#//i also loved iron widow by xiran jay zhao

[dvarapala]

does anyone have books/audiobook recs? because i want to buy new ones but i am stumped and dunno which ones to get.

[schrodingers-hoarding-problem]

Iron Widow is like the first book i’ve been able to finish in the past ~2 years and because i no longer know how to interact with media like i normal person i have the intense urge to like write Xiran Jay Zhao an email about how much I loved their book?

[noahfromthesea]

I just finished Iron Widow and now i want to burn down the world thank you very much

[via-rant]

As excited as I am for the PJO show I am going to ALWAYS beg people to pirate it!! Every single time!! I love the series just as much as anyone but I'm not gonna pay for these piles of shits!! Yes I'm also talking about Rick!! Him being "Neutral" about the Palestine Genocide is absolutely disgusting!! The idea that people don't care that innocent lives, including infants, are dying day by day is honestly concerning for them!

That being said there are many other authors who do support Palestine 100%!!!

. Andrew Joseph White - Author of "Hell Followed With Us" + "The Spirit Bares Its Teeth"

. Xiran Jay Zhao - Author of "Iron Widow"

. Aiden Thomas - Author of "The Sunbearer Trials" + "Cemetery Boys" + "Lost In The Never Woods"

All books are very Queer and POC also so you'll be supporting those communities as well!!

Please please please feel free to add any authors you can think of that support Palestine!! FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸!!!

[biographydivider]

If you had fun with the lasest episode of Puppet History I am BEGGING YOU to read Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao seriously buy it now

So it's basically the story of Wu Zetian...but in a sci-fi fantasy world with aliens and mechs and it's absolutely INCREDIBLE. I only picked it up on a whim and it's one of the best desicons I've ever made with a book.

This novel is insane. More happens in the first 85 pages than in some whole novels. It's searingly angry and fast-paced, Zetian is complicated and ferocious and they do something with the love triangle that will knock tumblr's socks off - plus the author is nonbinary (and awesome - in their author pic they dressed like Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh)!

Also Xiran is in the PU comments elaborating on certain points the team got wrong or glossed over so they know their stuff!!

[ghostedgrim]

I fucking love "Iron Widow" by Xiran Jay Zhao

Polyamorous bitches

🖕 to men, and it's written beautifully

Gets her revenge in the first three chapters by killing a powerful ass man. Gets arrested, turns the most powerful guy to exist into her bitch.

Wu Zetain thrived off spite, rage, and unwillingness to be told what to do.

Wu Zetain is a powerful ass woman, and my favorite character. Iron Widow is a 10/10 book, it deserves a bigger fanbase. It's also a sci-fi retelling of a Chinese Empress, and China's only ever female empress to rule over China. That very Empress' name was wu Zhao, but otherwise known as Wu Zetain.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

I got wildly sick of white European farm boy fantasy a while back. Thank goodnes I didn't have to look hard to find other things, and plenty of them (literally this is not my whole collection, I just couldn't ffit everything in the picture)!

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko follows Tar as she finds her family in an African-inspired fantasy world. The haunting "made of me, and me is mine" still echoes in my head. That and Dayo literally being the adoptive uncle who gets his nibling an elephant.

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong explores Chinese and Russian rival crime families in fantasy 1920s Shanghai. For my Shakespeareans in the audience, yes, it's also a retelling of Romeo and Juliet. For those of you with bug phobias, beware.

Tha Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri is often described as having morally gray lesbians, and that's true. But while Priya and Malini are compelling and fascinating to follow, I am HERE for the Hirana. Semi-sentient, possibly evil temple who is soft for its favorite trainee priestess in hiding? YES.

Jade City by Fonda Lee follows the Green Bones in fantasy Asia, as two warring gangs find their places in a rapidly modernizing world. Shae and Hilo's relationship in particular is fascinating.

Full Disclosure: I haven't finished Axie Oh's The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, but the first couple of chapters are a WOW and I can't wait to finish this Korean-inspired fairy tale retelling.

The Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan was sheer joy from start to finish, and I have not yet stopped asking "What the Actual HELL, Wenzhi???" Inspired by the myth of Chang'e, this book is a must-read. (The sequel is out November 2022 and I am so excited!!!)

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao took me by the throat and literally did not let me go until the book ended--and even then, it less let me go and more threw me against the boards until round 2. The triangle is the strongest shape, and this has phenomenal poly and disability representation.

Another full disclosure: I haven't started Judy Lin's A Magic Steeped in Poison, but I am so excited for it. There is literal and figurative tea promised, and I am here for it.

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah scratched a reading itch I didn't even know I had, and I love this book so much. It has cinnaprinces, a Loulie, jinn, forty thieves, and stories within stories.

Last full disclosure of the post: I also haven't read the doorstopper that is RR Virdi's The First Binding, but it is a heckin' chonk of a book that I am super excited to dive into.

[knuckle]

on some more gentle book criticism it's wild that both of wu zetian's love interests in iron widow are highly educated & there are references to the aesthetics and structures of a scholar system, but there is utterly no casual reciting of classics, tactics, nor poetry from anyone. there are references to adapted forms of the classics, but it doesn't inform how characters talk or think (li shimin seems more like a guy who never got education than someone who memorizes poems to the point it destroyed his vision). I understand the whole "peasant frontier girl half literate" thing to an extent (even though it feels an odd choice) but there aren't even like idioms really. it feels very simplistic & uniform in characters' speaking style, and the world, language, and culture all read very flat because of that. tacticians like sima yi, an lushan, and zhuge liang too might have a more creative way to call someone a bitch or what is the point of reimagining them in this world is all I'm saying.

i think there was also a big miss of not even referencing half of the incredibly funny things that a star studded historical fiction cast could provide like zhuge liang never did something funny with a feather fan? no one had to bother him into working? no pranks with corpses? where is his ugly intelligent wife?

why not posture that an lushan's son gave the thumbs up on his murder? historically accurate and hilarious

honestly, every character could and should have just had an original name so i'm not frequently disappointed that, for example wu zetian who weaponized her children to become regent and curry favor views motherhood as the most restrictive shackle on a woman or that li shimin who assassinated his brothers in a tactical power play and expertly maneuvered the aftermath, getting his father to abdicate to him and becoming one of the most competent emperors in history, would just stand by helplessly with a bloody murder weapon while he was carried off to a death row labor camp

the book shouldn't have been marketed as a reimagining of historical or quasi historical figures at all because if you know or care anything about chinese history/culture it's massively immersion breaking & xiran jay zhao should have just leaned into a fully dystopic "fallen" society with only the worst aspects of chinese culture surviving, deliberately so because of the way the populace is controlled and managed, without any dressings of valuing scholars because they clearly didn't feel confident enough or want to put in enough work to actually mesh chinese literary classics or more than a skeleton of historical context with characters that bear the names of legends.

[glowingmushroom0]

Top Ten TBR for August

1. The Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (currently reading)

Back in December, I was re-watching a bunch of Zhao’s videos on YouTube and in one of them she was promoting her novel Iron Widow. While I’ve never been too into mecha-novels in sci-fi, I decided to give this one a try! I’ve been finding the mechanics of the mechs really interesting, and I find Zetian a very engaging character. It also helps that Zhao explains some of the history of the real-life Wu Zetian in two of her YouTube videos. I still haven’t finished the book, but I am pretty close to finishing it.

2. Epithet Erased: Prison of Plastic by Brendan Blaber (currently re-reading)

This novel is a part of the Epithet Erased series on JelloApocalypse’s YouTube channel, which also includes several trailers for this novel and a part of chapter 1 of the novel’s audiobook. I remember seeing the original show on YouTube when it was coming out and it’s a really fun series! This part of the novel focuses on the story of Molly Blyndeff, a twelve-year-old with an epithet, a power that depends on whatever word the epithet is based off of. The story focuses on Molly’s relationship with her older sister Lorelai, and how her friends support her and try to help her as she tries to stop her sister from expanding her dream world within their family’s toy store. I’m actually listening to the audiobook while writing this post! I really recommend the audiobook version of this novel, the voice actors did an excellent job!

3. Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austen

I actually was recommended this book a couple of years ago by an aunt and a cousin of mine. I had gone to a Catholic school and they both knew I was pan (I still haven’t come out to them as agender though, but that’s because I don’t see or talk to them very often). However, what actually convinced me to try the book was an old friend group that started a book club, and this was their first book. I still haven’t read it because I didn’t end up making it to the meetings, but I am interested in reading it.

4. The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

This novel I was interested in more from the author than the subject matter, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested at all. I first read Jaigirdar’s Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating and really enjoyed it, so I wanted to read more of her works! That’s when I learned that this was her debut novel, and I wanted to compare the two. Plus, I will always find some joy from learning about different art forms through writing in novels. The most I know about henna so far is from a friend of mine who had another friend who wanted to practice henna on them. Because of that, I’d like to learn more about how Jaigirdar depicts henna artists.

5. A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation by Jacoby Ballard

I actually found this book at a book exchange that was at an LGBTQ+ friendly event. My friend and I are both interested in this book because we’re both into learning about different kinds of religion and how to express different kinds of spirituality. From what I’ve looked over with the book it talks about how queer people create their own spaces within Buddhism and yoga.

6. So This is Ever After by F. T. Lukens

I’ll go more in-depth with this particular choice in the next book, however the main reasons why I was interested in this novel is because I had already gotten a book from this author that I was pretty interested in. And after looking through another book of Lukens’s (or Lukens’), they also seemed to be really interested in fantasy, especially magic. I also thought it was an interesting idea that the story takes place after the typical “ever after” of defeating an evil king.

7. In Deeper Waters by F. T. Lukens

Now this is the novel that I originally found F.T. Lukens from, and the main reason why I was interested in reading this novel is because I love pirates. I also found myself hooked from just the summary of the novel. When people say a character is mysterious, I don’t really know if they’re going to be mysterious until they appear in the story. However, the summary does show how mysterious Athlen can be, considering he’s introduced as a prisoner on a burning ship. So, I’m interested in learning more about Athlen just from the summary.

8. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

This novel has a bit more controversial reason for why I want to read it. I originally got this book because it was popular, and I was vaguely interested, but then I started hearing about debates on whether this is good MLM (men-loving-men, not multi-level-marketing) representation. However, I then had another friend that’s a part of the queer community that read the book and he liked it. So I wanted to read the book to figure out my own opinion on the novel. Plus I thought it would be a good time to read it since the novel’s getting it’s own show soon. 

9. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Trans (But Were Afraid to Ask) by Brynn Tannehill

This book is less for me and more for family reasons. I’m not going to go into too much detail for privacy reasons, but a lot of my family still don’t quite understand much about what it exactly means to be transgender, especially not someone who’s under the non-binary umbrella. So I wanted to read this book and see if it’d be a good fit for some of my family members who do read.

10. Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques by Evan Skolnick

This book is more for my own learning and future career. My specific dream job is to create a video game story, which would go into scriptwriting. However, most of the creative writing advice and tips I’ve gotten were either for fiction in general, or for short stories and poetry. This book might be able to teach more about scriptwriting, but also how to develop scripts for video games.

[boybff]

wait hiiiii hi hello bestie i didn’t know u like video essays!! i’ve been trying to find more to watch recently, do u have any other recs? about any topic 👀

HIIIIII bestie Robin, are you ready?? After harvesting my Youtube subscription and liked video lists here is what I have compiled. I'm gonna put my current top 5 video recommendations and then the rest of the list, under the cut, is organized by creator.

Why Are There So Many Confederate Vampires

The art of religious interpretation (midnight mass vs god’s not dead)

Defunctland: Walt Disney's City of the Future, E.P.C.O.T.

Hogwarts Legacy, JK Rowling, and Trans Advocacy

Cultural Inspirations in Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 1 - Water 

CHANNELS

biz barclay - hilarious, brilliant, my best friend who drinks wine and weaves me long insightful stories while sitting on the dresser or in the bathtub. The vast amount of knowledge, historical 

understanding snapewives: religion, fandom, sociology, & erotica

Goncharov (1973) video essay

The art of religious interpretation (midnight mass vs god’s not dead)

Xiran Jay Zhao - Author of one of my FAVE YA novels, “Iron Widow” (which is a MUST read). I always want more avatar content that focuses on cultural inspirations from trusted sources. Xiran taught me so much about the avatar universe I already loved as well as valuable critiques. They also do retellings of historical events such as- Bisexual Han Dynasty Emperors and Forgotten Warrior Queen - Fu Hao.

Cultural Inspirations in Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 1 - Water 

Cultural Inspirations in Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 2 - Earth 

Cultural Inspirations in Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 3 - Fire 

Fundie Fridays - Jen, a leftist queer feminist, and her husband James examine different aspects of Christian fundamentalism, American conservative politics and pop culture. She has remade a lot of her older videos so make sure to watch the updated versions! She was also featured in the Amazon docuseries “Shiny Happy People” which I would HIGHLY recommend. 

Vacation Bible School of Rock (3 part video series History of Contemporary Christian Music)

Ken Ham’s Creation Museum & Ark Encounter

Ask a Mortician - Caitlin Doughty!!! The adult Wednesday Addams we should have got. So compassionate, informed, and moving!! I love her work and she has taught me so much about what it means to have a relationship with death and grief. Her work deals with heavy topics and you can tell she does this work from a deeply respectful, informed place. 

The Lake That Never Gives Up Her Dead

Let’s Visit the Churches Made of Human Skulls

Why are Black and White Funeral Homes STILL Separate? With Dr. Kami Fletcher

Iconic Corpse Series

Princess Weekes -  Nuanced video essays on pop culture, race, feminism, and other social issues. Takes time to break down complex concepts, their origins and material consequences. The essay on confederate vampires and the connection later made to sci-fi media like Firefly were so paradigm shifting to me!

Why Are There So Many Confederate Vampires

The Magical Negroes of Stephen King

Ro Ramdin - Poetic, biting, and introspective essays on pop culture. 

Do Celebrities Hate Their Fans? (Doja Cat, Frank Ocean)

Hogwarts Legacy, JK Rowling, and Trans Advocacy

DefunctLand- History of extinct theme parks and themed entertainment experiences. 

Defunctland: Walt Disney's City of the Future, E.P.C.O.T.

Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery

Mina Le - Fashion, movies and pop culture

WHY IS EVERYTHING SO UGLY: The Curse of Modernism

FAIRYTALE COSTUMES: it’s giving renfaire but why?

Quinton Reviews - Extensive videos covering niche topics, most popular for Nickelodeon deep dive retrospectives.

How Documentaries Lie to You

The ICarly/Victorious Saga Playlist

TheEpicNate315 - yea i fucking love endless hours of useless skyrim lore because the conspiracies are so deep and I have to do 0 of the research to get all of the information years of scouts worked to piece together! 

The Skyrim Mysteries Iceberg (Part 1 of 4)

The Fallout Mysteries Iceberg (Part 1 of 2, incomplete series)

Mike’s Mic - Silly, goofy, and thorough breakdowns of nostalgic TV shows

Any of his unhinged recaps - LOST, Pretty Little Liars, Glee

Tiffanyferg - Media criticism and commentary

Internet Analysis Series 

Zoë Ligon - sex educator, artist, and writer, who also owns SpectrumBoutique.com, a health and education oriented sex toy store. Such a special place in my heart for her!! Her bondage mini-documentary with Midori was so touching. 

Sex Stuff | Japanese Rope Bondage with Midori

Channels Newer to Me

Broey Deschanel - a mixture of film analyses, retrospectives, politics and just absolutely overthinking anything to do with pop culture

Elvis (2022) and the Utter Mediocrity of Biopics 

Meeptop - rambling about movies and stuff

Who is Dahmer Even Made For?

LadyJenevia - discussing entertainment media content including films, television series, etc. Expect to find reviews of recent cinematic releases, video essays on older releases, and interviews with talent from the film/television industry

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and The Art of Hiding in Plain Sight (Netflix Review/Video Essay)

As a disclaimer, I am not endorsing any creator fully and if you see someone you think I should not promote please reach out to me so I can edit this list. As a general rule of thumb the more I had to write about someone, the more informed the recommendation.

[frogletscribe]

Also not me watching all the book twit drama happening rn and realizing i literally knew the person responsible for the whole mess back in ye olde cosplay days lmaoo 💀 I was literally her handler all day at an anime for a cosplay contest years ago this shit is so wild.

Disclaimer, we were not close by any means, I was a teenager at the time and was trying to help out an internet friend when she needed a handler at a con that I frequented. We moved in the same circles in the cosplay community when she was still doing that, but did not talk super frequently (and not at all for several years now, we stopped being mutuals when she left cosplaying) so its not like i have ‘insider info’ or anything, its just crazy to see people I used to know come up like this.

If ppl reading this don’t know what’s going on and are curious, you can check out Xiran Jay Zhao (author of the Iron Widow books) posts on Twitter/Tiktok that explain everything.

Anyways, please support all the lovely debut authors she tried to screw over and their upcoming 2024 debuts!

So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X Chang

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright

The Gods of Hunger Series by R.M. Virtues

[reioka-reads]

Title: Iron Widow

Author: Xiran Jay Zhao

Status: Keep

Series Continue: Yes

Okay. So. I’m going to preface this by saying that this has some spoilers in it. It’s only been a year so I’m aware that some people might still be on the waiting list at their library for this NYT Best Seller lol.

Anyway, sometimes I take a peep at the negative reviews on books to see if it changes my perspective and this time they absolutely did not. A lot of the negative reviews on this book have the same talking points: It feels rushed/some parts feel shoehorned in. And I agree. But you know what? Zhao does too. I remember them making a post somewhere (I follow them on both Tumblr and TikTok so it could have been either one) explaining how they had to cut back parts because it was their debut novel and in the publishing industry, the companies don’t like those novels to exceed a certain amount. Zhao, also, was not satisfied with their novel as it was published. Knowing that, I felt like I could see the parts where they cut back to fit into those guidelines. I think, if they hadn’t had to cut back, it would have been an even better book than it is.

That being said, I thought this book was great. I actually caught Zhao on TikTok and that’s what led me to reading the book (they are very funny and clever). It was an interesting premise and I enjoyed it. It felt very… refreshing, somehow? I’m not sure that’s the word I want but you know, after the inundation of vampires/werewolves/wizard schools the past few years, it was a breath of fresh air. I especially loved that the one-sidedness of the love triangle lasted maybe about a minute before all of these bi disasters decided actually no let’s be a true triangle. Good for them.

Zetian was brutality in its purest form. I love that for her. But I also loved the parts where she was vulnerable—where she allowed herself to be vulnerable in front of the men she loved. And how she refused to feel shame in front of others either. I also, for some reason, really like that she’s disabled? And it’s a focal point of the story, her constantly thinking about how she’s crippled and how it was supposed to make her desirable but all it did was make her life harder; how she’s constantly comparing her Lotus feet to the unmarred feet of her female peers and feeling envy and shame. It’s not a throwaway problem, it doesn’t get fixed, and I’m interested to see how it’s going to show up in the story in the future. I wish we could have seen Yizhi and Shimin fleshed out as much as she was, but the breadcrumbs that were dropped that I pieced together have me looking forward to maybe seeing more fleshing out in the sequel(s).

This story had so many twists and turns that I was constantly and genuinely shocked (delightfully so!) when they happened. I itched to get back to the book when I had to put it down; I wanted to know what happened next. I honestly didn’t expect the betrayal from the Black Tortoise and Shimin’s “death,” and I mourned with Zetian as soon as his qi reader hit zero. Then she actually found Qin Zheng and the yellow dragon! Piloted it herself!!! And then Shimin wasn’t dead and apparently the “gods” had saved him?! What the fuck!!!! And Yizhi simply killing his father with no remorse, no regrets. Qiu was probably the only person who figured out how Zetian truly ticked and he was so busy facing off with her that he didn’t even think his son could or would turn on him. My only beef is that Xiuying wasn’t alive to see Zetian crush her family to death, so that she could see that Zetian was stronger than her in every way.

I have more thoughts but I can’t really seem to articulate them, so I think I’ll leave this here. So bummed that the release date for Heavenly Tyrant has been pushed back, but I appreciate that Zhao is being transparent for their reasons. If pushing it back means a better story, I’m happy to wait.

[i-sveikata]

hey, just curious if you could rec any particular authors you love read or rec any books to read? I tend to only read fanfic and when I try to read anything out there...ugh just the storyline is predictable and the dialogue is cringe. I trust your judgment, so anything you recommend?!

appreciate you love, hope you're doing well and take care of your health 💟💟

hello anon! i mostly read fantasy/queer novels so i can defs rec some of my favourites but if you have any triggers or things you don't like to read etc id recommend a bit of research on them here for triggers or here for goodreads synopsis. But here you go in no particular order:

-iron widow series/ Xiran jay zhao (1st book out 2nd coming out this year) -the radiant emperor series/ Shelley Parker Chan -the queens thief series/ Megan Whalen turner -the graceling realm series/ Kristin cashore -mo dao zu shi series (grandmaster of demonic cultivation)- Mo xiang ton xiu -all for the game series/ Nora sakavic -the cruel prince series/ Holly black -the celestial kingdom series/ Sue lynn tan -six of crows series/ Leigh bardugo -dark rise series/ CS pacat -villains series/ VE Schwab -leviathan series/ Scott westerfeld -a great and terrible beauty series/ Libba bray -legend series/ Marie lu -anne of green gables series/ lucy maud montogomery

heres some i've read when i was younger that are a bit more y/a but still slap and i still reread them every now and again

-the lightning thief series/ rick riordan -deltora quest/ emily rodda -the missing series/1800 where are you series/ meg cabot -the mediator series/ meg cabot -a series of unfortunate events/ lemony snicket

Also just some stand alone books I’ve read and really enjoyed: -the binding/ Bridget Collins -where the crawdad sings/ Delia owens -the martian/ Andy weir -life of pi/ Yann martel -green lights/ Matthew McConaughey -song of Achilles/ Madeline miller -howls moving castle/ Diana Wynne Jones -holes/ Louis sachar -the invisible life of addie larue/ Ve Schwab -the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo/ Taylor Jenkins Reid -the island of sea women/ Lisa see -aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe / Benjamin alire saenz -all our shimmering skies/ Trent dalton -red, white & royal blue/ Casey mcquiston -ella minnow pea/ Mark dunn

you'll probably find a few of these titles familiar already but a lot of these are favs of mine or are just really damn well executed stories. happy reading!

[bashsbooks]

Iron Widow Book Review

★★★★★ ~ 5 out of 5 stars

Due to its popularity on Tiktok and Tumblr, I have long heard rumors about Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow. I tend to be skeptical about social media hype, but after a friend recommended it to me personally, I added it to my to-read list, forgot about it for like a year, and then promptly remembered it when I was figuring out what books to read for my 2023 reading challenges. And as soon as I started reading, I was like, “Oh shit. I should’ve read this sooner.” 

Iron Widow lives up to the hype. Actually, it smashes through the hype and goes way past what I expected. Set in a futuristic alternative universe based on Chinese history and mythology, Iron Widow follows Xu Zetian as she volunteers to be a concubine-pilot, a deadly but supposedly necessary role required to power Chrysalises, which are basically giant supersuits used to fight off aliens. Concubine-pilots usually die in the process of powering Chrysalises, though their families are heavily compensated for this sacrifice. At the beginning of Iron Widow, Zetian is desperate to get vengeance for her sister was forced to become a concubine-pilot by their family - and then murdered by a male pilot before she could. (Interestingly enough, piloting the Chrysalises is not deadly for men - usually.) So Zetian volunteers with the ulterior motive of killing her sister’s murderer and quickly finds out that everything she knows - about the piloting system, gender and social dynamics, about the war - is a lie. 

Although the patriarchy is a primary antagonist in Iron Widow, not every man in the book sucks  sucks; in fact, Zetian manages to find not one but two love interests in Gao Yizhi, the son of the richest man in the country, and Li Shimin, a man who murdered his whole family (for good reasons, he’s valid) and is only being kept alive because he’s the best damn pilot in the war. As a hater of love triangles and a lover of fellow bisexual men, I am pleased to report that Yizhi and Shimin are also very interested in each other. 

Iron Widow contains such a nuanced and fascinating take on how the patriarchy fucks over everyone. Zetian is understandably upset with the way women are treated, but she learns over the course of the novel that things aren’t all sunshine and roses for men, either. This does not diminish her passion for fighting for women (and indeed, it is never really poised as a competition of who has it worse; it’s pretty clear that it’s by-and-large worse for women), but it allows her to see men as fellow humans rather than inherently The Enemy. 

Zetian is also disabled, having had her feet broken and bound from a young age to turn them into ‘lotus feet’, which are considered beautiful in her culture. She has trouble walking, even with the aid of a cane, and she constantly feels pain in her feet. This is a central aspect of her character, not an afterthought, and it’s woven into the novel thoughtfully. It parallels and interweaves with the novel’s exploration of gender and gendered expectations - much like Zetian cannot be reduced to the caricature of womanhood expected of her, nor can she be reduced to a caricature of her physical disability. Instead, the integration of these aspects into her character are complex. Her successes are not in spite of her womanhood and her bound feet, but because of them, and that makes her all the richer as a protagonist.

I love Iron Widow, and I’m happy to recommend it with a full 5 out of 5 stars. Its sequel, Heavenly Tyrant, comes out in August, and I can’t wait to read it. Xiran Jay Zhao, Iron Widow’s author, is here on Tumblr (@/xiranjayzhao) and they have already posted some Heavenly Tyrant memes to tide me over until then. (And if you like authors commenting on their books outside of the text, then I recommend following their Tumblr after you’ve finished Iron Widow.)

[bbcphile]

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better:

Thanks for the tag, @eirenical!

3 Ships You Like: Only 3?! Decisions decisions! Well, Feihua (and difanghua) have to be included, obviously, and I guess Wangxian should be there, too. I can’t decide who to list for the 3rd spot, so here are the main contenders: Horatio Hornblower/Archie Kennedy (and also with William Bush), Hualian, and Weilan.

First Ship Ever: I was weirdly late to shipping, or at least contemporary pop culture shipping? I was pretty invested in Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy and also Elinor Dashwood and Edward Ferrars in middle school, but it didn’t really devour my brain the way ships do now. Honestly, I think it was Horatio Hornblower and Archie Kennedy back in college, although it took some friends explaining to me why they read it as romantic (laughing and smh at past!me), and a rewatch of the entire series wearing my new shipping goggles for me to go “OH!” like they do in fic, lol. I didn’t get into fic until much later (thanks, @bifilthatonthatseson!) 

Last Song You Heard: Heather Dale’s “The Hunter” has been playing on loop in my head since I woke up this morning, but I just put on The Amazing Devil’s “Inkpot Gods,” so I guess I’ll list both. :D 

Favourite Childhood Book: I passionately loved the Ramona Quimby books when I was little, but I don’t really remember anything about them anymore, and Matilda was probably the other most important kid’s book for me growing up. (It all felt very relatable to young me, and I kept waiting for my powers to come in. Pity it doesn’t work like that!) If YA books read in adulthood count, I’d have to say the Song of the Lioness series; I read it in grad school (thanks for this, too, @bifilthatonthatseson) and it rewired my brain in INCREDIBLY important ways.

Currently Reading: I’m in between books right now, but I most recently finished Freya Marske’s A Power Unbound (volume 3 of the “Last Binding” Trilogy) and it was INCREDIBLE. Next up is Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow, which I’m very excited about. 

Currently watching: I’m in the middle of The Lost Tomb 2; I temporarily petered out because it’s been awhile since Wu Xie and Xiaoge were in the same scene and I am very much watching it for them (and Xiaohua, who also hasn’t been on screen in awhile), but I’m going to go back to it soon. Other than that, I’m rewatching “I am Nobody” with @sufficientlylargen, “The Untamed” with @sufficientlylargen, @loryer496 and another non-Tumblr friend, “Destined” with @fionatlux and a different non-Tumblr friend, and watching “Luoyang” for the first time with the latter non-Tumblr friend. :D 

Currently consuming: Nothing atm, but I’m about to make some of the lavender tea that @slangerogkatter recommended! It’s very good!

Currently craving: Bubble tea and a croissant. (But tragically, I’m not near any gluten-free bakeries, so no croissant for me! I could probably do something about the bubble tea, though!)

Tagging:

@the-surreptitious-albatross @howdaretrashships @momosandlemonsoda @enbysaurus-rex @wuxia-vanlifer @thesilversun @fealiniel @nutcasewithaknife @helendamnationx

(But no pressure if you don't want to do it! Also, anyone who wants to should consider themselves tagged!)

[melanielocke]

Book recommendations - Morally complicated/unhinged protagonists

I usually tend to gravitate towards characters who are good. Most of my own written characters will fall firmly on the good side of an alignment chart even if they are complicated, have trauma etc. But every once in a while I do enjoy some characters who are kind of unhinged or morally complicated. Here are some of my favorites.

I'm going to start with the book I just finished reading and am currently obsessed with: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

In this book, earth has been destroyed, and Kyr has trained all her life to avenge earth. She was raised on an isolated space station with what she believes are the last humans, taught to hate the Majoda, the aliens who destroyed earth. Kyr has never questioned anything she's taught and worked hard to be a model soldier, but then her brother is assigned to a suicide mission while Kyr herself is relegated to the Nursery to bear children.

Kyr decides to take her fate into her own hands and rescue her brother from what she believes is pointless and leaves the space station together with her brother's brilliant but kind of unhinged friend Avi and a lonely Majo captive Yiso. But when Kyr enters the wider universe she must confront that not everything she's been taught is true and that the universe is a lot more complicated than she believes.

Essentially, this is a story of someone indoctrinated by a cult slowly breaking free. Kyr starts out not very likeable. She wants nothing more than to be the perfect soldier, is mean to everyone and is pretty clueless. But slowly she learns through the book and I loved watching her journey.

My favorite in this book has to be Avi though. He's unhinged. He's a genius, way too smart for his own good. He's gay and has a very complicated relationship with Kyr's twin brother Mags. I can't say too much without spoiling the book.

Mind the content warnings for this one, and keep in mind that Kyr is heavily indoctrinated by what is pretty much a fascist cult and as such she shows some queerphobic views (such as refusing to use they/them pronouns for a genderless Majo at first), though it also seems relatively watered down compared to how bad it probably was in the cult. It's also pretty obvious to a reader that Kyr is wrong about most things at this point.

The copy pictured is my Illumicrate edition, which has the UK cover (and very pretty edges)

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao is up next

Iron Widow is a YA sci fi with characters inspired by people from Chinese history. The main character, Zetian, is inspired by the only female emperor in Chinese history Wu Zetian.

Huaxia is under attack by hunduns, a type of mechanic aliens, and to combat them they fight in chrysalises, machines taking the shape of creatures of Chinese mythology piloted by a boy/girl pair using spirit presence. Unfortunately, the girls often die due to the mental strain.

Zetian's sister was murdered by one of the pilots outside of battle, and she enlists as a concubine pilot to kill the man responsible. She gets her wish in an unexpected way, when said pilot takes her with him to battle, she kills him through the mental link.

Labeled an Iron Widow, Zetian is paired with the most powerful male pilot, a convicted murderer who is only kept alive because of his exceptional spirit presence. But Zetian has had her taste of revenge and is not going to go down quietly.

I love how unhinged Zetian is in this book, and the author is very good at making us root for her. They could probably have Zetian blow up an orphanage and still have us cheer for her. Zetian's anger is understandable, she's a girl fed up with the patriarchy and girls dying as pilots. This book also has a poly main couple, with all three being bi and into each other.

The book is the first in a duology and book 2 will be out April 2024 (it was delayed)

The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir is already pretty well known but it fit this category well and I only started it recently

There's three books out, but book 3 only comes out in paperback this September which is why I don't have it yet (nor have I read it)

The first two books focus on Gideon and Harrow, who are both from the ninth house. Harrow is a necromancer and heir to the ninth house, whereas Gideon is a warrior who would much rather leave the ninth house altogether. But when Gideon tries to escape, again, Harrow makes her an offer, become her cavalier when she answers the summons of the emperor, who called the heirs of all nine houses and their cavaliers to become lyctors.

The first two books are already very different in tone. Gideon in book 1 is funny, the language is very modern and Gideon is often not paying attention because she's describing all the attractive female characters in full detail, but otherwise she's relatively reliable as a narrator. Then comes Harrow the Ninth, which is one of the most confusing books I have ever read. It pays off in the end, everything will make sense (mostly).

What I found very funny in book 1 was just how childish and petty Gideon and Harrow could be towards each other. They hate each other but in a very childish way. Harrow calls Gideon "Griddle". Gideon considers that Harrow would never leave her alone in their rooms on purpose because then Gideon would mess up the buttons of Harrow's clothes.

Book 2 in comparison has a much more serious tone, which much written in 2nd perspective as well as some flashbacks to previous events that do not add up to what we saw in book 1. I have yet to read book 3 but I've heard it's amazing. After Nona there will be one more book which comes out 2024.

Last up is Black Sun and Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

This book is not so much unhinged, but very morally complicated. The world is based on pre Columbian americas and it shows a complicated conflict between different cultural group through the POV's of a couple different characters. The main character Xiala is a Teek who was banished from her own home. The Teek are very recluse and not super involved with the main conflict.

She is given the task of sailing Serapio to city of Tova, where much of the conflict takes place. Serapio's mother made him to be the reincarnation of their god, the Carrion Crow, and avenge their people.

We also follow Naranpa, who is the Sun Priest in Tova but grew up in a poor section with a group of culture who were excluded from the clans that make up the city.

And then there's Okoa, the brother of the leader of the Carrion Crow clan within the city, who only wants to protect his clan but doesn't really know what is the best way to do this, meaning he often changes his mind and alliances.

The first book builds towards the Black Sun, a rare solar eclipse that will change the world.

There are currently two books out and the third and last is scheduled for 2024.

@alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer @life-through-the-eyes-of @astriefer @justanormaldemon @ipromiseiwillwrite @a-dream-dirty-and-bruised @amchara @all-for-the-fanfiction @imsoftforthomastair @ddepressedbookworm @queenlilith43 @wagner-fell @cant-think-of-anything @laylax13s @tessherongraystairs @boredfangirl16 @artist-in-soul @aliandtommy @ikissedsmithparker