Review – He Who Drowned the World (The Radiant Emperor Duology, Book 2) by Shelley Parker-Chan (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 484 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: August 22, 2023
ASIN: B0BKXT36DG
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in The Radiant Emperor Duology
Source: Borrowed ebook from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars
“How much would you give to win the world?
Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor.
But Zhu isn’t the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband—and she’s strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who has already sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his father’s killer, the Great Khan.
Unbeknownst to the southerners, a new contender is even closer to the throne. The scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang has maneuvered his way into the capital, and his lethal court games threaten to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also desires revenge: to become the most degenerate Great Khan in history—and in so doing, make a mockery of every value his Mongol warrior family loved more than him.
All the contenders are determined to do whatever it takes to win. But when desire is the size of the world, the price could be too much for even the most ruthless heart to bear…”
Series Info/Source: This is the 2nd book in The Radiant Emperor Duology I borrowed this on ebook through the library.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this conclusion to the Radiant Emperor Duology but thought it was weaker than the first book in the series.
This book follows many different characters as they fight for the throne. My favorite character continues to be Zhu, whose plucky attitude is contagious and coupled with a ruthlessness that is chilling. We also hear from Madama Zhang who wants to put her husband on the throne, General Ouyang who wants revenge, and Wang Baoxiang who wants to mock his Mongol family by becoming the most vile Great Khan in history. All the characters are very relatable and have a lot of depth to them. I enjoyed watching them try to out-maneuver each other. The story is engaging and easy to read.
This is mainly historical fiction but it does have some intriguing fantasy elements. The magical Manifests that these feuding members have are intriguing and the ability they give to see ghosts is fascinating. I also enjoyed some other fantasy elements like Zhu figuring out how to use his powers to bring back his dead companions.
While I enjoyed this overall, there was one thing that bothered me throughout. The characters have a lot of internal dialogue going on that takes up a lot of page space. Much of this internal dialogue was repetitive and didn’t add much to the story. I frequently found myself skimming some of these portions to get to the meat of the story. I would have preferred some better editing to tighten up all of these internal thoughts and conversations. They just took up way too much page space.
As with the first book, I would have loved an afterward on how much of this book was historically accurate and how much was fantasy. I am always intrigued to learn about history and in a historical fantasy like this it is nice to have some help sorting out what is real and what is fantasy.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this. There are some wonderfully despicable characters in here and they are fascinating to watch as they try to out-maneuver each other for leadership of China. I did think the internal dialogue that characters had in their head were way too drawn out and should have been edited down. I would have also really enjoyed an afterward comparing this to actual history. I look forward to Parker-Chen’s future novels and would recommend this book to those interested in historical fiction fantasies, especially those that look at historical China.
