She Who Became the Sun

Not a bad book, just not my cup of tea. It was more alt-historical fiction than I realized going in, and had very little fantasy. Somewhat boring in the middle.

A disappointing 3, but maybe with the hope that it actually a 4 since I suspect this is actually much better than my perception. The audiobook format simply did not work for someone (i.e. me) who is unfamiliar with the pronunciation of Chinese names/words. Maybe if I had read this rather than listened I would not have been so confused about who was who and where was where. As it was, I never really managed to care about any of the characters, since I spent half the time trying to work out who everyone was, and indeed they all eventually seemed pretty unlikeable by the end.

By far the best portion of the book were the first monastery-set scenes, where the focus was on a single person in a single location and the motivations of everyone were clear. In fact, this almost felt like a standalone short story, onto which had then been tacked a much more tortuous tale.

So, in conclusion, read this book, don't listen to it (unless your grasp of Chinese nomenclature is much better than mine).

I wish it had a bit more world-building because I don't think most western people, including myself, have a very vivid knowledge of what 1300s China looked like. This also ties into Zhu's character. The whole philosophy of having one set faith isn't very familiar to me, so I wish it was explored from more angles.

I guess Asian readers have these same complaints when reading western books. But since this was written and published in the USA, I think improving these would have helped with clarity and immersion for the book's main audience.

I did like the characters and the slightly fanfiction-y tension between them. Also, the way men often put down women and their worth, in the passing, while talking about unrelated topics, was great.

Loved the character development and the world building of this book. I'm glad I read this at all even though it was more than a month late for a book club for queer Asian women.

So I guess there's a sequel planned and I am so down for that.

Reread before starting the sequel: still a damn good read but I'm bothered by a bunch of little things, like how there's too many secondary characters to keep track of.

3.5 Stars

Zhu POV chapters were a ton of fun to read but Ouyang POV chapters felt like a chore. Also the whole desire + suffering bit felt repeated to no end. Overall enjoyable read and I think that the journey was well worth it. Just wish there was a bit more depth to the themes and a more compelling second perspective.

Started it and stopped at 10%. Maybe I'll pick it up again in the future, who knows? I just realized that I'm not in the mood for deceit (righteous or not) and its attendant stress.

Also while the hunger in the first few chapters are incredibly vivid it's really hard to get into when at the same time my mother in law was visiting and just could not stop cooking copious amount of food that I have no choice but to gorge on.

The story wasn't bad, but the writing was so repetitive.

Excellent.

I don't even know where to begin

I could talk about its effective exploration of gender roles, I could talk about how much I loved the characters, I could talk about how the lightness of the romance only made the darkness that shadowed the book seem even darker. I could even compare it to The Poppy War trilogy though that would be a disservice to both books/series as they are strong separate pieces of work.

The weaponisation of empathy, how understanding other people so deeply can be used as a means to an end, stuck out to me. As well as the idea that ambitions of power will always be incompatible with kindness and will always corrupt. “Like knows like,” as they say.

It was as excellent as it was devastating.

I don't know if I have the strength in me to read the rest of this series but it's not because this book wasn't good. Almost the opposite, it was too good. Everything I wanted to happen has happened and now I'm too scared to see what comes next. It's the feeling of reaching the peak of a rollercoaster and knowing that what comes next can only be the descent. Some people enjoy that but there's a reason I don't get on rollercoasters.

Basically the premise is, “imagine that the first Emperor of the Ming dynasty was actually a woman” and go from there. In saying that it skips over a lot of the possible issues that come with a woman pretending to be a man and more focuses on the “attempting to become Emperor” bit.

I really enjoyed how the main character, Zhu, wasn't shy or quiet like someone you would expect to be who is hiding their gender to be. They're talkative, witty, and willing to do whatever it takes to get to the top. This lack of a moral compass towards the end kind of sucks, but I guess that's what it takes to become Emperor.

Zhu Chongba is destined for greatness with deeds that will bring a hundred generations of pride to the family name as foreseen by the local fortune teller. But when he dies his sister takes his name, determined to capture his fated greatness while escaping Heaven's notice. This Zhu Chongba soon finds herself at Wuhuang Monastery.

Zhu will stop at nothing to realize the greatness she is determined to steal for herself. She's no Mulan. Zhu is equal parts ingenious, ruthless, lucky, and entirely single-minded in her pursuit.

Her story shadows Ouyang, the castrated general serving the son of the man responsible for the death of his family and his own mutilated body. (It's a lot) The son, Lord Esen-Temur, is the leader of the Great Yuan's armies, a bit of a privlieged himbo, and completely devoted to Ouyang who is no less committed to his particular path.

Zhu and Ouyang will find themselves face to face time and time again, each pursuing their own private goals. I was just ready for some bloody 14th century political scheming, backstabbing and unbridled ambition in the waning years of the Yuan dynasty. Worthy of the hype it's getting here in Canada from our largest book retailer.

First of all, I would barely classify this as fantasy (yes, there is some paranormal stuff but it was barely there). Anyhoo, someone I follow on GR wrote “there's no way I read the same book as everyone else,” and that's how I feel. This was just okay for me. There is some depth in the character work and I do respect the intricacies of the plot, but in the end my socks were not blown off. For folks who like historical fiction or military fiction, this is a must read.

veronica if ur seeing this look away

Absolutely stunning, especially for a first novel. The scope with which Parker-Chan writes is phenomenal, yet the subtle and quiet moments are real and true as well. The book balances the colossal subjects it covers, sweeping death and battlefields on fire, with intimate moments between lovers, broken promises between friends.

If you're a fan of big action, big feelings, or historical dramas, you need to read this immediately.

Looking forward to the next one!

You may want to take this with a grain—or handful—of salt...but this was one of the most drawn out, and boring, novels I have ever experienced I think. This made me read so much slower than my usual pace and very nearly put me into a reading slump, which I next-to-never experience. I was actually real real close to a DNF, which if you know anything about me by now, it's probably that I never stop while reading a book, but wow I found this one tough. The worst part is that I'm not even sure what exactly I didn't enjoy. 

Although most sexual scenes were glazed over, there is a VERY in depth fisting scene, as I'm sure you've read about by now, so be sure to be on the lookout for that. I thought the characters were enjoyable with the exception of Zhu talking about her stolen identity and fate which happened damn near 900 times too many. Personally a 2.5/5* for me. Below are two favorite quotes from this book that are just so ridiculous as to be perfect. 

“That motherfucker. Fuck eighteen generations of his ancestors!”

“I opened those gates myself, and I left that betraying piece of dog shit to his fate. May those Hu bastards kill him painfully so he can eat bitterness in hell and all his future lives!”

(4.5, rounded down)
the only reason it gets a 4.5 is because for 20% of the book i was so confused what was happening

3.5

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.

To say that this was one of my most anticipated books of this year is an understatement. Since an year ago when I first got to know about and added it to my TBR, this book comped as Mulan meets The Song of Achilles has been making me excited, which only increased as my fascination with Chinese costume dramas grew during the pandemic. So, when it was ultimately time for me to start reading (or listening in this case), I had such high expectations that it took even me by surprise, but I was also confident that it would live up to everything. And wow how it did.

I have no words to describe how I feel after finishing this book. The author's prose is exquisite and lyrical and how they managed to tell such a ruthless and expansive story in such a poetic manner will always keep me wondering. The pace is also relentless, not just because we are covering more than a decade's worth of story, but also because the circumstances are always dangerous and every chapter feels like the characters are on a precipice and any decision they make will alter their path in significant ways. The audiobook by Natalie Naudus is also perfectly narrated, evoking the right feelings in me at the apt moments.

The major strength of this book though, comes from the characters. Zhu Chongba starts off as a starving peasant who loses her family to bandits and famine, but if there's one thing she isn't lacking, it's the will to survive and defy the fate that's written for her. Her determination to want and desire and then act to get what she wants, unfolds beautifully across these pages, but at no point does this tale of ambition and power put us off from rooting for her success.

Ouyang on the other hand is the eunuch general for the empire which decimated his entire family and mutilated his body, and his conflict between wanting to get revenge for his ancestors while trying to stay loyal to the man who has been his master and best friend and commander is utterly heartbreaking. He is no less ruthless in achieving his goals but the yearning and angst the author infuses in his internal monologues makes him someone we feel very sympathetic towards.

There are also a whole host of side characters, some whose POVs we do get to read, and we see how the powerplays of Zhu and Ouyang are affecting the lives of the ones closest to them. Xu Da starts off as an irreverent playboy monk but his undying loyalty to Zhu is endearing, while at the same time, seeing the empathetic and compassionate Ma Xiuying navigate the grief of losing one person after another whom she cares about to the incessant betrayals of her own people, makes us want to cry alongwith her and give her a hug. There are many others who leave an indelible impression on us while reading but getting attached to anyone is such a scary prospect because we never know who will die at the sword point of whose schemes.

While the characters are the flesh and blood of this book, it's the themes the author explores that form it's backbone. As this is a reimagining of the founding of the Ming dynasty, it is interesting to retell this story from the perspective of a character who is not born a man and eschews any female characteristics in her lived experience, deciding to topple the very patriarchal empire of her time. I loved how the author shows us Zhu's relationship with her gender - she takes up the life and fate of her brother but slowly comes to realize that she can't be him completely but nor can she ever be a woman. The fear that she feels about the exposure of her truth felt so real that I was petrified during some of the scenes, and I can only wait with bated breath to see how any revelations will affect her plans in the future books.

Ouyang on the other hand is full of self hatred because while born a man, he is treated as less than because of what was done to his body, and he hates himself for having made that impossible choice. He also hates women with a passion because he is frequently treated like them. This contempt that he feels for his body as well as those men who he considers whole, while also envying them for their ability to have desires and families, is a duality that the author perfectly captures. And it's the idea of these characters who are outside of the gender binary existing and fighting and winning in a sexist patriarchal empire is what makes this book special.

I also loved how the author depicts ambition in the story. When characters become hungry for power and grow ruthless in their ambitions, it's easy to hate them but I admire how the author deftly navigated these themes without ever making us feel like the characters were wholly wrong in their choices. Yes, they are ambitious and they are relentless and heartless in the pursuit of their goals, but they are also doing it for honor and family and survival, and how can we judge that. And the whole idea of a person's fate being defined and the possibility of humans either defying their fate or succumbing to it forms the core of this story and I can only wait and see what fate awaits these characters.

In conclusion, this book was everything that I thought it would be and more. An unrelenting tale of survival and aspiration of characters who otherwise would have no power in this world, this book is evocative and bold and ambitious and will leave you breathless with anticipation at the end of most chapters, and especially towards the end. It's also beautifully Asian and queer and if you enjoy genderbent and queer retellings of historical events, you cannot miss this book. It is totally shooting towards the top of my favorite books of 2021 list and joining the other two of the sapphic trifecta. While everything is going horribly in the real world, I feel I've gotten to read some of the best books ever this year and I'm glad for authors like Shelley who are keeping me and many readers like me sane during bad times. All I can do now is wait for the next book in The Radiant Emperor series and maybe listen to the spectacular audiobook again and again in the meantime.

She Who Became the Sun has garnered a lot of attention as one of fantasy???s summer must reads. To say there has been a lot of attention is a little bit of an understatement. Along with The Jasmine Throne, it has had praise heaped upon it from many notables of fantasy fiction, and there has been a bit of a superstar hype around the book. Obviously, opinion can go either way, as one of the problems with books that have this kind of hype attached to them, they can disappoint as expectations can be quite high.

She Who Became The Sun is the first in The Radiant Emperor duology and revolves around both a reimagining of the story of the rise of the Ming Emperor in middle ages China.

I have to say that the book starts off pretty bleak in all honesty. There is not a shred of pomposity about the main characters or the epicness of the story. It starts with famine and death. We are initially introduced to the girl, who is a resourceful little creature, but is considered worthless by her family. Her father is a harsh, contemptible thing who, after taking the son to a fortune teller, believes that he is destined for greatness. However, things do not go as planned (do they ever!) and fate decides that it is going to have a starring role and when some bandits attack the girl???s family home, killing their father, who happens to be a shining beacon of fatherhood, and offers his daughter to the bandits in the hope that they will take her and leave the hope of their life alive.

Following the death of their father, they are subsequently orphans. Zhu Chongba is totally hapless and has to have the girl looking after him, but he subsequently gives up on life and dies.

With a burning desire to survive, the girl throws on the mantle of her brothers identity and seizes the fate that was promised to her brother and becomes Zhu Chongba.

With her new determination to grasp whatever fate has set down for her brother, Zhu Chongba takes his place at the local monastery, and after four days of stubbornly refusing to remove herself from the front steps of the monastery, she is allowed admittance, and thus begins the story of Zhu Chongba

Now I have to say that I was perplexed with this novel initially. So much so that I was teetering on the brink of throwing in the towel and putting it on the DNF shelf. There were loads of things that weren???t clicking for me. I am not saying at all that there is a fault with the book, but I just wasn???t getting it?????? at all!


Yes, the writing is excellent. The character of Zhu Chongba is good, and she has a case of astounding resilience going on there, but I was not getting the fantasy element or what it was about. At times, I was totally lost as to what the heck was going on and who these people are. I found the sheer volume of people in this book just totally blew my mind and I could not keep up. Another thing was that I was not getting the fantasy element. This seemed to be a historical novel, with supernatural elements, but I wasn't getting any fantasy from it, that ???s for sure.

However, I did decide to stick with it, got past my reservations that I had with it and ended up enjoying it.

Obviously, there has been a lot made of the main character???s identity in relation to their gender fluidity, but for me I felt that there was a wider discussion happening in the book about the acceptance of role. Whether that is in relation to gender, sex, duty, expectation, marriage, the role that fate decrees etc. Throughout the book, Zhu is constantly questioning if these roles should be accepted and to strive to be more than a role assigned to you. And you can see it highlighted in this quote from the book

???Learn to want something for yourself, Ma Xiuying. Not what someone says you should want. Not what you think you should want. Don???t go through life thinking only of duty. When all we have are these brief spans between our non-existences, why not make the most of the life you???re living now? The price is worth it.???

In addition to this, I found that there was an extremely positive feminist vibrancy to the book. Again, whilst Zhu is constantly questioning roles she is also empowering women to move beyond the constraints of the male dominated society and to take power for themselves, and there is a really excellent scene in the book where instead of using force and epic battles to get what she wants, Zhu uses alternative methods and empowers a woman to take power in a quiet revolution kind of way.

As you can see, I ended up having a little epiphany about the book and liked it more than I first thought I was going to.

We have to mention other characters for whilst Zhu is the star of the show, there is a full cast of characters in the book. And we need to mention Ouyong and Esen. Ouyong is a eunuch in Esen???s army. He was initially a slave, whose father was some kind of traitor to the Mongol Khan and Esen???s father was tasked with deposing of the traitorous family to the ninth degree, and subsequently having Ouyong castrated so that the family line could not go on and also leaving Ouyong to live in shame. Ouyong is in some ways the opposite of Zhu. However, not only is he an angtagonist in some ways, he enables Zhu to fulfil her role and become what she thinks she should be.

You are never sure about who the antagonist in the story actually is, in all honesty, because every character (inc Zhu) is neither good nor bad. And for me, it again plays with that idea of role, and does the antagonist of the story need to fit into the archetypal role of the villain, and similarly with the protagonist. Again, they shift, and you are as equally fluid in your sympathies to each character.

In the end, after I had got over my difficulties with the book, I ended up enjoying this one.

Review to come after I can string some thoughts together, but this is PHENOMENAL. It's devastating in the very best of ways, and it's one of two 2021 releases I absolutely LOVED (along with The Jasmine Throne).

A historical and military fantasy telling an alternative tale of the first emperor of the Ming dynasty. Part One is very much a coming-of-age tale compressed into the first section of this book, where Zhu successfully joins a monastery as her only means of survival and grows up there until she is ordained as a monk. Parts Two & Three are much more military fantasy focussed with new POVs being added into the mix. There's a lot of army moving, taking and losing of cities and power-plays in these parts.

The ‘fantasy' elements are quite limited altogether however, there's only a couple of aspects one could view as fantastical, most of the book is simply an alt-history story. Personally, I would've liked more fantasy and less military movements but nevertheless I can see the value in the text as is. There are some interesting questions of sex and gender that aren't too deeply probed and are not a main feature of the storyline.

Overall, it is well written and engaging. Excellent as a character focussed story as we see how Zhu changes over time.