Parker-Chan, Shelley. She Who Became the Sun. New York: Tor, 2021.
ISBN-13: 978-1250621801 | $27.99 USD | 411 pages | Historical Fantasy
Blurb
Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.
To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything
“I refuse to be nothing…”
In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…
In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother’s abandoned greatness.
Review
5 stars
She Who Became the Sun is one of my most anticipated 2021 fantasy releases. Pitched quite daringly as “Mulan meets The Song of Achilles,” it definitely lives up to that hype, although I’ve also seen another comparison being made to The Poppy War, and that is definitely a great in-genre comp title for some of the elements of war and, antiheroes, and the grasp for power.
One of the things I loved was the way Zhu’s identity was handled. The setup is that, due to the prophecy saying that the son Zhu Chongba will rise to greatness, while the second daughter will be nothing, that is how young Zhu is treated…she isn’t even given a real name in-text in the beginning. But when they are orphaned by a bandit attack, the actual Chongba succumbs to despair and dies, proving he’s the useless one, while Zhu takes up his identity and becomes a monk, then joins the ranks of the rebel army against the Mongols, this proving the potential that had been prophesied…in a completely unexpected way.
I loved the complexities with how her gender identity was handled, as most “girl dressed as a boy” books neglect to explore things like gender dysphoria. However, in Parker-Chan’s hands, the topic is well-conveyed. I love the way Zhu conveys her identity to Ma, who she has begun to bond with over the course of the story.
I also like that while we’re getting the rebel side from Zhu’s POV, we also get insights into the Mongol side of things from the eunuch general, Ouyang. He’s out on a personal vendetta of his own, and I appreciate how the story highlights how Zhu and Ouyang are massively complex people who’ve done bad things, yet still fleshing them out so you root for them. Like Zhu, he’s also in a queer relationship, in his case with Esen, one which he has an immense amount of anguish over, due to internalized homophobia and how he’s meant to hate Esen. I was so deeply moved by those tortured scenes and I just wanted them to have a break…but there’s no doubt that the writing was effective in that regard.
I loved this book and can’t wait for the next one! If you’re looking for a dark, brutal Chinese historical fantasy with complex morally gray, but still sympathetic leads, you’ll definitely enjoy this!
Author Bio
Shelley Parker-Chan is an Australian by way of Malaysia and New Zealand. A 2017 Tiptree Fellow, she is the author of the historical fantasy novel She Who Became the Sun. Parker-Chan spent nearly a decade working as a diplomat and international development adviser in Southeast Asia, where she became addicted to epic East Asian historical TV dramas. After a failed search to find English-language book versions of these stories, she decided to write her own. Parker-Chan currently lives in Melbourne, Australia, where she is very grateful to never have to travel by leaky boat ever again.
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