Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (2021)

This YA novel loosely retells the rise to power of Wu Zetian in a sci-fi setting that draws from mecha anime. Giant transforming robots are powered by male and female qi, with the male pilot typically taking control and draining all the female pilot's qi until she dies. Wu Zetian is a teen girl whose sister died that way, and now she's out for revenge. But when she infiltrates the pilots' world as a new recruit, she learns that her own qi is so powerful that she can turn the tables on the men she's paired with.

This book was not for me. Probably the biggest reason is that it is relentlessly loud and bombastic—it's wall-to-wall epic mecha battles, interpersonal violence, dangerous situations, and dramatic reveals, with few to no quiet moments. It's like the volume of the book is perpetually dialed up to eleven. Between this and the fact that the characters frequently spell out in dialogue exactly what everything means and what we're supposed to take away from it, I felt like I was being given no room to think. A thing just happened! It means this! Boom, bang, alarm bells, another battle is starting!! It exhausted me.

I was also bothered by a late plot turn in which

spoilers (cn: torture)

the protagonists use torture to extract information from another character and it works. This is how they find out important, accurate details that are necessary for the story to resolve, and there is no indication that there's any problem with it, either morally or pragmatically. In other aspects the protagonists are portrayed as pretty messed up but basically on the side of good, so I do not think this was the way to go.

I did appreciate that the book is very queer, and that there is canon poly instead of a jealousy-laden love triangle. But I would have liked those things much better in a different book.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

wearing_tearing

I had pretty much the same thoughts about this one :(

From:

pauraque

Not just me, then!

From:

ambyr

I haven't read this (and probably won't, because it doesn't sound like exactly my thing), but I would react similarly to the spoiler bit. My kingdom for more torture trope subversion: if authors must write torture, I'd like to see it not working. Give me more characters who act on information obtained under torture and end up utterly fucked, because hey, it turns out that information isn't reliable at all.

From:

pauraque

Exactly. I could buy these characters thinking it was their best option at the time, but I balked at the author rewarding them for it.

From:

genarti

Yeah, agreed. And I like epic mecha battles! I actually really enjoyed a lot of the mecha stuff! The mecha battles and mecha aesthetics and the over-the-top mecha fashion wedding thing were a large part of why I came out of it with mixed feelings rather than purely declaring that it didn't work for me. But everything is happening so much all of the time, yeah. And totally agreed about the torture plot point.

I also was bothered by how there are no sympathetic female characters other than our protagonist (who iirc was in fact strongly implied to be at least somewhat genderqueer/nonbinary, but in a society without words for that, so interpretations may vary). When we get someone who seems like they are, lol whoops never mind! Actually she's a bitch too!! And narratively confirmed, not just from our protagonist's biased standpoint. Admittedly the sympathetic male characters are also relatively few, but in a book that's all about fighting back against the patriarchy, I found it glaring.

From:

pauraque

I was definitely the wrong audience for the mecha stuff, so that didn't help. I did like the parts that described how it felt to experience inhabiting the mechas, but beyond that the battles tended to make my eyes glaze over.

You're right that there are zero sympathetic characters who are unambiguously women, and that is a strange choice in a book with these themes. We're fighting the patriarchy, but who are we fighting for? Everyone sucks here! The protagonist sees her sister as good, but since the sister gets fridged before the narrative starts, that doesn't count. There's a lot of talk about how it's wrong to sacrifice women in these mecha battles, but they're almost all offscreen, nameless victims.

From:

genarti

Right, the sister is sympathetic, but she's also fridged before the book starts and doesn't get a whole lot of personality. And there's one other pilot who briefly seems like she might be sympathetic, but then never mind, no she isn't! It just stuck in my craw, and yeah, muddles the themes -- who are we even fighting for? Nameless, personality-less doomed victim damsels, or what?

And then the very end definitely didn't work for me. I'm glad I read it to have an opinion, but whenever the sequel comes out, assuming it does, I don't know that I'll read it.

From:

pauraque

To me the end felt rushed and introduced a jumble of things that I guess are going to be explored in the sequel, but it was like... did anyone not see it coming that the Hundun were innocent and the humans were the baddies? That was presented as a huge reveal, but I thought it was obvious from early on and I was surprised that it took so long for Zetian to figure it out.

I was somewhat curious what was going to happen with the Emperor now that he's awake, but when the sequel comes out I'll just ask someone to give me a synopsis.

From:

sophia_sol

godddd I hate when torture is portrayed as working in fiction. It gets my back up like nothing else!

From:

pauraque

It makes no sense and is the worst!

From:

rachelmanija

I didn't like the torture either. It was in-character so I didn't mind it happening, but I'd have liked for it to not have been the correct/useful thing to do.

From:

pauraque

Yeah. I was half-expecting a second reveal that the information they got from the guy was actually not accurate and he was just telling them what they wanted to hear, but sadly no. If it had happened earlier in the book I might have noped out, but there was so little left by then that I forged ahead.

From:

frausorge

Reading a bit about RL Wu Zetian's history makes me wonder why anyone thought it needed mecha battles added - her life sounds plenty dramatic and violent as it was! But in any case, what you say here about the novel sounds deeply unappealing, so thanks for the heads up. (Does give me an opportunity to trot out this icon, though.)

From:

pauraque

Ha, very appropriate! Yeah, I think for me maybe a nonfiction book about the historical Wu Zetian would have been the way to go.

From:

wrote_and_writ

This book was definitely a lot. I appreciated how not-nice the characters were as a change from some of the other things I'd been reading, but it wasn't a relaxing read for sure. I'm gonna read the sequel though.

From:

pauraque

I can see how it would work for some people and not others - the line between 'a lot' and 'too much' is subjective! The edition I read had a cover blurb that called it "a primal scream of a book," which I think is accurate, but not something I would consider a compliment. It's actually kind of a perfect summation of the double-edged sword of it.

From:

wrote_and_writ

That blurb is right! It's one of those books that I liked and am glad to have read and will read the sequel, but I would hesitate to recommend it to people, even with a whole lot of warnings.

From:

lokifan

the protagonists use torture to extract information from another character and it works. This is how they find out important, accurate details that are necessary for the story to resolve, and there is no indication that there's any problem with it, either morally or pragmatically

Noooooo! No I hate it. I hate it when Avengers do it (Nick Fury, I'm looking at you in particular) and I've never forgotten the articles about how 24 was cited by people joining the CIA to show torture works.

Have debated reading this book based on the mixed, interesting reviews; thanks!

From:

pauraque

That's a great point, even though it's "just fiction" positive portrayals of torture can have a real effect on how people perceive it in real life, and some of those people work in intelligence, government, and law enforcement. It matters.

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- kdramas [3]
  - the guest [2]
  - white christmas [1]
- kipo [7]
- middle earth [2]
- monkey island [8]
- our flag means death [2]
- quantum leap [10]
- rocky horror [5]
- she-ra [21]
- star trek [113]
  - aos [3]
  - discovery [42]
  - ds9 [7]
  - picard [20]
  - tng [42]
  - tos [14]
  - voyager [15]
- star wars [14]
- venture bros [16]
- warcraft [20]
- x-files [14]
fest
- 3 sentence ficathon [1]
- amperslash exchange [1]
- black is beautiful [2]
- bring back the porn [6]
- chocolate box [4]
- fandom stocking [1]
- fandom trees [2]
- femdom exchange [3]
- femslash exchange [7]
- femslash kink [2]
- femsub exchange [1]
- flash exchanges [6]
- holly poly [1]
- hp beholder [15]
- hp crossgenfest [1]
- hp halloween [13]
- hp kinkfest [9]
- hp silencio [3]
- hp transfest [2]
- hphet minifest [3]
- id pro quo [2]
- insert title here [1]
- kink bingo [8]
- kink lucky dip [1]
- kinky kristmas [6]
- mirror universe [1]
- multifandom drabble [3]
- rare women [8]
- salt & pepper [5]
- sapphic spring [2]
- sapphic stocking [1]
- season of kink [1]
- seasons of drabbles [6]
- severus fest [3]
- space swap [5]
- star trek holidays [2]
- trick or treat [1]
- turing fest [4]
- wizard love [2]
- yuletide [4]
fic
- by me [122]
- for me [45]
- recs [36]
food [5]
games [134]
- developer
  - a.i. design [1]
  - absolute magic [1]
  - ad artis oy [1]
  - ada rook [1]
  - adelpha studio [1]
  - amanita design [1]
  - anna anthropy [2]
  - ares dragonis [1]
  - arnowitz studios [1]
  - aruma studios [1]
  - astral software [1]
  - attention to detail [1]
  - beam software [1]
  - benjamin schulte [1]
  - beyond the bark [1]
  - bill williams [1]
  - blizzard entertainment [1]
  - broderbund software [2]
  - bydandan [1]
  - c.m. ralph [1]
  - cadabra games [1]
  - chief rebel [1]
  - color gray games [2]
  - computing specialties [1]
  - crl group [1]
  - cube legal [1]
  - cyberdreams [1]
  - daedelic entertainment [1]
  - dan baker [1]
  - daniel benmergui [1]
  - deadlycrow games [1]
  - dma design [1]
  - double fine [3]
  - dreamforge [1]
  - eclipse software [1]
  - focus hill games [1]
  - friend shaped games [1]
  - frolic studio [1]
  - funcom [1]
  - fáyer [1]
  - ghost creative studios [1]
  - giant squid [1]
  - gray design associates [1]
  - grizzly games [1]
  - gugames [1]
  - hammered crow [1]
  - hermanos magia [1]
  - hongoneon [1]
  - horis international [1]
  - hummingwarp [1]
  - icy mountain studio [1]
  - imaginarylab [1]
  - inkle [1]
  - isometricorp games [1]
  - jamwitch [1]
  - jump over the age [2]
  - kenneth morse [1]
  - kevin bales [1]
  - lance [1]
  - love conquers all [1]
  - lucas pope [2]
  - lucasarts/lucasfilm [13]
  - lucito loquito [1]
  - maddy makes games [1]
  - made from strings [1]
  - mahdi bahrami [1]
  - marevo collective [1]
  - matthew alexander [1]
  - maxis [1]
  - mediatonic [1]
  - michael abbott [1]
  - microlink [1]
  - microsoft [1]
  - mike bellika [1]
  - mike saenz [1]
  - mino_dev [1]
  - mobius digital [2]
  - montraluz [1]
  - montsoft [1]
  - moraffware [2]
  - nels anderson [1]
  - obsidian entertainment [1]
  - p.z. karen co. [1]
  - paramo games [1]
  - patapez interactive [1]
  - polychroma games [1]
  - pomelo games [1]
  - poncle [1]
  - powerhoof [3]
  - pál balog [1]
  - re-logic [1]
  - redwood games [1]
  - rundisc [1]
  - sharedata [1]
  - sierra/on-line systems [6]
  - steven don [1]
  - stone/digital extremes [1]
  - sukeban games [1]
  - sunhead games [1]
  - synapse software [1]
  - telltale games [1]
  - terrible toybox [1]
  - terry cavanagh [2]
  - the brotherhood [1]
  - the dreamers guild [1]
  - the edge [1]
  - the game kitchen [1]
  - the learning company [2]
  - the software toolworks [2]
  - third world [1]
  - thomas colthurst [1]
  - tiago rech [2]
  - tokoronyori [1]
  - uppercut games [2]
  - videlectrix [4]
  - videocult [1]
  - wagotabi limited [1]
  - westwood studios [1]
  - wishfully studios [1]
  - za/um [1]
- genre
  - action/arcade [6]
  - adult [1]
  - adventure [45]
  - artillery [1]
  - bullet hell [1]
  - city builder [2]
  - deduction [3]
  - edutainment [13]
  - exploration [11]
  - mmorpg [2]
  - platformer [15]
  - puzzle [26]
  - racing [1]
  - roguelike [4]
  - rpg [9]
  - shooter [6]
  - simulation [3]
  - strategy [3]
  - survival crafting [2]
  - survival horror [1]
  - tower defense [1]
  - virtual tabletop [2]
  - visual novel [5]
- year
  - 1980 [2]
  - 1981 [1]
  - 1982 [1]
  - 1983 [4]
  - 1984 [7]
  - 1985 [3]
  - 1986 [2]
  - 1987 [3]
  - 1988 [3]
  - 1989 [6]
  - 1990 [10]
  - 1991 [6]
  - 1992 [4]
  - 1993 [5]
  - 1994 [1]
  - 1995 [5]
  - 1997 [1]
  - 1998 [2]
  - 1999 [2]
  - 2005 [1]
  - 2008 [3]
  - 2009 [3]
  - 2010 [2]
  - 2011 [1]
  - 2012 [3]
  - 2013 [1]
  - 2014 [3]
  - 2015 [2]
  - 2016 [4]
  - 2017 [5]
  - 2018 [5]
  - 2019 [5]
  - 2020 [8]
  - 2021 [7]
  - 2022 [10]
  - 2023 [10]
  - 2024 [8]
  - 2025 [7]
  - 2026 [1]
gaming [9]
kink [7]
language [4]
memes [33]
- ao3 [3]
- december talking [20]
- fandom a-z [6]
- femslash february [6]
- first lines [2]
- five questions [2]
- letter [1]
- love [2]
- something every day [23]
- titles [1]
movies [12]
music [33]
personal
- dreams [8]
- family [1]
- health [11]
- mental health [7]
- mishaps [5]
- neurodivergence [1]
- parenting [1]
- random [6]
- remembrance [8]
- travel [12]
- work [1]
photos [39]
- fall colors [3]
- flowers [14]
- scenery [26]
- snow [12]
- urban [11]
plays [4]
podfic [7]
poetry [4]
queerness [15]
- gender [15]
reading [4]
social media exodus [3]
three weeks for dreamwidth [1]
videos [4]
weather [11]
writing [44]
year in review [18]
youtube [19]

mixed habitat & densely vegetated hiding places

pauraque's journal