enne📚 reviewed Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao
Heavenly Tyrant
4 stars
Overall feelings: the ideas were fun, the middle felt like it dragged on, and the politics often felt heavy handed
The part of this book that I enjoyed the most and felt like was the strongest was all of the interpersonal dynamics. The first book ends with waking up the legendary emperor Qin Zheng, who in this books takes control immediately. The triangle dynamics of Zetian, Shimin, and Yizhi from the first book are broken up, with Shimin hostaged, Yizhi becoming Qin Zheng's advisor, and Zetian becoming Qing Zheng's wife. There's a lot of good tension between the fact that Qin Zheng is an authoritarian tyrant that rules with violence, but also establishes some policies that try to address inequalities from the previous regime. Zetian loathes his controlling nature, but also finds that he listens and can be extremely reasonable when given policy advice. And, all in the background, the …
Overall feelings: the ideas were fun, the middle felt like it dragged on, and the politics often felt heavy handed
The part of this book that I enjoyed the most and felt like was the strongest was all of the interpersonal dynamics. The first book ends with waking up the legendary emperor Qin Zheng, who in this books takes control immediately. The triangle dynamics of Zetian, Shimin, and Yizhi from the first book are broken up, with Shimin hostaged, Yizhi becoming Qin Zheng's advisor, and Zetian becoming Qing Zheng's wife. There's a lot of good tension between the fact that Qin Zheng is an authoritarian tyrant that rules with violence, but also establishes some policies that try to address inequalities from the previous regime. Zetian loathes his controlling nature, but also finds that he listens and can be extremely reasonable when given policy advice. And, all in the background, the gods are manipulating everybody and everybody is trying to deceive each other and the gods. It adds up to a nuanced dynamic that was really intriguing to me.
Another thing I liked is that the ending of this book (like the ending of the first) is a great escalation. The first book ended with "oh wow, you're just going to reveal for free that [major spoiler]". The ending to this book likewise breaks up established dynamics, creates additional tensions, and remixes and stirs up interpersonal conflicts.
That said, I do think that it just took a while to get to this ending. The politics felt didactic and heavy handed to me, and the overall plot was much slower than the first book.
