Book Review | He Who Drowned the World

Hello, welcome to my book review of He Who Drowned the World, the sequel to the brilliant She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan. This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023, read on to hear my thoughts!

Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high on her recent victory that tore southern China from its Mongol rulers. Young, ambitious, and in possession of the Mandate of Heaven, Zhu believes utterly in her own capacity to do anything – endure anything – that will allow her to seize the imperial throne from the Mongols and crown herself Emperor.

But Zhu isn’t the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor, the former courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband – and her powerful kingdom has the strength and resources to wipe Zhu off the map. The only way for Zhu to defeat Madam Zhang is to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the beautiful, traitorous eunuch general Ouyang.

Nearly mad with the grief and guilt of having killed his beloved Prince of Henan, Ouyang is alive for only one reason: to enact revenge on his father’s killer, the Great Khan. His instability soon threatens his partnership with Zhu, who has never felt grief in her life. Zhu can’t even imagine what kind of sacrifice could ever cause her to feel it. But all desire costs, and while Zhu has already paid with her body – the true price of her ambition will break even her ruthless heart.

Huge thank you to Pan Macmillan and Black Crow PR for sending me a proof copy of this novel to read and review.

I adored the first book in this series, She Who Became the Sun, when I read it a few years ago, so I was desperate to get my hands on the second book. He Who Drowned the Sun was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023! This duology is inspired by Chinese history. It is a fantasy retelling of the rise of the Ming dynasty.

Sadly, I didn’t love this novel quite as much as the first one. I think it just didn’t draw me in as much as the first novel did. This is quite an intense, politically driven duology, and I relied pretty heavily on the characters to keep my attention and to keep me wanting to read. I feel like this was missing in this novel a bit, and it definitely took me considerably longer to read.

We join Zhu as she continues her fight to take the throne and become Emperor. I like Zhu asa character a lot, I like her sheer will and determination to get what she wants, and her ability to not let anything stand in her way. As the novel progresses we definitely get to see more of Zhu’s personality, and start to see the cracks in her facade.

Shelley Parker-Chan writes awesome female characters, and the ones in this book are excellent. We have a wide range of female identities and roles, from Empress to Servant. We get insight into all of them, all are well developed and given diverse and independent characteristics. I always appreciate this in a fantasy novel, as it can sometimes be lacking!

This novel also asks some interesting and vitally important questions about gender and the influence our perceived gender can have on others’ actions. The author did a great job of highlighting these questions in the first book, and they are further developed and investigated in this one.

Overall I enjoyed this fantasy duology a lot. I loved the characters a lot, and the duology is cleverly wrapped up in this one. This is perfect for fans of The Unbroken by C.L. Clark.

Thank you for reading my book review of He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan.

Huge thank you again to Pan Macmillan and Black Crow PR for the proof copy of He Who Drowned the World.

Buy He Who Drowned the World from Waterstones or Bookshop.org (both affiliate links)

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