Ben Truong's Reviews > She Who Became the Sun

She Who Became the Sun is the first book in The Radiant Emperor series written by Shelley Parker-Chan. It gives the historical Red Turban Rebellion a grim-dark fantasy twist.

After bandits kill Zhu Chongba's father in 14th-century China, Zhu dies of grief without ever having fulfilled the destined greatness that was foreseen at his birth. Instead, his purposefully never-named sister takes on her brother's identity and his fate.

The new Zhu's tenacious will to survive and desire for glory leads her to become first a Buddhist monk, then a commander in the rebel army attempting to overthrow Mongol rule of China and results in continual clashes with an antagonist to whom her fate is inexorably intertwined – the eunuch General Ouyang.

For his part, Ouyang is not about to let a no-name monk distract him from a revenge plot a lifetime in the making, leading to a Machiavellian series of bargains and battles between the two.

She Who Became the Sun is written rather well. Parker-Chan has created a wonderful Asian-inspired historical fiction, which successfully takes the reader back in time. However, her unrelentingly grim view of humanity does bogs down the middle of the narrative, though her nuanced exploration of gender identity and striking meditation on bodily autonomy set this fantasy apart.

All in all, She Who Became the Sun is written rather well and is a wonderful beginning to what would hopefully be a wonderful series, which I plan to continue in the very near future.