He Who Drowned the World: the epic sequel to the Sunday Times bestselling historical fantasy She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, 2)

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Zhu, who not only saw it but also considered herself generally immune to the urges of physical desire, was interested to feel a mild tug in response. We see the biting edge of a pain that is weaponised against the world and we see a maddening one that is sure to be their doom. But we encounter his POV at the point where he has been drowned by his grief and pain so you can never truly root for him even as your heart breaks. Baoxiang is only one part of a very detailed and nuanced discussion of gender and queerness throughout these books, but a new layer that I thought was added in this story was the layer of perception. She Who Became the Sun is one of my favourite books of all-time and I just hoped beyond hope that He Who Drowned the World would live up to it.

If the world can barely stand to let its eye fall upon a man as lacking as you, do you think it would accept you on the throne? A king and queen strolling through their palace grounds proceeded without impediment, since everyone in their way stepped aside and bowed, but the sheer profusion of construction workers in every direction made Zhu think of herself as a boat cutting through a weed-clogged pond. I would rather be received face-to-face by my equal than by his honorable wife speaking from behind a curtain of propriety. The sunshine sawdust smell and the breeze flowing unchecked through the construction sites; the uncluttered sky that seemed bigger and bluer than anywhere else Zhu had lived: the possibility contained in all that newness thrilled her to her bones.The story hooked me like the first one and altough there is many characters it didn't feel confusing to read. She is a porcelain doll, perfectly broken and made up again, all smooth surfaces without cracks and without scars.

In terms of violence, I think of both She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World as roughly equivalent to the Asian historical dramas on Netflix: you'll see some splatter during fight scenes, but rarely full-on gore. Young, ambitious, and in possession of the Mandate of Heaven, Zhu believes utterly in her own capacity to do anything - endure anything - that will allow her to seize the imperial throne from the Mongols and crown herself Emperor. Even more so, it’s not clear why other characters decided to tether themselves to this character, since they hadn’t exactly had power of their own up until the start of the book. So elegantly and elaborately structured with the most beautiful and horrible cast of characters I have ever had the displeasure of becoming attached to. These novels beautifully capture the feedback loop wherein queer-coded characters are reviled, which drives them to unbearable viciousness, which in turn fills them with self-loathing.There were many twists and turns throughout the story, but what made them land so effectively was the bleeding heart at the centre of each betrayal. It was a voice for a closed room, velveted with suggestion: that though they were strangers who had only just met, perhaps they were moments from becoming as known to each other as two bodies could be.

If you know your history, you already know where the story will end, but the journey is well worth the experience.

While She Who Became the Sun was slow and focused on a couple of characters, He Who Drowned the World quicken the pace and raised the stakes higher and higher until the only thing you could do was keep reading. We are as connected to them as they are to each other and so we root for this connection to hold true, for it to mean something, for it to forge a new path—a path that we can follow them down. As they’re all willing to do whatever it takes to rule, who will have to sacrifice the most, and who will emerge victorious? Zhu said dryly, “When the histories are written, such a title will surely commend me to their authors as a great man. Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory - one that tore southern China from its Mongol masters.

Several other people with the supernatural Mandate of Heaven stand in her way; around them all swarm the lingering ghosts of the people who died for their greatness.There is clear intention behind every sentence that allows us to feel the raw emotional weight of every line. Yet they were the one I couldn’t see coming, the one I was always looking forward to visiting because their constant resistance to feel was more fascinating to me than the lack of empathy of the other two. I think the author effectively showed how self-loathing and bigotry can destroy not just the individual, but society as a whole. Is a thing real because it is perceived to be so or does another person's perception not matter at all to the truth of one's being? We witness these characters driven to madness by their pain, we witness their suffering as it eclipses their hope, we witness them despair and cry and break.