Iron Widow
Author: Ziran Jay Xhao
Published by: Rock the Boat Books
Pages: 394
Format:: Hardback
My Rating: ★
Published by: Rock the Boat Books
Pages: 394
Format:: Hardback
My Rating: ★
The boys of Huaxia dream of the celebrity status that comes with piloting Chrysalises – giant transforming robots that battle the aliens beyond the Great Wall. Their female co-pilots are expected to serve as concubines and sacrifice their lives.
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, her plan is to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But on miraculously emerging from the cockpit unscathed after her first battle, she is declared an Iron Widow – the most-feared pilot of all.
Now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she sets her sights on bigger things. The time has come to stop more girls from being sacrificed.
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, her plan is to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But on miraculously emerging from the cockpit unscathed after her first battle, she is declared an Iron Widow – the most-feared pilot of all.
Now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she sets her sights on bigger things. The time has come to stop more girls from being sacrificed.
My thoughts:
Iron Widow is the debut and first book of a duology by Xiran Jay Zhao. Marketed as "a YA Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale" Sci-Fi/Fantasy retelling of the rising of Empress Wu Zetian, the only female ruler in Chinese history, set in a war-torn world where humans fight using giant magical mechas for survival against aliens. I'm so sad because this book felt like it had some interesting things going for it conceptually, but something was definitely missing: the build up, the why, the where are we and what are we doing here. I found a lot of the book to be flat and surface level.
Reading Iron Widow is a journey of taking every line at face value and never giving yourself a second to question things like character motivation or development. Or the structure of the world these characters are in. This book almost feels like a list of an author's favourite tropes with no attempt to pull them together in a meaningful way.
It really seemed as if the author only had a few scenes crystal clear in their head but had no interest in building the rest of the novel around those scenes in a way that made sense. There are a few bits of the novel that shine, while the rest are hastily put together and shoved to the side so the author could get to the parts they were actually interested in.
There isn't anywhere near enough world-building. There isn't a lot of character building either, unless someone gets a monologue where they explain their entire motivations. I was struck by Zetian's completely unmotivated character arc. Readers are basically just dropped into the deep end of the swimming pool with absolutely no idea how to swim through everything.
The problem with Zetian is the reader has no investment in her, in her cause, her anger because it isn't built up, we've just been told to accept the way she is. I did not like Zetian's relationships with either love interest, and felt that they were rushed, but the inclusion of polyamorous relationships is unusual. I just really don't think it’s enough to have strong LGTBQ representation in literature if you don't have an equally strong story and characters to support that representation.
I'm incredibly frustrated that a book marketed as a feminist breakthrough only portrays feminism as something extremely violent, which is actually a harmful stereotype that this book, which prides itself on breaking stereotypes, perpetuates.
I could tell that the author put a lot of heart into this book, but I really try to be honest when I review things, and I'd feel worse if I hadn't wasted so much of my time in reading all 400 pages of Iron Widow. Unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me. There was so much potential here, but it was ruined by poor writing, a half-baked plot, missing character development, and lack of real conflict.
Overall reaction:
Iron Widow is the debut and first book of a duology by Xiran Jay Zhao. Marketed as "a YA Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale" Sci-Fi/Fantasy retelling of the rising of Empress Wu Zetian, the only female ruler in Chinese history, set in a war-torn world where humans fight using giant magical mechas for survival against aliens. I'm so sad because this book felt like it had some interesting things going for it conceptually, but something was definitely missing: the build up, the why, the where are we and what are we doing here. I found a lot of the book to be flat and surface level.
Reading Iron Widow is a journey of taking every line at face value and never giving yourself a second to question things like character motivation or development. Or the structure of the world these characters are in. This book almost feels like a list of an author's favourite tropes with no attempt to pull them together in a meaningful way.
It really seemed as if the author only had a few scenes crystal clear in their head but had no interest in building the rest of the novel around those scenes in a way that made sense. There are a few bits of the novel that shine, while the rest are hastily put together and shoved to the side so the author could get to the parts they were actually interested in.
There isn't anywhere near enough world-building. There isn't a lot of character building either, unless someone gets a monologue where they explain their entire motivations. I was struck by Zetian's completely unmotivated character arc. Readers are basically just dropped into the deep end of the swimming pool with absolutely no idea how to swim through everything.
The problem with Zetian is the reader has no investment in her, in her cause, her anger because it isn't built up, we've just been told to accept the way she is. I did not like Zetian's relationships with either love interest, and felt that they were rushed, but the inclusion of polyamorous relationships is unusual. I just really don't think it’s enough to have strong LGTBQ representation in literature if you don't have an equally strong story and characters to support that representation.
I'm incredibly frustrated that a book marketed as a feminist breakthrough only portrays feminism as something extremely violent, which is actually a harmful stereotype that this book, which prides itself on breaking stereotypes, perpetuates.
I could tell that the author put a lot of heart into this book, but I really try to be honest when I review things, and I'd feel worse if I hadn't wasted so much of my time in reading all 400 pages of Iron Widow. Unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me. There was so much potential here, but it was ruined by poor writing, a half-baked plot, missing character development, and lack of real conflict.
Overall reaction: