Iron Widow’s finale left me looking forward to where this story was going to go in the sequel. I’ve finished reading Heavenly Tyrant, the sequel. Before I get into the weeds, I’ll just say I was not disappointed. However, I am going to have to include some spoilers from Iron Widow.
Where the first book ended, protagonist Wu Zetian had been betrayed by the government, decided, with her co-pilot and partner Li Shimin being badly injured, to thaw the first Emperor, Qin Zheng, out from the stasis he’d been placed in because of an assassination attempt, and the two of them, in his Chrysalis mech, overthrew the government – only to be contacted by the “Gods” who rule over the planet that they should continue supplying the spirit metal harvested from the planet’s Hundun indigenous population. And if they don’t, the “Gods” have taken Li Shimin as a hostage. Heavenly Tyrant picks up from there, with Zetian and Zheng attempting to solidify their hold on the government and preparing their plans against the “Gods”.
A big chunk of Heavenly Tyrant is split between the dilemmas that come up when you’ve had a revolution, and how do you keep it from running out of control. As someone who, to be blunt, has sparred with Stasi Apologists on Tumblr, who has tired of fellow Leftists thinking the Reign of Terror was a good idea and never executed any innocent people and should never have stopped, I was very happy to see a story that goes “You know, Oligarchs fucking suck and their wealth should be redistributed, but the way of breaking their power in society isn’t forcing people to inform on each other paired with a Surveillance State (like East Germany) paired with an constant series of public executions to terrorise ostensible enemies of the revolution while also entertaining the masses with bloody spectacles.” Generally we just get the first part.
This is also accompanied by Wu Zetian trying to carve a better place in society for Women, both through changing the system in the Mechs so supply of Qi is more equal and less likely to kill pilots, and getting women more actively involved in the revolution. This is also paired with the story, and Zetian, also calling out how revolutionary institutions that focus on class can end up still perpetuating structures of Institutional Misogyny and Racism (with added issues with efforts to overturn the Racism and Misogyny facing accusations of being counter-revolutionary). We don’t get the equivalent of a Charlotte Corday-inspired backlash, but with 1) knowledge of how this book ends, 2) knowledge that we’re getting a sequel, and 3) knowing that Xiran Jay Zhao is very knowledgeable about French history (follow her on social media – her Napoleon shitpost game is fire), I wouldn’t be surprised if she puts that particular forgotten piece of French Revolutionary history on blast.
This doesn’t mean she’s ignored the Colonial aspect of things either. One of the things that comes up in this novel is that the Huaxia is an empire that is a client state of a larger interstellar empire – but it was still doing an Empire before the larger Empire showed up. We do get a glimpse of that larger Empire at the end of the book, what also sets up the conflict for book 3.
I can’t say if that third book will get more cosmic in scope – I don’t see Zhao going full Gunbuster Finale or Getter Robo with what we’ve had so far. However, I have loved this book series so far, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Also, Namco Bandai, I would gladly buy a HG Nine Tailed Fox Chrysalis kit.
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