheme, and it felt realistic that things happened that the characters weren’t aware of. Finally, Ma didn’t get enough screen time.
In this book, we follow Zhu on her journey to become the emperor. She hatches some insane plans and joins in a tentative alliance with Ouyang, the eunuch general. I genuinely really liked most of their dynamic, both being outsiders in their society and outsiders to themselves. In addition to Zhu and Ouyang, we see many more surprising alliances and follow more ruthless players in their quests for power. While I appreciated the attempts at complexity within the characters, there were slightly too many people being genuinely evil for my tastes and too much torture and abuse. Some of the torture has its place (the examinations of grief and pain were somewhat interesting), but most of it was gratuitous, and the point of the brutality of Mongol-occupied China would have come across without it.
Like the first book, I enjoyed the discussion of gender, power, and identity. It was interesting to see powerful women (who were still powerless in many ways). I didn’t like the absolute refusal to acknowledge any forms of emotional attachment, and I hated Baoxiang. Also, like the violence, there were a few too many violent sex scenes. It got to a point of gratuity, and while the relationships were complex and interesting, the sex was not. I did like how Parker-Chan weaved the different parties together into a coherent overall scheme, and it felt realistic that things happened that the characters weren’t aware of. Finally, Ma didn’t get enough screen time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and War
Moderate: Sexual violence
displacedcactus's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Given the high rating this book has here on SG (4.49 at the time I'm writing this) it has clearly found its audience. That audience does not, unfortunately, include me.
I'll admit that of the Sapphic Saffron Trifecta, I found She Who Became the Sun to be my least favorite. As such, I was really on the fence as to whether to read this one, but I figured hey, it's a duology, I might as well see things through to the end!
This started out as kind of a mid read for me, but I felt like it could get better. The thing is, I do like Zhu as a character. Yes, she does terrible things. But I found her drive and her absolute joy and confidence in her drive to be refreshing. Too often, we have characters who have to be forced to take action, who constantly whine and complain about it...
Like every single other character in this book. Ok, I exaggerate, but I got tired of the constant moping of Ouyang and Wang. Oh, woe is me, life is pain and darkness, I will make the world hate me as much as I hate it, etc etc etc. On and on and on. There were far too few Zhu chapters to make up for it.
At its heart, this is a story about how messed up toxic masculinity is and how people who fail to live up to a culture's idea of manly virtue can be used, abused, despised, and pigeon-holed.
At its heart it's also a book that is just absolutely chock-full of degrading sex, sado-masochism, torturous death, and long internal monologues about anger and self-hatred.
If you like to watch characters suffer, you will enjoy the heck out of this book. The pages are absolutely soaked with suffering. Personally, I just found it exhausting.
I'll admit that of the Sapphic Saffron Trifecta, I found She Who Became the Sun to be my least favorite. As such, I was really on the fence as to whether to read this one, but I figured hey, it's a duology, I might as well see things through to the end!
This started out as kind of a mid read for me, but I felt like it could get better. The thing is, I do like Zhu as a character. Yes, she does terrible things. But I found her drive and her absolute joy and confidence in her drive to be refreshing. Too often, we have characters who have to be forced to take action, who constantly whine and complain about it...
Like every single other character in this book. Ok, I exaggerate, but I got tired of the constant moping of Ouyang and Wang. Oh, woe is me, life is pain and darkness, I will make the world hate me as much as I hate it, etc etc etc. On and on and on. There were far too few Zhu chapters to make up for it.
At its heart, this is a story about how messed up toxic masculinity is and how people who fail to live up to a culture's idea of manly virtue can be used, abused, despised, and pigeon-holed.
At its heart it's also a book that is just absolutely chock-full of degrading sex, sado-masochism, torturous death, and long internal monologues about anger and self-hatred.
If you like to watch characters suffer, you will enjoy the heck out of this book. The pages are absolutely soaked with suffering. Personally, I just found it exhausting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Miscarriage and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal death
minniestronni's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Sexual harassment, and War
leweylibrary's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
The deduction is for the slowness which did drag on a little bit in spots, not as much as the first one, but honestly I liked this one so much more than the first one! It's such a good compliment to the first one, it really rounds out a lot of stuff that's set in motion in the first one in such a great way.
I love seeing how the characters have developed and continue to develop, especially Zhu and Ouyung. I love the symbolism with the Mandate of Heaven and it's light and the drowning, and I love how the book approaches and discusses gender identity and expression throughout.
This one was also definitely much more exciting with the big battles and crazy scenes (I'm NEVER going to forgot those pickled hands or Zhu convincing her army to drown itself and be resurrected to get through the ghosts to Chu's army . They really helped keep up the pace of the book overall. Also Ouyung's ending is so freaking shocking and sad, holy f. He didn't deserve that. But I think it makes sense for the story, like it does really shake Zhu to hear about it and to realize that she could meet a similar fate in not making her own fate come to fruition. </Spoiler>
I love seeing how the characters have developed and continue to develop, especially Zhu and Ouyung. I love the symbolism with the Mandate of Heaven and it's light and the drowning, and I love how the book approaches and discusses gender identity and expression throughout.
This one was also definitely much more exciting with the big battles and crazy scenes (I'm NEVER going to forgot
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Outing, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail
beandream's review against another edition
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, and War
Minor: Body shaming, Death, Miscarriage, Abortion, and Dysphoria