The World is under threat from hordes of giant bug monsters, and the only thing standing in their way are dashing young heroes piloting giant combat mecha. So far, so anime. The novel Iron Widow sets itself apart by presenting a World that is also unrelentingly sexist, and a protagonist, Zetian, who is homicidally angry about it.
Zetian starts the novel wanting to avenge the death of her sister, killed like so many other young women by being used as a battery to power the psychically charged super mecha. "So it's a typical revenge plot then?" I thought to myself. "No" replies the book, resolving the revenge plot in the first fifty pages. Oh damn, what's going to happen next?
Thus goes the debut sci-fi/fantasy novel of Xiran Jay Zhao, which reads very much like a debut sci-fi/fantasy novel. I came away from the book liking it, in spite of it being not particularly well written. There is a general lack of discipline or measuredness to it, with the story dumping lots of info about Qi, elemental based magic, multistage mecha and Chinese folk-law in a very short span, without it being immediately useful information to the reader. Zhao also has a habit of mentioning things without giving texture to it. For instance, our protagonist spends half the book in a wheelchair, but outside of it being mentioned periodically, there's not much from Zetian's perspective of what it physically and emotionally feels like to be incapacitated and stuck in a chair this entire time. Finally, there's just some odd and unnatural choices of language. Sentences like, "My ribs cringe against my lungs," or, "I swerve around in my wheelchair and storm out."
Despite those negatives, I enjoyed the book. I love having a protagonist who has the ruthless drive and hatefulness of a supervillain, whilst being understandably aggrieved at the broken world she lives in. Zetian even cackles maniacally from time to time! She's pure camp, an unapologetically flamboyant empowerment fantasy. YA fantasy protagonists tend to be a timid and introspective breed. Zetian however is a berserker in a giant, magic robot birdsuit. Her default impulse is "nah, fuck that", leading her from one train wreck to the next. Whilst the writing does desperately need to improve for future iterations in the series, Iron Widow pushes enough of my buttons for me to have had fun with it.
Literature Mobile Suit Girlboss
The World is under threat from hordes of giant bug monsters, and the only thing standing in their way are dashing young heroes piloting giant combat mecha. So far, so anime. The novel Iron Widow sets itself apart by presenting a World that is also unrelentingly sexist, and a protagonist, Zetian, who is homicidally angry about it.
Zetian starts the novel wanting to avenge the death of her sister, killed like so many other young women by being used as a battery to power the psychically charged super mecha. "So it's a typical revenge plot then?" I thought to myself. "No" replies the book, resolving the revenge plot in the first fifty pages. Oh damn, what's going to happen next?
Thus goes the debut sci-fi/fantasy novel of Xiran Jay Zhao, which reads very much like a debut sci-fi/fantasy novel. I came away from the book liking it, in spite of it being not particularly well written. There is a general lack of discipline or measuredness to it, with the story dumping lots of info about Qi, elemental based magic, multistage mecha and Chinese folk-law in a very short span, without it being immediately useful information to the reader. Zhao also has a habit of mentioning things without giving texture to it. For instance, our protagonist spends half the book in a wheelchair, but outside of it being mentioned periodically, there's not much from Zetian's perspective of what it physically and emotionally feels like to be incapacitated and stuck in a chair this entire time. Finally, there's just some odd and unnatural choices of language. Sentences like, "My ribs cringe against my lungs," or, "I swerve around in my wheelchair and storm out."
Despite those negatives, I enjoyed the book. I love having a protagonist who has the ruthless drive and hatefulness of a supervillain, whilst being understandably aggrieved at the broken world she lives in. Zetian even cackles maniacally from time to time! She's pure camp, an unapologetically flamboyant empowerment fantasy. YA fantasy protagonists tend to be a timid and introspective breed. Zetian however is a berserker in a giant, magic robot birdsuit. Her default impulse is "nah, fuck that", leading her from one train wreck to the next. Whilst the writing does desperately need to improve for future iterations in the series, Iron Widow pushes enough of my buttons for me to have had fun with it.