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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I need a million more books set in this time and about these characters, complete with Parker-Chan's lush prose and evocative themes.

An incredibly compelling novel, vividly written, with fascinating thematic arguments about gender and power – there are entire essays to be composed on that aspect of this novel alone – and with a startlingly fresh approach to combining the fantastical with the historical… I suspect I’ll still be thinking about this duology in a decade’s time. I don’t know how well done the other characters were but, I can assure you, this one was a masterpiece. In the space of a few months he had taken all the remaining cities along the southern reaches of the Grand Canal and moved the Zhang family’s capital to walled Pingjiang on the eastern shore of Lake Tai. The story, much like the characters, is ambitious and clever and the depth of emotion Parker-Chan is able to tap into without ever becoming maudlin is astounding. Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high on her recent victory that tore southern China from its Mongol rulers.I enjoyed the parts of Baoxiang’s POV that were more intrigue-driven subterfuge, but his sections quickly became too graphic for me. Even though first he’ll have to get over some major trust issues he has probably developed from Ma 😅 But I am choosing to believe he has a happy life or else I will loose sleep over it. But to Zhu, whose general was her brother in all but blood, their distant shapes were as easily distinguished as two faces. I would rather be received face-to-face by my equal than by his honorable wife speaking from behind a curtain of propriety. Evocative and heartrending, Parker-Chan's debut is a poetic masterpiece about war, love, and identity.

But, if you enjoy getting immersed, even in the thought process when a character experienced physical stimuli (no, not just sex) and how it affected their personalities, reaction to others, and sometimes even getting an expanded vision of self, then this is your book. The trigger warnings are plenty-you can check them out on the author’s review-but I missed the commentary, the lesson behind all the traumatic scenes we went through. 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? Now all that separated the Zhangs in the east from Zhu’s own kingdom in the west was a stretch of flatlands in the curve of the mighty Yangzi River as it wound its way to the sea. What is so brilliant about these characters is that even if you dislike them, they are still riveting to witness and to explore.Zhu is a hero unlike any other - her propulsive desire to survive at any cost powers a glorious novel that encompasses grand betrayal, love, loss and triumph . 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.