Tell me a story... about a woman’s fight for power
Iron Widow (Iron Widow #1) by Xiran Jay Zhao
Date read: October 10, 2021
For over two centuries, Huaxia has been fighting a war with a mecha alien race called the Hundun just outside the Great Wall. Using the husks of the defeated Hundun, the humans have created Crysalises - giant mechanical suits that respond to yen users qi, and require both a male and female pilot to operate. The only problem is that males naturally have much higher qi than females, so the female “concubines” are usually inadvertently killed by the male pilots in battle. When 18-year-old Wu Zetian enlists as a concubine to one of the most well-loved pilots in Huaxia, she hopes to get her revenge for the death of her older sister. But when she kills him through the battle link, becoming an Iron Widow, she gets a taste for power that she never expected. And no matter how the establishment tries to tear her down, she has a new determination: not just to survive, but to change things for all the women of Huaxia.
This novel is inspired by the story of Empress Wu - the only female emperor in Chinese history.
First, the things I loved about this book.
I love that it feels like a mix of both historical fiction and post-apocalyptic science fiction. A misogynistic Chinese setting where foot binding and daughters being sold as concubines to help buy a wife for the sons is the world these characters live in. But there are also aliens and giant mecha-robots (think Pacific Rim) powered by psychic links and hovercrafts and drones. It’s such a fun mix that always felt like it kept the book slightly off-balance and ungrounded (but in a good way).
I loved the feminist agenda to this book. But wait, hear me out. Yes, it’s insanely obvious - it’s the whole point of this story. Women are powerful and men will only survive if they acknowledge the power of the women in their lives. But somehow this book manages to make the feminist agenda be both obvious and not heavy-handed. Might there be some hesitance from male readers? Maybe. But I thought the message was handled very well.
Second, the thing I didn’t like about the book:
The love triangle. I feel like all YA books these days need to include a love triangle. Now, I like that this author went a different way with the love triangle than most, but it still felt forced to me. I don’t want to bash the inclusion of bisexual characters and a polyamorous relationship, because obviously there is nothing wrong with either. And I liked that the author had her main character state her approval of bisexual relationships. But the statements and relationships somehow seemed forced here, like a side note to the story. I’m not sure what would have been a better resolution, other than making Yizhi a non-romantic best friend, but the whole plot line just seemed a little off to me.
The undecided:
Our main character: Wu Zetian. I actually liked her a lot. She’s strong and she knows what she wants. And when she realizes that she’s misjudged someone, she admits her mistakes. But this book falls very much into the grey zone. There is no “this character is bad and does bad things, but this character is good and does good things.” Zetian is our protagonist, but she does some highly questionable, if not outright bad, things in the name of vengeance or the greater good. She actually reminded me a lot of Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones. If you’ve never watched Game of Thrones, Daenerys is also someone who believes very strongly that she is doing the right thing, and doesn’t really care who she hurts along the way. This makes Zetian - and this whole story, really, very hard to pin down. This is going to be a series (or at least a duology), and I’m still not sure how I feel about Zetian at the end of this book, let along going forward into the next book. The one thing I do know is that I will definitely read more to find out.
Overall, I feel like this is going to be a hard book to market, but it’s one that I really enjoyed. I think males will like the mecha battles, but will the feminist agenda be a turn off? I don’t know. I hope not. Because it’s a really good story (and I love that it was inspired by a real person - if obviously in a very loose way). If you love science fiction and robot battles and like strong female characters, this is a definite must-read. If any of those appeal to you, even if all three don’t, I still recommend checking it out. It’s fun to read a fresh take on the science fiction genre and I hope this book finds its audience.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Trigger warning: sexism, murder, violence against women, torture (including water boarding), foot binding, alcohol addiction, mentions/threats of rape
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