December 2024 has been a bit of a study in class consciousness. Current events have caused people to question the roles of corporations in our lives, especially when it comes to things like health insurance and food production. What's fascinating, is by complete coincidence, Heavenly Tyrant was written to get people to ask these same questions. So instead of starting the conversation, as it was intended, it matched up perfectly with current events to ask people to dig deeper into this line of thinking.
Iron Widow was one of my top reads this year. I honestly felt like I had gotten on the hype train late, with how little I had heard about the book until it was recommended to me. So I was excited to see how Zetian's story was going to continue. I had some predictions, and to my surprise, every single one of them was wrong. It has been a long time since a story has surprised me on this many levels, and it was both refreshing and terrifying as I had no idea what was going to happen next. As a result, I don't want to dive too much into the plot in this review, because I feel like it's better for readers to be surprised than for me to accidentally spoil something through a premise.
Xiran Jay Zhao mentioned being worried about how people would react to this book because of how different it is from Iron Widow. And it's true, I would actually put them in completely different genres, which is not what people would expect from a book series. Where Iron Widow was a sci-fi/fantasy adventure, Heavenly Tyrant is much more of a political commentary kind of book. Its focus on how to rebuild after breaking apart a failing old system is one you don't see often in fiction. For example, The Hunger Games trilogy, which I absolutely adore, spends three books overcoming the government only for the rebuilding process to be swept away in the epilogue. So it's nice to be able to see an author expand on how just because you can overthrow the government, doesn't make establishing a new and fairer one an easy practice.
In addition, where Iron Widow was a study in creating a healthy relationship, Heavenly Tyrant was a study in toxic ones. Qin Zhang and Zetian are truly terrible for each other. He woke up from an over two-hundred-year coma, with good ideas about how to change culture and terrible ideas about women. Meanwhile, she agrees to marry him, to get information out of him to train her to be a better pilot and to be able to raise followers for herself to eventually overthrow him. The two of them are trapped in a toxic dance throughout the book, where there are times you are rooting for them to kill each other, while other times you wonder if they're going to end up kissing instead. The push and pull of their relationship drives the book, as they each need each other to achieve their goals.
As usual, Xiran Jay Zhao also touches on a lot of the issues women are dealing with. Not only does it show how equality and equity are two different things when it comes to women's rights, it also touches on how women are so frequently forced to be mothers. Zetian is not made to be a mom, and she knows this and accepts this about herself. Kids are not on the agenda, but so many people have decided for her she will be a mother now that she is the Empress of Huaxia, whether she wants it or not. It's a fight for the right to make decisions about her body, echoing a lot of the struggles women have today - and the results of this struggle actually made my jaw drop.
Overall, I loved this book, but it was definitely designed to make you think. It's to the book's benefit. And to be honest, I think I loved it more than Iron Widow. Where the smashing female rage of the first book was an amazing introduction to the world, I found myself much more attached to the plot of this one. The organizations and the way Zetian learned how to put things together. The talks between characters about what would make the world more fair. I think this book is a great way to start having these discussions with others, and can then help make the world a better place for everyone.