The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.
To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.
This book is getting all kinds of traction on social media, so I was excited to read it and see what it's like. It's advertised as Pacific Rim - a movie I haven't seen but know the basic plot of - meets The Handmaid's Tale - a series I follow with more or less enthusiasm depending on the series. There are also shades of Transformers, a franchise I know a bit of. And, of course, it's based (very) loosely on Chinese history, a subject I know very little of. So how do all these elements come together?
This book is getting all kinds of traction on social media, so I was excited to read it and see what it's like. It's advertised as Pacific Rim - a movie I haven't seen but know the basic plot of - meets The Handmaid's Tale - a series I follow with more or less enthusiasm depending on the series. There are also shades of Transformers, a franchise I know a bit of. And, of course, it's based (very) loosely on Chinese history, a subject I know very little of. So how do all these elements come together?
Unfortunately; messily. There's a good story here, but it's buried under a lack of worldbuilding and two 'surprise' twists that I saw coming. Nothing is really explained, in my opinion, it's just thrown at us - oh, there's a fight between a giant robot and a small robot, right. One's an alien? Ok. Now the not!alien one is transforming! Uh huh...I'm sure that a lot of readers were able to follow along, but I had a lot of trouble with it.
It wasn't enough to turn me off; I want to keep reading the series and see how people deal with the not!twist revealed near the end. The language used was great and some of the descriptions were amazing. I really felt the cold in the mountains near the end, and the descriptions of the luxury apartments were fantastic. I wish the worldbuilding and the qi system had been explained better, but there's room in the next book (and the one after? Is this a trilogy or a duology?)
Overall a good, but not great read, but I'll be looking out for more and I think other readers won't have the problems I did.
The Iron Widow published on the 21st September, 2021 in the US and will publish on the 7th October, 2021 in the UK, using the same cover. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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