Iron Widow

4.5/5. Ancient China and wuxia in a dystopia sci-fi Starship Troopers kind of universe. This is every bit as engaging as the premise promises to be and I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading it. I blazed through this one in record time and almost missed my train stop being so engrossed in it. It's been a while since a book has captured me this deeply.

This book is heavily influenced by Chinese mythology, literature, history, and culture, but it mixes this with a very 21st century view on things. I usually am not a fan when historical fiction comes with a protagonist who is very obviously a 21st century self-insert for the readers, but Iron Widow makes things work because it isn't historical fiction. In many aspects, it is a basically an AU, imagining what would happen if ancient China clashed with futuristic technology. We have foot binding existing at the same time as iPads, top knots and flowing sleeves with spaceships and aliens.

I was also a little worried that this book would take on a very ultra-feminist perspective on things, sort of “all women good, all men bad” which is a pitfall that I've seen so many books fall into. It does start off that way and goes on for a good part of the book as if it'd espouse that sort of black and white dichotomy but, without spoiling anything, I'm glad to say that things got a lot more complex than that by the end of the book and I appreciated it.

Wu Zetian is a pretty complicated character and I can't say that I like or dislike her entirely. She has a ton of conflicting ideologies but I suppose that's to be expected for an 18 year old teenager who has been thrust into big-scale situations. I'm also glad that she learns and while she doesn't end up like a completely different person by the end of the book, she begins questioning some of the fundamental beliefs that the book starts with.

The magic-tech system of the book is also pretty complicated and I wouldn't say I completely understood everything by the end of it, but enough to get the gist of the action.

This book also subverts all your usual YA tropes completely and thoroughly and I really appreciated that. I expected it to be certain ways going in and it completely went in another direction.

Some spoilery thoughts: This might be the first time I'm reading a polyamorous relationship and I'm actually really here for it. I loved the dynamic between the main three, and I loved their philosophy that three is more stable than two. I loved this little insight into this relationship, and was truly devastated when Shimin died - or did he? I did feel uncomfortable when they were driven to murder An Lushan and then subsequently the Black Tortoise couple and even Wu Zetian's family, even though they “had it coming”. I also laughed out loud at some parts referencing some cornerstones of Chinese history and culture, such as about Sun Wukong being a pilot going to retrieve some documents from the Western stronghold. Such a clever way of “retelling” Journey to the West.

The only reason why I'm not raving about this more is just because I'm writing this on a tired-feeling day. I'd strongly recommend this book to just about anyone, whether or not you're into sci-fi since that's what it's commonly categorised under. I'm very much intending to continue this series when the next instalment drops next year.