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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Zhu reckons with the themes of desire and suffering the most throughout the duology as this is, after all, her story. I would rather be received face-to-face by my equal than by his honorable wife speaking from behind a curtain of propriety. Who else understood what it was to feel something of this magnitude; to want something with the entirety of their self, as she did? 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. I suppose that's the nice thing about a duology: you can cut the fat on the middle book of a trilogy.

Whether it's from one battle to the next, the conquering of a territory, or the heart-wrenching betrayal, Parker-Chan never lets up on the throttle. Zhu’s arc I found a little boring, to be frank, and mostly it seemed aimed at keeping her away from the capital before the rest of the plot had been laid out (this could be cynical of me, I know). Witnessing ripples of one character’s actions brush against the POVs of other characters created the perfect amount of tension and suspense.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. Despite knowing from the beginning how the series would end—this is, after all, a retelling of the first Ming emperor’s ascent to power—I could never predict what was going to happen next; in fact, I realized at one point that I had fifteen pages left in my e-book and the story hadn’t wrapped up at all. On the other hand, Baoxiang bottled up his anguish by feeding into the delusion that he was seeking revenge on [redacted]’s ghost. I didn’t do a reread of SWBTS before this came out, so I was fully relying on my memory to help me remember important events and such.

Madam Zhang is so disconnected from the pain of her body that she becomes unfeeling, she controls her body as you would a clockwork toy and winds herself up again for her next performance. This sequel still focuses on familiar characters while expanding its reach throughout the empire on a larger scale. I cried, I laughed, I wanted these characters to pay for all the awful things they’d done, I desperately yearned for them all to have happily ever afters, and I was always always so impressed and touched by the themes of self-acceptance and fate and how they were woven into the story.I loved how complex this work was and appreciate how well the author combined so many elements and moving parts to create a compelling conclusion that didn’t feel forced.