She Who Became The Sun, by Shelley Parker-Chan

[sophia_sol]

Holy shit this book y'all.

Okay so the first thing I noticed about it is that the prose is actually like, quality. Plenty of books have serviceable prose, or invisible prose, or prose that's kinda bad but I'm willing to put up with it for the sake of the other things the book is doing, or prose that makes me mad but is to the tastes of other people (cough catherynne valente cough). This prose just feels (to me, I suppose!) like it's GOOD. It's written by someone who really knows how to put words together in an effective fashion.

But then everything else about this book is ALSO good!! Holy shit! I just want to shove awards at this book. NEXT YEAR AT THE HUGOS.

Anyway it's a book about people who are so inescapably the people they are that you can watch them make bad decisions from a mile off and know they're going to make them, and know they're going to feel they made the right decision, even if there is zero chance that that decision will lead to happiness (for them or anyone else). And it's painful to watch, but also....not, because these people are striving their utmost to reach their stated goals in life, and very competent at it. It's a fascinating complicated mix of things going on!

Fascinatingly complicated mix of things is, in fact, the name of the game for this book all round! This is also present in: people's relationships with their gender, with the most important people in their lives, and with their fate. Especially for the two main characters. Love this for them. Or rather, for me, because it's not exactly fun for them :P

Zhu is an orphan survivor of a famine, who takes on her dead brother's identity in order to try to overcome her fate of nothingness and take on instead her brother's fated greatness. Ouyang is the orphan survivor of his entire family being killed for treason, who was made into a eunuch so the family line couldn't continue, and whose only purpose in life is to be a filial son and get revenge. They're on opposite sides of a war for China's rulership!

This book is the first in a duology, and it ends with both Ouyang and Zhu having done terribly reprehensible things, which successfully get each of them either close to or all the way to their achieving their goals. So I'm real curious where the next book is going to go; presumably digging into all the exciting repercussions of getting what you want! Which will be an adventure and a half, I'm sure.

Every horrible thing that happens in this book feels, when it happens, like it was inevitable, because Ouyang and Zhu couldn't do anything else and still be who they are. Which is a very classic tragedy arc, with a hero's fatal flaw being such an intrinsic part of who they are that the ending becomes unavoidable. So I will go into the sequel (whenever it's published) with the full expectation of a tragic ending.

Tragic endings aren't usually my jam, but in the context of the specific story this book is telling about these specific characters, apparently I'm there for it. Even if it did take me weeks to read this dang book, because I didn't want to watch the inevitable badness happen!!

Comments

[dragonyphoenix]

Mmm, yeah, this book was really good.

[sophia_sol]

I can't wait for the sequel!

[dragonyphoenix]

Yeah, me too.

[yuuago]

Ooh, this sounds exciting. Always looking for good prose, not going to lie. Onto the to-read list it goes! Thanks for the review. :D

[sophia_sol]

Yesss, I hope this book works for you too!

[chestnut_pod]

Best book of 2021, for my money! (Also potentially the best novel involving significant plot-relevant nonbinariness yet written? Perhaps!)

I do know a bit about how the actual historical Zhu Yuangzhang ended up, and I cannot WAIT to see how SPC will twist my little emotions to and fro, and add yet more sparkle and fascination to the history!

Have you read Hunxi's amazing review on Tor.com of this book, speaking of the prose? Their thesis is that it "reads like a novel in foreignized translation" -- they have a lot of interesting things to say about it.

[sophia_sol]

(Also potentially the best novel involving significant plot-relevant nonbinariness yet written? Perhaps!)

YESSS, the treatment of nonbinary identity was so great!

I ended up going to the wikipedia article for Zhu Yuangzhang and oh boy I can DEFINITELY see things that Parker-Chan is going to do and it's gonna be so good and so terrible and I can't wait.

and thank you so much for linking that review, it's a wonderful read that really digs into a lot of the delicious things this novel is doing!

[oracne]

That sounds great.

[sophia_sol]

highly recommend!!

[lirazel]

YES!

Anyway it's a book about people who are so inescapably the people they are that you can watch them make bad decisions from a mile off and know they're going to make them, and know they're going to feel they made the right decision, even if there is zero chance that that decision will lead to happiness (for them or anyone else). And it's painful to watch, but also....not, because these people are striving their utmost to reach their stated goals in life, and very competent at it. It's a fascinating complicated mix of things going on!

Oooh! I hadn't thought of it in these terms but I love the way you've put it.

Love this for them. Or rather, for me, because it's not exactly fun for them :P
Right? How is this a book that's really about all our characters having a Bad Time and yet it doesn't feel miserable at any point? I enjoyed it!

Yes, I am also prepared for a tragic ending and I also think it will nonetheless be incredibly emotionally satisfying somehow? I just trust Parker-Chan's abilities so much. They are literally good at everything about writing.

[sophia_sol]

agreed with everything! especially about how Parker-Chan is literally good at everything about writing. Just. Gosh.

[schneefink]

Yess, the book is an excellent tragedy precisely because it seems so inevitable - I usually am not the biggest fan of tragedies but here it just fit.

[sophia_sol]

yeah exactly! I usually go out of my way to avoid tragedies, in fact, because I tend to prefer books that end happily or with at least a note of hope, but this one just.....works

[cahn]

Yessss I forgot to note that in my review but very often when I read first novels, around the middle I go googling to see "hmm, was this a first novel?? Because I SEE THE SIGNS IN THE WRITING" (looking at you, Lodestone nominees from last year) and I didn't do that with this one!

Fascinatingly complicated mix of things is, in fact, the name of the game for this book all round!

Yes! I feel like this is a much better way of saying what impressed me about it but that I wasn't able to quite articulate.

[sophia_sol]

oh man YEAH last year's lodestones was a far greater percentage than I expected of authors whose books announced "I am a new author still finding my feet." They were promising books! But they did not FULFIL that promise yet.