HE WHO DROWNED THE WORLD - Shelley Parker-Chan

Zhu Yuanzhang is at the top of her game. She's successfully led an army against the Mongols and has freed southern China from the Mongol's control.  But Zhu isn't satisfied with this unprecedented success.  Now she want to take the throne for herself and become China's emperor. 

Zhu isn't the only one who is feeling ambitious though.  Madam Zhang wants her husband to sit on that throne, and Madam Zhang might wield more power than even Zhu. But there is also Wang Baoxiang, a scholar going after the throne using a different method. Rather than brute force, Wang is playing a political game that might have southern China fall right into his hands.

The first book in this duology, She Who Became the Sun, was a stunning surprise to me. I was so impressed with the language and the power of the story and the determination of the characters (particularly Zhu) and I was so eager to read this.  Unfortunately it is about as 'opposite' as one can get in almost every conceivable way.

There's no real ambition here.  you might think so, given my ultra-brief summary, but Zhu isn't looking to become emperor for any sort of noble reason or to step up and do what's right even if it means bucking tradition.  She wants it because ... she's become greedy. This doesn't seem like the same Zhu at all. And that's a HUGE disappointment because it was her drive and humble altruism that really had the first book sing.

This book is full of dark episodes.  Think about what might be the worst thing you could possibly imagine happening to you - go on, think about something.  Yeah. That, right there, what you're thinking about ... that's in this book.

I highly suspect that we're meant to look at these books together and that they represent the yin and the yang. The "opposite but interconnected, mutually perpetuating forces." (Thanks, Wikipedia [I've already donated].) I'm not sure, though, why Zhu has to represent both sides. And while it's a nice conceit (if that's how we're supposed to look at these books) I'm not sure what we're supposed to get, specifically, from this book. The yin and yang meanings are clear and present in these books (dark/light, night/day, cold/hot, weak/strong, retreating/advancing, winter/summer, passive/active, etc) but the story, to get us through the Yin, is not at all clear to me (is that another part of the yin/yang? - murky/clear).

Looking for a good book? Though I can appreciate the symbolism and tremendous effort to connect He Who Drowned the World (by Shelley Parker-Chan) with the previous book in the set, through an ancient Chinese philosophy, the actual story-telling aspect and morality of all the characters was hugely disappointing.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

* * * * * *

He Who Drowned the World

author: Shelly Parker-Chan

series: The Radiant Emperor #2

publisher: Tor Books

ISBN: 9781250621825

hardcover, 496 pages

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