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A review by phazed09
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
adventurous
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This is a tough one to score. A semi-historical, gender-bent retelling of the foundation of the Ming Dynasty with some very light fantasy elements is a recipe for success, but for a variety of reasons, it ended up falling short for me.
The novel starts out incredibly strong, the first few chapters have a beautiful, dreamlike quality to them exploring our then unnamed protagonist navigating famine and war as a child. The setup of her taking on a destiny and name that isn't hers was fascinating, and Zhu was a compelling character from that point on. It's refreshing to see a character who's honest in being motivated purely by ambition. Throw in an equally compelling secondary protagonist in Ouyang who serves as a contrast to Zhu and what I felt was a strong conclusion, and it all adds up to a novel I should have loved.
So what went wrong? For me, the middle segment of the novel loses almost all the momentum of the first. The prose loses a lot of the ethereal beauty of the first part, and it just seems like there's a ton of slow paced political scheming with characters who aren't developed well enough to really feel compelling. The novel works at it's best when it turns it's focus inwards to the morality and ambitions of it's two leads, and when the perspective shifts to tertiary characters the momentum tends to grind to a halt. It becomes tiring to keep track of the schemes and power plays when you don't really care who ends up on top either way.
The last few chapters are great in leaving the two leads in positions to start up the sequel, and this probably bumped the score back up above a 3 for me simply by focussing on the two leads again and examining the consequences of unrelenting ambition.
Frankly, I think I would have loved this book if it was about 30% shorter. But as it stands, it was still enjoyable, and I'm cautiously optimistic about the upcoming sequel.
It's worth a read, just go in with tempered expectations.
The novel starts out incredibly strong, the first few chapters have a beautiful, dreamlike quality to them exploring our then unnamed protagonist navigating famine and war as a child. The setup of her taking on a destiny and name that isn't hers was fascinating, and Zhu was a compelling character from that point on. It's refreshing to see a character who's honest in being motivated purely by ambition. Throw in an equally compelling secondary protagonist in Ouyang who serves as a contrast to Zhu and what I felt was a strong conclusion, and it all adds up to a novel I should have loved.
So what went wrong? For me, the middle segment of the novel loses almost all the momentum of the first. The prose loses a lot of the ethereal beauty of the first part, and it just seems like there's a ton of slow paced political scheming with characters who aren't developed well enough to really feel compelling. The novel works at it's best when it turns it's focus inwards to the morality and ambitions of it's two leads, and when the perspective shifts to tertiary characters the momentum tends to grind to a halt. It becomes tiring to keep track of the schemes and power plays when you don't really care who ends up on top either way.
The last few chapters are great in leaving the two leads in positions to start up the sequel, and this probably bumped the score back up above a 3 for me simply by focussing on the two leads again and examining the consequences of unrelenting ambition.
Frankly, I think I would have loved this book if it was about 30% shorter. But as it stands, it was still enjoyable, and I'm cautiously optimistic about the upcoming sequel.
It's worth a read, just go in with tempered expectations.