He Who Drowned the World

As opposed to what's kind of teasered at the end of "She Who Became the Sun" there's very little of Ma in the sequel. Instead, we spend a lot of time in the heads of Ouyang and Biaoxiang with their relentless hatred of themselves and almost everyone else. There's also a lot of misogyny and homophobia being reproduced in the book as a consequence. As I had expected/feared, Zhu's descent into immoral and very objectionable decisions for the sake of power continues at a quick pace so the clever tricks she comes up with lose the appeal they still had in the first book when I was still rooting for her. At the end, I wasn't even sure what the general message of the book is supposed to be.

I'd almost recommend just sticking with the first book and forget about this one.

 It’s certainly a worthy sequel to this blend of real history and transmasc Mulan and the fraught relationship between Zhu and Ouyang takes centre stage for me. Zhu as always brings intelligence and brash confidence to every confrontation while in the background the court politics of the Great Khan begin to overtake events.