Review: Heavenly Tyrant

Title: Heavenly Tyrant

Author: Xiran Jay Zhao

Publisher: Tundra Books

Publication date: December 24, 2024

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Summary

After some quite drastic decisions, Zetian now finds herself with a lot of power in Huaxia. If not the most powerful person in Huaxia. However, those decisions showed her some dark secrets about her world that seem impossible to conquer. Those revelations are what force her to work with a dangerous man who helped her survive the previous battle.

As political unrest starts to take hold in Huaxia and revolution sparks throughout the country, Zetian has to figure out what side she is on. Can she become a good ruler or will she fall back on fear and violence?

Review: Heavenly Tyrant

Thanks to Tundra Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao! I have been eagerly anticipating the release of this book ever since reading Iron Widow back in 2021. For the most part, I’m happy to say that this sequel didn’t disappoint!

The pacing in this book is quite a bit slowed down from the first book, which I think was important for building the world and the revolution that Zetian ends up fighting for. There are a lot of parallels between the inequalities in Zetian’s world and the inequalities in our own. Zhao mentions in the end that this was purposeful; they really wanted to make capitalism the enemy. There were only a few moments where I felt like it was too focused on the politics and the explanations of why things had to change, but for the most part it was worked into the story well.

As with Iron Widow, a lot of this book is about the difference between the way girls and boys are treated. Zetian does make it her goal to change this for future generations, challenging other leaders in just accepting everything the way it was before. Zetian is still very angry in this book (understandably so), and that rage is definitely a focus of the overall story. 

We get to meet some new characters in this one, and Zhao worked in some plot twists that make the story still feel exciting despite the slower pace. Even though I think this was originally supposed to be a duology, that ending makes it seem like there’s definitely going to be a third book.

If you’ve been eagerly anticipating this book like me, I hope it meets your expectations! I know it met mine. 

4.5/5 stars