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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Riding high on her recent victory, Zhu Yuanzhang is now the Radiant King – brilliant, ambitious and unstoppable in her quest for greatness .

In terms of their arcs though, I would have to admit that Baoxiang’s was the only one which I was truly interested in. 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. Whether it's from one battle to the next, the conquering of a territory, or the heart-wrenching betrayal, Parker-Chan never lets up on the throttle. this book gave us tragic furious vengeful villainous hopeful compassionate queer people, how could i not love it (and hate it).

And with the exception of her capital, Yingtian, none of the dozen cities she held in the south could match even the poorest of the Zhang family’s canal-linked economic centers. Madam Zhang is another POV that I enjoyed reading; in palace cdrama you might find characters that look like her, but oftentimes they are painted as one-dimensional villain. 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. Each one brought something completely different to the story, yet Parker-Chan controlled all of these narratives with such refined skill, spinning these webs together, drawing parallels and contrasts, twisting each moving part until every action became bigger than what it was. The wind rushing against her from that distant tawny horizon seemed to bring it close; it turned that abstract line into something palpable, something fiercely visceral.

They truly can capture emotion in such a striking way and satisfying way, but, god, did I ask to feel all that? Zhu’s arc I found a little boring, to be frank, and mostly it seemed aimed at keeping her away from the capital before the rest of the plot had been laid out (this could be cynical of me, I know). There is a point where, after swallowing the world, the only thing left for his darkness to swallow is him.But that discomfort, and the daily repercussions of being a one-handed man in a two-handed world, was merely the cost of her desire, and Zhu was strong enough to bear it.