Ratings151
Average rating3.8
Lambda Literary Award Finalist! Two-time Hugo Award Finalist! Locus Award Finalist! "Magnificent in every way."—Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree "A dazzling new world of fate, war, love and betrayal."—Zen Cho, author of Black Water Sister She Who Became the Sun reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor. To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything “I refuse to be nothing...” In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness... In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected. When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate. After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Featured Series
2 primary booksThe Radiant Emperor is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2021 with contributions by Shelley Parker-Chan.
Reviews with the most likes.
The Mongolians are written in this book in a way that feels like it's consistent with the Wuxia novels that inspired the author, but also in ways that feels like they are ignoring internalized prejudices from those novels - the writers of those works had their own biases, possibly unexamined, about Mongolians as a people, or at least the history of those people, that put them into some of the same archetypes that white fantasy and science fiction writers are (justifiably) criticized for using when writing “Proud Warrior Race” characters and cultures.
It feels like the the author is reproducing those stereotypes from those works uncritically.
Part 1 in the monastery was amazing and interesting and easy to follow. Slowly, I lost count of the characters and got them all mixed up. Ahhh the perks of an audiobook. It got pretty boring in between and I completely zoned out. Then we were at the ending all of a sudden?
Very impressive! This reads at times like some of the historical TV soaps from China - somewhat silly and overly dramatic but at the same time a huge amount of fun, poignant and playing out across one of the key periods of turmoil in Chinese history. The search for identity and destiny are the key plot drivers. The genderqueer protagonists give one element of that - they are searching to find themselves. The whole thing is played across a civil war - essentially the whole country trying to find its identity too.
This is historical fantasy at its best, taking real events and subtly twisting them with a fantastical element. The fantasy is subtle, the stakes are real and the drama is on point. I can see where the comparisons are to the Poppy War - this book does not back away from the brutality inherent in war and it is a historical fantasy set in China, but for me that is where the comparisons end - it is a very different period being dealt with, the fantasy is not as in your face and the writing styles are quite different. There is more wit to Shelley's writing - a nod perhaps to the aforementioned Chinese TV shows - and the themes are more subtly portrayed. I do love them both but they are very different beasts.
Easily one of the best historical fantasy novels I have read, from any setting. So far my top read of the year.
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