He Who Drowned the World - Iridescent Reads for Aotearoa Bookwyrms

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published Aug. 22, 2023 by Tor Books.

ISBN:: 9781250621825

(1 review)

Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high on her recent victory that tore southern China from its Mongol rulers. Young, ambitious, and in possession of the Mandate of Heaven, Zhu believes utterly in her own capacity to do anything – endure anything – that will allow her to seize the imperial throne from the Mongols and crown herself Emperor.

But Zhu isn’t the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor, the former courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband – and her powerful kingdom has the strength and resources to wipe Zhu off the map. The only way for Zhu to defeat Madam Zhang is to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the beautiful, traitorous eunuch general Ouyang.

Nearly mad with the grief and guilt of having killed his beloved Prince of Henan, Ouyang is alive for only one reason: to enact revenge …

Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high on her recent victory that tore southern China from its Mongol rulers. Young, ambitious, and in possession of the Mandate of Heaven, Zhu believes utterly in her own capacity to do anything – endure anything – that will allow her to seize the imperial throne from the Mongols and crown herself Emperor.

But Zhu isn’t the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor, the former courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband – and her powerful kingdom has the strength and resources to wipe Zhu off the map. The only way for Zhu to defeat Madam Zhang is to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the beautiful, traitorous eunuch general Ouyang.

Nearly mad with the grief and guilt of having killed his beloved Prince of Henan, Ouyang is alive for only one reason: to enact revenge on his father’s killer, the Great Khan. His instability soon threatens his partnership with Zhu, who has never felt grief in her life. Zhu can’t even imagine what kind of sacrifice could ever cause her to feel it. But all desire costs, and while Zhu has already paid with her body – the true price of her ambition will break even her ruthless heart.

2 editions

Annie the Book reviewed He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

He Who Drowned the World, by Shelley Parker-Chan

4 stars

Shelley Parker-Chan concludes her fantastical account of the meteoric rise of Zhu Yuanzhang in He Who Drowned the World. (The first book of the duology is She Who Became the Sun.) In Parker-Chan’s version of events, Zhu is the unloved daughter of a poor farming family who “stole” her brother’s fate after the death of all her relatives. In disguise as a boy, Zhu badgered a monastery into feeding and teaching her until they were destroyed by agents of the Yuan Dynasty. That didn’t stop the driven Zhu: she manages to fight her way to the top of a rebel army. In this concluding volume, we see Zhu’s audacity in full force as she battles the Yuan Emperor and everyone else who claims to hold the Mandate of Heaven...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book …

Shelley Parker-Chan concludes her fantastical account of the meteoric rise of Zhu Yuanzhang in He Who Drowned the World. (The first book of the duology is She Who Became the Sun.) In Parker-Chan’s version of events, Zhu is the unloved daughter of a poor farming family who “stole” her brother’s fate after the death of all her relatives. In disguise as a boy, Zhu badgered a monastery into feeding and teaching her until they were destroyed by agents of the Yuan Dynasty. That didn’t stop the driven Zhu: she manages to fight her way to the top of a rebel army. In this concluding volume, we see Zhu’s audacity in full force as she battles the Yuan Emperor and everyone else who claims to hold the Mandate of Heaven...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.