This was… so different than what I expected, but not necessarily in a bad way. For one, I thought this was based on an actual female emperor’s founding of a dynasty… I was sure there had been one, but no – this is a reimaging of the founding of the dynasty that unified China, but with a twist in our main character. It plays with gender, and is queer as well! The writing is gorgeous, the world fresh and rich, steeped in history but with a slight magical touch. I had very little trouble grasping our setting, even though there is no time wasted on unnecessary explanations – which is how I like it, it never makes sense for our characters to explain things mentally to themselves that for them is the world they live in.

I kept wavering between feeling connected with the characters and almost watching things unfold, which may have been intentional. This back-and-forth did keep me from falling fully in love with the story. As deep and emotional as the journey is, it never felt too heavy. I loved the dynamic between our two characters connected by destiny – one determined to claim it for their own, the other determined not to veer from the path set before him, each with their own struggles and societal scorn. It’s disturbing to see what lines are crossed, what principles adjusted, when the end justifies the means. Zhu tries to keep hold of some of her core beliefs, but in the end the only important one is her faith that she is destined for greatness.

I didn’t know it was going to have a sequel, so I was surprised at where we ended up leaving the story and our characters. I am intrigued – and scared – to see what they’ll be willing to sacrifice and change to reach their goals. I wonder if we’ll see more of Ouyang in the second book as well, I really liked reading from his point of view.

This book blew me away. I don’t know what I expected but this was fantastic. It was very raw in some places and I really enjoyed the different character perspectives. At the start I worried that the perspectives would be very villian/hero but it wasn’t, I felt as though both sides were understandable. I also enjoyed the sapphic elements introduced.

Absolutely loved this book and now own 3 copies. I can’t wait to read more.

I like historical fiction and She Who Became the Sun is that - set in 14th Century China it explores the story of the founder of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang. I haven't read a book in this setting and timeframe before, so for that reason I found it really interesting. I also really enjoyed its themes of gender identity and power. Not my usual type of read per se, in some parts it was really intense and there are some fantasy elements but I loved being swept up in the drama of this epic story.

Dubbed as Mulan meets The Song Of Achilles, She Who Became The Sun is the first in The Radient Empire series following a girl who is fated to nothingness, while her brother is fated to become great. However when their home is attacked by bandits and her brother and father killed the girl takes her brothers name, Zhu Chongba.... and his destiny.

This book is dark and gripping and reminded me of The Poppy War series in the best way as it follows the fate of characters who will do anything, no matter how unforgivable, to survive and for a place in history as someone great.

If you love complex anti-heroes, ghosts, magic, political intrigue and dark captivating prose then you'll adore this book!

When I first came across She Who Became the Sun, I thought it was a fantasy novel. But it’s actually historical fiction.

I know very little about the history of China, so reading She Who Became the Sun gave me an idea of the history of the country, at least in the relevant time period (14th century). Shelley Parker-Chan’s writing is so atmospheric that I felt like I had stepped inside 14th century China. I felt like I was walking in the main character’s shoes.

The main character is Zhu, the sister whose fate the fortune teller foretold as nothing. She has a fierce will to survive. So she takes on her brother’s destiny and finds her way to the monastery her family promised her brother to. From there, she keeps surviving, keeps becoming her brother in order to convince Heaven that she is him. Through this process, Zhu, never named in her own right, rejects her female body. Throughout the novel we see her struggling with who she truly is.

Gender identity is a strong theme in the novel. The other point of view character is a eunuch, a soldier harbouring a burning desire for revenge at what those whom he serves did to him and his family. He’s an interesting character, and I’m not quite sure what to make of him. I didn’t enjoy his perspective as much as Zhu’s.

She Who Became the Sun is a long book but I never felt bored or like Parker-Chan was dragging the story out. The story builds up steadily, slowly taking its time to reach the climax. I enjoyed watching Zhu find her way throughout the story. Though the novel has an epic backdrop, the story does very much feel character-driven. It’s about Zhu’s growth and discovery of who she really is, rather than about war and the politics of China.

Though I don’t fully understand the discussions around gender in this novel, I enjoyed it enough that I will pick up the second book. I hope I come to understand what is happening as I read more.

3,5* rounded to 4
This books is full of promises and I thought it was the right one for me. I had a love/hate relationship with it: I loved the style of writing, the details and the well researched historical background but I suppose I wasn't in the right mindset to love it.
It's a bit slow at times and I was expecting something with more fantasy elements (even if there's some).
There's a strong focus on gender and identity, I appreciated the characters development.
I think i will read again as there's plenty of potential and loved the storytelling.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was the last book of the 2021 orange sapphic trifecta (the other two being The Unbroken and The Jasmine Throne) I had left to read and another of my most anticipated releases. It delivers everything other early reviews have promised – moral grayness, queerness, epicness, kneeling, yearning, a most interesting misogynistic eunuch, a petty scholar, determination, and romantic fisting. In short, if you’re looking for a different take on epic fantasy, you should definitely go for it.

Born in a famine-stricken little village and unsatisfied with her promised fate, Zhu decides to steal her dying brother’s identity and with it, his great destiny. Off to join a monastery, she’s prepared to do anything to avoid becoming nothing. On the other side, we have Ouyang, a eunuch general with many insecurities, haunted by ghosts and mysteriously bound to Zhu.

I have always been fascinated by characters who would do anything to achieve their goals – watching to see just how far they will dare to go and how many corpses will their ambition leave in their path, which of their flaws will fuck them over. Zhu has been very satisfying in this regard, as has Ouyang, and I love the “enemies by fate who keep running into each other” trope. Another character I enjoyed is Wang Baoxiang, considered unmanly because of his scholarly inclinations, underestimated and belittled constantly – to other characters’ peril. His pettiness was a delight.

(Ma, however, is a cinnamon roll too pure for this world who deserves only the best.)

Another of the main themes is gender. There’s a lot of nuance and many differences between how characters perceive it that are impossible to describe in a review, but I loved it. You have Zhu who doesn’t really care, Ouyang’s vast amounts of baggage, characters feeling restricted by their gender roles, prince Esen, the masculine ideal, and everything in between.

In short, I recommend it and I would love to continue the series.

This feels like quite an epic read! Set in 14th century China, women have little importance other than child bearing - but the main character here is quite different.

Born in famine and poverty, Zhu Chongba and his sister see ugly violence and their father is killed. Zhu Chongba has been promised greatness by a fortune teller, and it is this fate which his sister seeks to follow when he too is lost. Disguising her gender, she follows what she sees as the foretold path, encountering hazards, battles, and love along the way.

Seeing the main character from both male and female perspectives depending on who they interact with, the journey they follow, and the ruthlessness of politics in this arena, all make for a fascinating story.

I expected to like this book more than I did. The first and last 25% were great but in the middle I was really quite bored. I felt like I couldn’t quite emotionally access the story. The action, intrigue and backstabbing were very enjoyable to read however and the determination and will of the main character to not only survive but become so powerful was impressive. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

She Who Became the Sun is a queer reimagining of the Zhu Yuanzhang's rise to power as the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, with a fantastical twist - there aren't too many fantasy elements, only the existence of ghosts and the strong presence of fate as theme. It took a while to get into the story but I loved the mix of politics, military and a personal focus on characters, especially Zhu and Ouyang's desire to accomplish their fate but conflicting feelings in achieving it, as well as exploring the themes of gender and power.

This book is a compelling LGBTQ retelling of Zhu Yuanzhang's origins ( the founder of the Ming Dynasty, and overthrower of Mongol rule in China). It's not exactly xianxia, there aren't too many fantastical elements apart from the Mandate of Heaven of emperors manifesting as a literal flame, that waxes and wanes as emperors' political power does. The story traces Zhu Yuanzhang's life, only in this version, the Hongwu Emperor's a girl, who disguises herself as a boy named Zhu Chongba. Orphaned and starving, Zhu Chongba gets a much-coveted place at a monastery by dint of sheer will power and perseverance, and takes charge of her destiny. She's always careful, however, to regulate her behavior to not arouse suspicion of her gender. She plots and plans her way through each stage of her life, and I love how well-defined she is as a character-there are certain ingrained behaviours that are difficult to overcome, and Zhu CHongba uses the best of both male and female qualities to overcome every challenge. In patriarchal societies ( and in the 10th Century AD, which society wasn't ), women were taught fear and subservience , so for Zhu CHongba to overcome that centuries-old conditioning was in itself, an indication of her abilities to control her fate. The book also explores the story from the side of the Mongol rulers and the complicated relationships between the Emperor, his sons, the Great Khan, and one of their fascinating generals, General Ouyang, who has an agenda of his own. Zhu Chongba has to navigate an intricate web of realpolitik, when she joins a rebel group aiming at overthrowing Mongol rule. The book feels very organic in its narrative flow-Zhu Chongba isn't a military and strategic genius overnight, her skills have been honed through years of having to fend for herself in a hostile world. A lot of the book is true to actual historical account, which leaves me very worried for Zhu CHongba's trusted lieutenant, confidant and BFF, Xu Da!
The book ends at a tantalizing point in the Hongwu Emperor's life, and there's probably going to be a second part, which I can't wait for. Till then, I'm going to read up on the history behind this excellent retelling, which is a rare feat for historical fiction-such a fascinating world that I want to know more about these cities, and these manipulative, conniving, always courageous characters.

This book appealed to me for many reasons: China, alternate history, strong women.

The writing was effortlessly beautiful, drawing me into a truly epic story which develops through the wide sweep of fertile plains and the insulated atmosphere of a monastery, in a world populated by mongol warriors, rebel fighters and peasants on the verge of starvation. There are battles and political machinations but the narrative never becomes bogged down in the details though I did find I was reading the prose more slowly than I expected.

This is a story of desire and destiny told through two connected narratives, one from the point of view of Zhu who starts life in a starving peasant family and the other from the point of view of General Ouyang, a eunuch in the army of the Mongol rulers.

Zhu refuses to accept her own destiny as a woman and takes on that of her brother, using her wits and growing self-awareness to achieve the fate she desires, while General Ouyang is dragged unwillingly towards his fate by his desire for revenge.
Neither character is truly admirable but the subtlety of the story-telling leads you to empathise with them and yearn for their success.

I felt admiration for Zhu, respecting her vision and ambition and enjoying her changing sense of self, even while I was shocked by the ruthlessness of her determination.
But I was more moved by General Ouyang. He is a character written with a stunning depth of nuance, tortured by his own emotions and driven by revenge. You cannot like such a guarded, brutal character instead you want to cry for him in the knowledge that he was fated to never enjoy happiness.

This book was definitely a 4.5 stars for me.
It would have been 5 stars except that I didn’t end up feeling the emotion connection to Zhu that I had expected.
This maybe due to the single, graphic sex scene in the last half of the book. I can understand why it was included but counterintuitively it distanced me from the characters involved. I felt its tone was a little out of tune with the rest of the storytelling, possibly too real and banal, and as such it detracted from the epic tragedy of the story.

However, that was not enough to stop me rounding up to 5 stars for GR and I am eagerly looking forward to the next installment.

Highly recommended

With thanks to Shelley Parker-Chan and Mantle for an advanced readers copy of this group.

4.5*

I absolutely adore this book. This is Mulan meets The Poppy War, with all the brutality of both. If you are looking for a star crossed lovers and gentle kind words I'd avoid this read. This story is one of antiheroes, political and military strategy, betrayals, and heart retching plotlines.

This currently sits as my favourite 2021 read so far.

Full disclosure: I was given a free ARC for my review on Net Gallery. Below is my honest review.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I am Shelley Parker-Chan target reader during a world wide pandemic. On the surface, I am - I personally love:
- A struggle to power with meaningful character progression
- An underdog main character who is also queer - representation matters!
- A historical reimagining inspired by real life events in the history of 1300’s Chinese founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. I was excited to immerse myself in this period of time.

Aspects that were perfect about the book:

It’s obvious Parker-Chan has had immersive personal experiences in Asia. Information was accurate and nuanced.

1. The lyrical turn of phrases even have the rhythmic quality that tonal languages possess, even when the words are in English.
2. The implications of emperor’s health and actions on his rule were just so.
3. The Chinese obsession with food due to generations of famine by the fixation on flavours and describing mouth textures were spot on. The descriptions about famine - the daydreams of food are well described and the diet of peasants during droughts are meticulous and haunting.
4. The representation of gender inequality and the relationships of children to their parents. The fact that sons were favoured over daughters even to extent to if there was only one portion of food, it would be given to the son rather than halved, and the practice of selling daughters for food and survival of son and father was told in the best disquieting fashion, while being factually correct.
5. The religious practices of offerings to the ancestors and spirits, the consultation of astrology and using dates via lunar cycle, descriptions of writing being on the right hand side moving downward, not only provided authenticity of the prose, they were used appropriately as literary tools to move the story on.
6. The reason for persistence to win over monks was clearly provided without too much hand-holding.

So why did I only manage 29% of the book, despite five different attempts to finish the book over a number weeks?

I think it’s because I’m HK Cantonese and these things I discussed above, particularly around gender inequality and famine are actually more of a trigger for me than I had initially believed them to be when I requested to be a ARC reader. I’m at a period in my life where I’m immensely privileged in terms of being able to keep a roof over my head, have food in the kitchen, and my opinions are respected at work and hold weight. However, there were periods in my life where neither of these things were true… A lack of control, and gut gnawing painful hunger as a very young child were something I experienced in intense ways. These descriptions brought it all back with vivid recall. Over the years, I also become to believe that generational trauma (e.g. from famine, war, or slavery) does actually impact their descendants in their bodies (e.g. bone density, storing of fat, etc), and their attitudes. I felt uncomfortable and dread when I was pushing myself to read the book. Finally, the time to read it ran out and unless I bought it, I wouldn’t be able to read any more… And I felt annoyed at myself that I didn’t manage to read it but I think I just didn’t and still don’t have the emotional bandwidth to process and care about the main character as the descriptions in the continually triggered a trauma response with me, on top of the stress created during a worldwide pandemic and an emotionally demanding job. Even though I know the ending is likely to be the pinacle of victory - I couldn’t face the trials and tribulations to get there.

I would recommend this book for those who do have the emotional capacity for the hard hitting exploration of gender, power and identity. I think for me, I need something less emotionally draining right now. I think this is a book I need to return to when the world is a little kinder, a little calmer and less “interesting” in the Chinese turn of phrase.

What an exquisite novel. This was epic in scope but felt very personal in nature.

Featuring a lot of complicated, real characters who all have to decide what they will do to get what they want.

I thought this was a wonderful idea, that was beautifully executed and can't wait to read the next book in the series.

A 2.5 star reading but rounded to 3.

When I read the blurb for this book I thought it was a perfect plot with a perfect setting. Chinese history and legend, adventure, queer affirmation – all the ingredients are there but somehow the book doesn’t live up to the expectations.

A girl whose fate holds literally nothing finds herself orphan and on the verge of starving to death. She decides to claim her brother’s fate instead, and becomes Zhu Chongba: from now on she will have to deceive everyone, the monks who raise her, the rebels and Heaven itself in order to achieve greatness.

I found it hard to get into the story, after the first couple chapters I felt I was dragging through the pages and I almost put the book down for good a few times. However, I kept reading and was hoping to find a turn of the events and get in tune with the narrative.
Even after a couple of plot twists and right through to the end I didn’t quite find what I was looking for and it didn’t leave me with the hype for the sequel – which I don’t think I’ll read.

The characters are well written but I didn’t find any of them particularly brilliant and I didn’t feel able to truly empathise with them.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the historical fantasy genre with a hint of epic, and Chinese history and myth. You can expect adventure and action from this story but you’ll have to be patient and try to get over the felling of putting the book down, especially at the beginning, in order to see the events unfold and reach the end of this first part of the story.

Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.

It is a wonderful story that explores internal politics, economics of war, people trying to believe in their fate, gender roles and gender identity.

The dual POV is mesmerizing and it brings out the magnificent world and brilliant words about desire.
Cannot recommend this book enough.

“Inside her there was only the perfect, blank brightness of belief and desire. Desire is the cause of all suffering. The greater the desire, the greater the suffering, and now she desired greatness itself. With all her will, she directed the thought to Heaven and the watching statues: Whatever suffering it takes, I can bear it.”

She Who Became the Sun follows two main characters, Zhu and Ouyang, both seemingly on opposite sides but with a strong likeness between them, and a past that ensures their fates are intrinsically entwined.

As a child, poor peasant Zhu is orphaned and assumes her brothers identity upon his death in an attempt to take his fate of greatness and leave behind her own fate of nothingness. Desperate for the Heavens to accept her new fate, she becomes a monk then joins the rebels against Mongol Rule, forever working her way towards greatness.

Ouyang is also orphaned as a child, after his father betrayed the Mongol Army and his entire family was murdered. Ouyang was spared death, but instead castrated to end his families lineage and forced to live as a slave to the Prince of Henan’s son. He has developed a deep self-hatred and despite the fact he outwardly appears to have accepted his fate, his true desire is to seek revenge for his family.

//

As soon as I found out the premise of this book was essentially a queer Mulan retelling, I knew I had to read it.

I will start by saying, it took me two months to read the first half of this book, and just two days to read the second half. The first half is very historical and political, and as much as I enjoyed the story, I found it hard to follow. However, it definitely redeemed itself for me by the end - what an ending! As much as I believed in Zhu and Ouyang’s desires, I didn’t see the direction of the last few chapters coming at all!

Since I thoroughly enjoyed the story by the end, I definitely want to reread it and give it a second chance, as I believe it will be 5 stars second time around.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for my honest review.

What an epic novel. It was a real journey for the reader and Zhu, you get so emotionally invested.

The character arc was intense, insane, masterful.

I wanted more, I cannot believe where it ended! Cannot recommend enough

This was an amazingly strong debut fantasy book for me.
It's hard to believe that this book is indeed a debut, as the political intrigue and arresting characters were so established and expertly done.

Despite the amount of political manoeuvrings and alliances I didn't find it at all difficult or dense to read, I don't think the pace suffered because of this either. The cold pragmatism of two of the main characters definitely kept you on your toes with the amount of betrayal and backstabbing.

I thought this was such a great exploration of the historical and cultural context of this setting, especially in terms of gender and class/military ranking. It was really interesting to learn more deeply about it.

I don't know if I could call Zhu and Ouyang favourite characters seeing as they both do some pretty despicable things, but it made their characters extremely engaging to read through. These were definitely the most fleshed out characters for me and I found it intriguing that many of their aspects mirrored each other.

There's definitely some really interesting conversation in here surrounding gender and gender fluidity and also the role of women in historical China, which I really appreciated getting to read more on.