THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER An absorbing historical fantasy, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty's founding emperor. 'This audacious, brilliant debut is a vivid, original reimagining . . . immersive storytelling at its finest' - Daily Mail 'Magnificent in every way. War, desire, vengeance, politics - Shelley Parker-Chan has perfectly measured each ingredient' - Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree 'A thoroughly engrossing read with a ...
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THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER An absorbing historical fantasy, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty's founding emperor. 'This audacious, brilliant debut is a vivid, original reimagining . . . immersive storytelling at its finest' - Daily Mail 'Magnificent in every way. War, desire, vengeance, politics - Shelley Parker-Chan has perfectly measured each ingredient' - Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree 'A thoroughly engrossing read with a fabulous, tragic-trickster protagonist' - Megan Campisi, author of Sin Eater 'A dazzling new world of fate, war, love and betrayal' - Zen Cho, author of Black Water Sister In a famine-stricken village on a dusty plain, a seer shows two children their fates. For a family's eighth-born son, there's greatness. For the second daughter, nothing. In 1345, China lies restless under harsh Mongol rule. And when a bandit raid wipes out their home, the two children must somehow survive. Zhu Chongba despairs and gives in. But the girl resolves to overcome her destiny. So she takes her dead brother's identity and begins her journey. Can Zhu escape what's written in the stars, as rebellion sweeps the land? Or can she claim her brother's greatness - and rise as high as she can dream? This is a glorious tale of love, loss, betrayal and triumph by a powerful new voice. 'As brilliant as Circe . . . a deft and dazzling triumph' - Tasha Suri, author of The Jasmine Throne 'Epic, tragic and gorgeous' - Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan is a historical fantasy reimagining of the rise to power of Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu was the peasant rebel who expelled the Mongols, unified China under native rule, and became the founding Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
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Add this copy of She Who Became the Sun to cart. $12.72, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2022 by Tor Books.
Add this copy of She Who Became the Sun to cart. $19.39, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2021 by Tor Books.
I tried with She Who Became the Sun, reading it before it was published, getting just past the first part before not really having impetus to keep picking it up. This time I started from the beginning, got 50% of the way through and sadly have had to DNF it for good.
I really liked the first half of this book which focuses on Zhu, a girl who has to take on the identity (and therefore fate) of her dead brother and joins a monastery in disguise. Although it is a bit of a cliche (and heavily influenced by Mulan), I thought it was done well and I enjoyed the scenes in the monastery. Part 2 however, time jumps forward and is split perspective between Zhu but also eunuch Ouyang and woman Ma. I found the chapters from Ouyang's perspective focusing on politics and warfare to be tedious and I didn't feel that I got to know him as a character. I think Ma might have been an interesting character though so I should reserve judgement on her.
Zhu in these latter parts also seems to be a little odd, I didn't understand any of the reasons behind her decisions, particularly her solution to taking the city of Lu. This seemed so far removed from the character we had learnt about in the first part of the book.
Overall, I was finding myself finding excuses to not pick up the book any further as quite frankly, I was bored with it, which was a shame. Thank you to NetGalley & Pan Macmillan - Mantle for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
