Heavenly Tyrant

I loved the turn from the first book's themes of fighting for liberation against oppression, becoming an oppressive liberator yourself, juggling the truths you must hide to protect your power and the pace. Fighting the guilt of a knowingly committing genocide. Us an audience knowing what the gods truly are already. The deep dive into the realities of leftist revolution and how even that doesn't mean liberation from patriarchy and totalitarianism if not done by the people and for the people, but then also showing how volatile the masses can be. The refusal to tow the line and stop at just the immediate oppressor above you, but ALL of them, no matter the consequences. The realistic and unexpected fallacies from the characters. The phoenix revival, the space battle, the super cool space station that reminded me of Sea of Stars. There's so much to love here that puts this among my favorites. 6/5 read