Through her unusual mech suit abilities, Wu Zetian has battled her way to power. But now she must figure out how to keep it, save those she cares about and keep herself alive.
Through her unusual mech suit abilities, Wu Zetian has battled her way to power. But now she must figure out how to keep it, save those she cares about and keep herself alive.
In a cruel, woman-hating society, Wu Zetain risked everything and lost a great deal. In the end, though, she destroyed the ruthless government officials in control. Using her unexpected abilities and wielding a giant mech suit, to grasp the seat of power herself.
Now all of Huaxia looks upon her with a sense of awe and fear.
However, her triumph came at a price: To achieve her final, destructive conquest, she had to revive Qin Zheng, the kingdom’s former emperor. He was frozen near death more than 200 years ago. And she needed him and his Yellow Dragon mech to destroy the Palace of Sages.
But now she must deal with this revived, cured and very dangerous powerhouse. He has metal-manipulating spirit powers the likes of which she can’t even imagine. So, despite their mutual dislike and distrust, the only feasible answer seems to be … marriage.
Zetain can barely stomach the idea, but together they may be able to quash political uprisings. The former elites of this world don’t take kindly to losing their positions, you see. More importantly, this new power couple can set about dismantling the corrupt and misogynistic society they live in and perhaps rebuild it into something better.
They have one other mutual goal, though this is a secret one. They both realize that “the gods” that the people worship are not actually gods at all. They are men who live in a highly advance technological society that hovers above.
These puppet masters listen in on everything the people below do and control things from afar. Only when they are gone can real changes take place. That, however, is a task that feels nearly impossible.
Whatever happens, though, Zetain’s choices begin now. Can she endure the toxic and incredibly powerful Qin Zheng? Can she be a fair and just ruler? Or will she be forced to turn to manipulation, fear and violence? Will she once again give in to her darker instincts in a quest for vengeance, a quest for peace?
None.
Characters exhibit varying levels of a magical spirit power called qi. Wielding it, they can manipulate certain metals and power the great mechs that society relies upon to defend their world. Qin Zheng has an incredibly high level of qi. He uses it to create an isolated, dream-like state in which he and Zetain can train and communicate with each other unheard by the gods.
Again, we also discover that the gods who watch over Huaxia and govern the land from on high are actually flesh-and-blood humans. Zetain and Zheng eventually confront these people and take a war for freedom to their doorstep.
Just about everyone in this story is power hungry, manipulative and rather unlikeable. Even people whom Zetain initially trusts stab her in the back at various points in the story. And the fact is, Zetain herself is duplicitous and deceptive. In fact, lies and hidden secrets are the few things that everyone in this story cling to fiercely.
We encounter f- and s-words, along with uses of “a–,” “a–hole,” “d–n” “d-ck,” “whore” and “slut” in the language mix.
Alcohol is consumed in several celebratory settings, including people getting “jelly shots” at a club. People get injected with “medical” compounds. But these substances aren’t always what characters think they are. (In one case, the shots are designed to make people sicker. In another, a woman is given fertility shots without her knowledge.) Nerve gas leaves people unconscious.
Magical and physical violence shows up in large mech battles, as well as in more personal torments and tortures. The large mech suits, or Chrysalises, are created from the bodies of a race of defeated alien creatures. Humans then power them with their spirit power, or qi, then wade into hacking, slashing, bullet-riddling and magic-blasting battles.
People are beaten and publicly executed. Individuals have limbs and digits slashed off and broken off. A man is stabbed in the heart. We hear of women left dead in the streets with their breasts cut off. A woman slashes her son’s face with a broken bottle and later slits her wrists, committing suicide in a bathtub. People are tortured; their fingernails torn out. An individual’s head gets lopped off.
Children are forced to kill one another. We hear of people drowning their unwanted children. Violence even shows up in a couple’s intimacy together, they channel their rage at each other and inflict harm during their described sexual interactions.
In fact, sexuality is a very fluid and fungible thing in the world of Heavenly Tyrant. There are “entwined” gay and lesbian lovers in the mix and discussions of a “gathering spot for those who don’t quite conform.” Zetain remembers her sexual encounters with two men. And even the chest-thumping Zheng implies he’s laid with men in the past.
Several sexual interactions between Zetain and Zheng are described, including kissing and caressing of body parts. Descriptions of oral sex are part of the story as well. Zetain purports to hating these interactions and turning her anger at Zheng during the encounters, but the heated scratching, hair-pulling, and biting “pain” turns into a “brutal rhythm” of shared pleasure with time. Zetain also uses Zheng’s sexual desire for her to seduce and manipulate him with sheer, provocative clothing. We hear that Zheng’s mother was a prostitute.
There are some “neither boy nor girl” individuals in the story who are addressed with various pronouns. Young female tributes are given to the gods above to be used as sexual slaves. One of Zetain’s ova are removed, fertilized and implanted in another woman’s uterus. Zetain only finds out about this procedure long after the fact.
None.
Heavenly Tyrant is a sequel to Iron Widow. Both books in the series rose to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list.
The overarching narrative depicts a tyrannical and magic-based fantasy future that takes cues from the real-world mythology and historical culture of China. While blending political power struggles, huge mech battles and societal uprisings against “the gods” into a roiling story, the book declares that women must have bodily autonomy, self-determination and freedom.
All of that said, however, this is an overlong story packed to the brim with bloody violence; harshly toxic relationships; the examination of pansexuality and multiple genders; and a whole lot of profanity-spewing, unlikeable characters. It’s not an easy or particularly enjoyable read.
You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected].
Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not necessarily their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
