Review: He Who Drowned the World, by Shelley Parker-Chan

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.

"Porcelain wasn't a person, and it neither felt nor grieved". Shelley Parker-Chan's He Who Drowned the World is the gut-wrenching conclusion to the duology that started with She Who Became the Sun. It's filled to the brim with immoral characters doing their worst to achieve their goals, and you can't help cheering for Zhu, who's only slightly better than the rest of them. This book is a tragedy, and it's a damn good one.

The brutal narration doesn't shy away from the realities of war and from the terrible life of courtesans at court, with numerous scenes of violence, some of which are of a sexual nature. But the descriptions aren't horribly graphic. This book also features characters submitting to sex in order to achieve their goals, and a sort of BDSM nonsexual relationship forming between two characters in order to help the submissive character keep their focus.

The characters are incredibly compelling; the one that could be argued to be the main villain of the narrative is so complex and mired with guilt, set on a path of self-actualization that doesn't stop at anything, even at hurting people they might feel some genuine affection for. It's a novel filled with betrayals and painful realizations. It's a reflection on femininity and masculinity and self-hatred, and it makes its points with harsh precision. And yet there's also a sliver of hope, a beautiful moment of compassion.

The magic takes more focus than in the first book, with the Mandate of Heaven and its uses being at the center of many a plot point. The relationship between Zhu and Ma transitions to the background, until it takes center stage again at the end of the book with some chilling moments. Then there's a tragic relationship between two men, where it's not clear whether one of them is even attracted to men.

He Who Drowned the World is an extraordinary feat of a novel.

✨ 5 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* Lady Hotspur, by Tessa Gratton

for: complicated characters, complex politics