Reading Diary: He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

Here is a synopsis from the author's website:

Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor.

But Zhu isn’t the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband—and she’s strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who has already sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his father’s killer, the Great Khan.

Unbeknownst to the southerners, a new contender is even closer to the throne. The scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang has maneuvered his way into the capital, and his lethal court games threaten to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also desires revenge: to become the most degenerate Great Khan in history—and in so doing, make a mockery of every value his Mongol warrior family loved more than him.

All the contenders are determined to do whatever it takes to win. But when desire is the size of the world, the price could be too much for even the most ruthless heart to bear…

Hoo boy, friends, this book is BRUTAL. It is the conclusion of the Radiant Emperor duology, and I am very glad to have read it. These books are a queer reimagining (with a tiny smidge of fantasy) of the person who became the founder of the Ming Dynasty. They are expertly crafted, but did I mention BRUTAL? Being American, I didn't get much of an education in the history of China, so I didn't know any of the story. I picked it up in my quest to read more books by queer authors of color or books about queer characters of color, particularly East Asian as I was living in China when I started this quest.

What made this story so brutal is just part of the history. Like, you know history is bloody, but do you really know? Normally, this sort of thing would be a complete turn-off for me, and I would add the book to my DNF list. However, Parker-Chan handles the worst aspects with a deft touch. They don't linger on the images, devolving into torture-porn. When someone is executed by a horrific method, like being flayed alive, we're told that it happened, but it isn't described in any great detail. That helped me to stay with the compelling narrative. But like I said, it is NOT easy going for any of the characters. Lots of people die. Like, a lot. Probably your faves will be dead by the end of the book.

Parker-Chan provides a helpful list of content warnings on their website, so if you take a look at that and find you are still interested, then I highly recommend the duology, even with the caveat that I skimmed a couple of places just to get through the fighting. 😅