Raising the Stakes: Review of Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao
From Iron Widow to Heavenly Tyrant, Wu Zetian goes from "fucks around" to "finds out."
Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao
Series: Iron Widow #2
Published: December 2024, Tundra Books
Genre: Science Fiction
Summary: After suffering devastating loss and making drastic decisions, Zetian finds herself at the seat of power in Huaxia. But she has also learned that her world is not as it seems, and revelations about an enemy more daunting than Zetian imagined forces her to share power with a dangerous man she cannot simply depose.
Despite having vastly different ideas about how they must deconstruct the corrupt and misogynist system that plagues their country, Zetian must join this man in a dance of truth and lies and perform their roles to perfection in order to take down their common enemy, who seeks to control them as puppets while dangling one of Zetian’s loved ones as a hostage.
With political unrest and perilous forces aiming to undermine Zetian at every turn, can she enact positive changes as a fair and just ruler? Or will she be forced to rely on fear and violence and succumb to her darker instincts in her quest for vengeance?
This review contains spoilers for the ending of Iron Widow and minor spoilers for Heavenly Tyrant.
“Spunky teenage girl rises up to take down a dystopian government” is a genre onto itself. In Heavenly Tyrant, sequel to The New York Times–bestselling novel Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao gives us the story after the uprising.
If you picked up the series for the Mecha vs. Alien battle sequences and some steamy throuple action, those elements—while still present—takes a back seat in Heavenly Tyrant.
If you, like me, are drawn to the way Zhao uses sci-fi tropes to heighten, explore, and rip apart the terrors of our real world’s patriarchal industrial military complex, then this sequel will be right up your alley.
Heavenly Tyrant picks up moments after Iron Widow ends, after Wu Zetian finds the Yellow Dragon Chrysalis, revives its legendary pilot-emperor, Qin Zheng, from two hundred years of hibernation, and (literally) smashes the old order of corrupt sages and greedy capitalists. Her glorious moment of triumph is marred by two concurrent gut-punch revelations:
The gods are holding the broken body of her co-pilot and lover, Li Shimin, hostage.
The humans of Huaxia are not native to this planet and, in fact, are the invaders to Hundun’s home world.
While those two concerns are constantly looming over her, Zetian faces a more immediate threat in Qin Zheng, who reclaims his title of emperor and decides to make her his wife to spite his advisors. This marriage makes Wu Zetian the most powerful woman in Huaxia—but still a woman, nevertheless, and the militant laborist revolution Qin Zheng brings about has no understanding of basic feminism.
Everyone’s equal under the emperor’s rule: equally capable of labor, of conscription, of execution, and of his contempt. (Woman are now required to serve and fight in a meaningless war to extract resources, just like men! Diversity win!)
In this unhappy marriage of (in)convenience, Qin Zheng habitually exerts control over Zetian’s bodily autonomy: ordering surgery on her feet without consent, locking her in isolation for weeks on end, conspiring with Zetian’s other lover, Gao Yizhi, to steal her eggs for a surrogate pregnancy. It’s an insidious and specific brand of misogyny, wielded by leftist men who purports to champion progress, liberty, and equality, all the while oppressing the women in their lives “for their own good.”
Even as Qin Zheng’s own autonomy is restricted by a forced medical quarantine, as Zetian comes to understand Qin Zheng’s motivation and political ideology (“Heartbreaking: The Worst Man You Know Just Made A Great Point”), and as the two are forced to work together on a clandestine mission to overthrow the gods, the kinship they find in each other is no match for (and, in some cases, amplifies) their irreconcilable differences.
Zhao is a master at raising the stakes, constantly renegotiating and redefining the push-and-pull power struggle between Zetian and Qin Zheng (not enemies, not lovers, a secret third thing?), the ideological war between them and the counterrevolutionary contingent, and the existential conflict between all of Huaxia and the “gods” above.
On a writing craft level, the action scenes (on the battlefield or in the bedroom) are unfortunately hit-or-miss for me; some descriptions are anachronistic, clunky, or flat, like stage directions for a blockbuster film.
Zooming out, however, Zhao also devotes long, expository paragraphs to describe large-scale systemic shifts over time. The switch-up between close-up battle scenes and fast-paced time jumps can feel jarring at times, with the latter often falling into “tell not show.” (For example, the introduction of the Phoenix Alliance, a key accomplishment for Zetian, happens quite rapidly and without fanfare.) However, I do appreciate how those “big picture” chapters reaffirm novel’s message about the power of collective action.
I’ve previously covered depictions of revolutions in speculative fiction in my review of Metal from Heaven by august clarke and Countess by Suzan Palumbo. While the political messages in Heavenly Tyrant feel heavy-handed at times, I am in awe of Xiran Jay Zhao’s ability to interweave epic sci-fi set pieces with scathing social commentary, devoting equal time to pivotal mecha fights and real-world revolutionary tactics. Notably, Zhao deconstructs “The Chosen One” narrative, as Wu Zetian is determined to build infrastructure and elevate other women to ensure the socialist and feminist principles she believes in will outlive any single leader.
In this novel about the consequences and responsibilities that come with power, Wu Zetian makes increasingly morally dubious choices in hopes of creating a better world—a world that, after a fever-dream of a finale, feels more impossible than ever. But with at least one more book in the series, I have no doubt Xiran Jay Zhao will up the stakes and change the game once again in what’s sure to be a dazzling finale.