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Book: “He Who Drowned the World” by Shelley Parker-Chan
Publishing Info: Tor Books, August 2023
Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: How much would you give to win the world?
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.
Previously Reviewed: “She Who Rides the Storm”
Review: This was one of my more anticipated reads for the summer, after very much enjoying the first book that came out last year. After the masterful showing that was ‘She Who Rides the Storm,” it was a pretty sure thing that this book would rise to a similar level. However, I wasn’t quite prepared for exactly how dark this book turned out to be.
Again, right from the start, it’s clear how much talent this author has. The characters are all fully fleshed out, flawed individuals whose motives and choices are as frustrating as they are realistic. The stakes are also often incredibly high, making some of these choices all the more tortuous to read about. Throughout it all, the descriptions and style aspects of the writing are solid and clear, sucking the reader in, even as they may wish they could step back a bit.
When researching a bit for this review, I saw that the author had written on Goodreads mentioning that she doesn’t consider this book grimdark. In the same note, she referred to “Game of Thrones” as grimdark, and one gets the sense that she was likely trying to differentiate her book from that one, a series that has been criticized by some for being overly graphic in its depictions of violence. Now, I understand trying to differentiate your own book, but I also don’t think that authors are the true arbitrators of what subgenre their own book falls within. Yes, this is her opinion, and no one can deny her that. But subgenres like grimdark exist for the readers, not the author. They are there to allow readers to have a broad understanding of what sort of book they are picking up. And, by any understanding of the term grimdark, this book is definitely that.
Without exaggeration, about 90% of this book is made up of horror after horror. The hopelessness and terror of these situations is pervasive throughout the book. And the descriptions being as crisp and vivid as they are, the reader will find no respite from looking right at all of these awful things unfolding before them. Honestly, this book checks off markers on the grimdark list in an almost aggressive manner. And this isn’t a negative thing! People do enjoy grimdark, and I can appreciate it as well. “The Poppy Wars” often fell into this category, and I loved the heck out of those books. But to try to deny that this is grimdark is honestly doing a disservice to readers and setting up unwitting readers to be unprepared for the type of story they are going to be reading. Even from the first book, this one is markedly more dark and difficult to read.
All of this to say, that my actual reading experience of this book would probably put it in the 7 range for rating. It was a hard book to get through, and I wasn’t fully in the right space to want to read something that was this dark for almost the entire read. But, I also recognize the overall quality of the book and writing, so I’ve bumped up my rating. Fans of the first book will likely enjoy this one. But, yes, this is, in fact, grimdark fantasy.
Rating 8: Brutal and relentless, the strengths of this book are also the parts that make it such a challenging, but worthwhile, story.
Reader’s Advisory:
“He Who Drowned the World” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Best Historical Fantasy and August 2023 Releases.
The Library Ladies 