He Who Drowned the World: the epic sequel to the Sunday Times bestselling historical fantasy She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, 2)

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I think the author effectively showed how self-loathing and bigotry can destroy not just the individual, but society as a whole. Mostly, the POV characters are a mess, with perhaps Zhu the only one who you might say has her shit together, and this is probably what makes them so fascinating to read about.

The other, General Zhang, of lesser height and build, but carrying himself with the reserved confidence of a man with the life experience of Zhu and her general put together.I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to really immerse myself into this because it had been a while since I’d read SWBTS. and the fantasy elements set in a intriguing place and period of time are a real high point of the story. I would recommend this duology to someone who is used to Western fantasy and wants to change scenery, likes when books start very slow-paced and character-driven and get more and more complex the more you read and appreciates having some very dramatic scenes. I think she is one of the worst planner ever, but got lucky due to circumstances and support system. The trigger warnings are plenty-you can check them out on the author’s review-but I missed the commentary, the lesson behind all the traumatic scenes we went through.

These novels beautifully capture the feedback loop wherein queer-coded characters are reviled, which drives them to unbearable viciousness, which in turn fills them with self-loathing. maybe its because this installment focuses more on the war of wits and mental fortitude rather than the war of strength and strategy that was present in the first book? He wants to achieve this vengeance and have it be done, he wants this gaping wound inside of him to stop flowing out blood, he wants to reach the end before his pain bleeds him dry. I didn’t love it quite to the extent that I did the first book, for reasons which I might briefly theorise on, but I still enjoyed reading it.

Her father, who had betrayed the Yuan and joined the Red Turban rebellion in Anfeng, only to be betrayed in turn by his rebel compatriots and left to die on General Ouyang’s sword. Baoxiang is only one part of a very detailed and nuanced discussion of gender and queerness throughout these books, but a new layer that I thought was added in this story was the layer of perception. In terms of violence, I think of both She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World as roughly equivalent to the Asian historical dramas on Netflix: you'll see some splatter during fight scenes, but rarely full-on gore.