I am… having complicated feelings about this book.

I absolutely loved Iron Widow, and I think following a book like that with a second book for a trilogy is going to be a tall order no matter what. I will admit that I didn’t do a reread of IW before starting Heavenly Tyrant and probably did myself a disservice, since I spent a lot of time near the beginning being very confused about what was going on, and trying to figure out who everyone was.

Overarching thematic spoilers ahead.

I loved being back in the world of Huaxia, and getting back in Zetian’s head was as exciting as I could have expected. I was also surprised by how much growth she exhibited throughout the novel; IW is very much an “I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs” vibe, but HT showed Zetian developing not only as a person but also as a leader. I really loved watching her figure out what having a legacy meant to her, and wrestling with those complicated ethics that come along with violence, revolution, class warfare, and women’s equality. 

I would say one of my favourite elements of this book was Zetian’s arc in realizing how small her vision was in terms of women piloting chrysalises; in actuality, the majority of women and girls in Huaxia would not benefit materially from these changes in military policy. Her recognizing that she needed to make moves to improve conditions for all women, even those who would make different choices from her, felt so rewarding and well-earned, especially through watching her struggle through her lessons with Wan’er and learn so much about history and politics. 

I also loved Xiran Jay Zhao’s absolutely scathing take on the Enlightened Leftist Man. Qin Zheng was a total treat of a character;  impeccably written and a fascinatingly sympathetic monster. There were moments where you feel yourself rooting for him— he’s a revolutionary! He’s a hero! He’s got great ideas about economics and social programs! He wants equality for women! He is allegedly very attractive! And yet… despite all of that, he is still a horrible fucking human. 

I could see so many parallels between him and soooo many “radical” “activist” “feminist” men in our modern day that it was truly chilling at times. Because then when you look at him past the policies, past the power and the skills and bravado, he is literally just Some Guy who is actually a giant hypocrite. He thinks he’s a good person because he ~respects women~ and wouldn’t ever take advantage of Zetian or force himself on her sexually.

And yet he is totally okay with violating her bodily autonomy in about 50 other ways!

I could talk about Qin Zheng for days and I will always respect the fuck out of XJZ for pulling off this character in such a nuanced way. 

On the other hand… there was a lot of this book that I didn’t particularly enjoy or understand where it was taking us. The last 10-15% of the novel had me going ummm… how are we going to come back from this??? It felt like the scope of the story got way out of hand and I’m honestly perplexed at how things could possibly be wrapped up in only one more book! These stakes are absurd! 

There were some good twists and there were a few moments where I actually gasped out loud, but other elements felt quite obvious (like, I saw this coming since the last book obvious), so those reveals felt like they took way too long. In general, the pacing of the story felt a bit off and so it felt both way too long but also left me wanting more at the end. 

All in all, definitely worth reading if you liked Iron Widow, because it’s a wild ride and packs in excellent character work alongside political commentary (perhaps a little too on the nose for our current state of affairs😅), cool action scenes, and a whole lot of double (and triple??) crossing. I’m still very much looking forward to the next book despite having some issues with this one!