Iron Widow

I gave this book a reread before getting to the sequel because it had been a bit.

I forgot how this book starts off with such a YA anime-esque tone. There's something about celebrity mecha pilots and media companies that rings a lot of hunger games-esque bells. But the world itself is almost too overly defined, where pilots have an objective "spirit pressure" for their piloting strength and there's both a mecha and enemy taxonomy that feel like something that could go into a wikipedia entry. In the end, these largely (thankfully) fall away and are more hook than truth.

One thing that's interesting to me is that Wu Zetian is a messy character who does unlikeable things at times. The plot is fundamentally a revenge plot that escalates, and she's willing to get her hands dirty to do what she feels is right.

The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but it manages to be satisfying all the same. For a book where Zetian has literally smashed through everything holding her back, it's compelling to add some elements for the next book that can't be overpowered through ruthlessness.

I like Xiran Jay Zhao. They're a great content creator and their Twitter is something to behold. So it was only a matter of time until I got to Iron Widow. That time was this week when I had a 5 hour bus journey in front of me and needed something to entertain me.

It was certainly a quick read for my standards. But then, I always seem to eat through YA literature as opposed to everything else I read, even if I go out of it with a sense of dissatisfaction. Which is not really something I felt here, even though the book has left me wanting in the worst possible way. The characters are... fine. Wu Zetian is the main character and thus the most fleshed out. The two love interests (it's an actual love triangle!) are somewhat shallow and everyone else is either window dressing or someone that violence is enacted upon in some way. Seriously, if you like violence and revenge fantasies, this will be right up your alley. Zetian leaves a trail of destruction in her wake that is bar anything I've read in recent times.

That comes at the cost of narrative depth though. There's so many elements to this scifi-fantasy version of medieval-modern China that are essential to the story - most importantly the concept of qi, which the pilots of the giant animechs people use to fight - that obviously have a lot of thought behind them but are explained so badly that, even after reading the book, I still have no idea what any of them are supposed to do. There's so many instances of "so I combined my Metal qi with his Wood qi" or whatever and I just kind of glossed over it as technobabble. Which is really disappointing because, again, there seems to be an actual system to this whole thing?

But none of that is explained in a satisfactory way because we need to get to the next fight, battle, torture, or romance scene as quick as possible lest the book lose the interest of its readers. It seems to have worked, as evidenced by the speed I read the book with. But it really didn't give me any opportunity to just let the whole thing sink in. There is no space to breathe between the pages which would've been necessary considering the onslaught of stuff that is happening. It also doesn't provide enough space to explore any of the character's motivations. Zetian is driven by revenge against a patriarchal society, that much is established. But she goes from "I hate my family" to "The. World. Must. Burn." so quick, it gave me whiplash.

I'd still say it's a decent read. And I'll probably read the second installment, as this seems to aim to be a series. But it neither left me hungry for more, really. Nor did it satisfy in a narrative sense.