This book didn't grab my attention, as I was listening I found it really easy to miss what was going on. The sex scenes were also too graphic for my taste.
It seemed to be well written and I liked the narrator.

"He couldn't hurt her, because he had no idea who she was."

'He Who Drowned the World' is firmly the best book I've read this year, maybe my favourite book ever. I listened to the duology back-to-back, and (while heavy), it was probably the best thing I did all summer. This series was epic, and heartfelt, and clever. To me, it felt like an instant classic. If you've read 'She Who Became the Sun', you must read 'He Who Drowned the World'; the build up and the payoff is more than worth it. In my opinion, the second book was even better than the first, since it was really able to spring off from the rich character development and world-building developed in the first book. If you haven't read 'She Who Became the Sun', put your library hold in now for both of these!! The audiobook is a great way to consume this series, as long as you're able to concentrate somewhat (there are a number of characters with complicated motives and relationships and it's fairly important to keep up; I'd say it's probably comparable to listening to Game of Thrones on audiobook in terms of the complex character relationships and dynamic plot). It's narrated by Natalie Naudus, who is incredibly talented. No notes; if I could give this reading experience a 100/5 I would.

Mild spoilers included:

This is the grim follow-up to She Who Became the Sun. The main POV cast is expanded to four people: Zhu, Oyuang, Baoxiang, and Madam Zhang. Oyuang and Baoxiang were the characters I found to be the most compelling from the first book (I love those tragic, self-hating, revenge-seeking dangerous characters) so I really enjoyed them having a larger part of the narrative.

One of the things I really appreciate is how very queer this book is, Zhu is an asexual nonbinary person. Oyuang is a (possibly gay) cis man considered by others to be Not A Man because he’s a eunuch. Baoxiang is a flamboyant cishet man who nevertheless regularly sleeps with a man to further his goals. It a messy sort of queer rep that doesn’t fit into the neat boxes I’m used to seeing in other books.

On the other hand, just like in the first book, I found Zhu to be something of a weak point. The way she views the world as though success is a forgone conclusion, her optimism, her blind determination just isn’t particularly interesting, it often feels one-note. The far more angsty, sacrificing, and self-destructive paths that Oyuang and Baoxiang take is really what I most enjoy about this series. It looked like Zhu was going to become a clear villain type character at the end of the first book but she took on more of an anti-hero role in this book which I felt was a bit of a letdown. In contrast, Oyuang really stole the show, he’s at his best when he’s being his worst and I loved every scene he was in.

Overall I did enjoy this more than the first book, it’s an Everybody Makes Bad Choices type book. Sometimes it’s fun just to watch bad people do bad things. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an audiobook ARC.

CWs: rape, torture, misgendering, homophobia, self-harm, violence and death, pregnancy, sexism

Wanted to love this novel but couldn't get into the story.
Overall, not for me.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Shelley Parker-Chan, and Macmillan Audio for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***

Well GOD DAMN this was good. Absolutely incredible.

He Who Drowned the World starts RIGHT off from the first book - with absolutely no hand-holding. If you (like me) do not remember the details and politics of SWBTS, I would recommend either rereading it or looking into summaries. Luckily, because SWBTS was so incredibly deep, it is taught in many literature classes and study guides are abundant online.

Shelley Parker-Chan is an absolute master in writing her characters. Her three main POVs (Zhu, Ouyang, and Baoxiang) have incredible depth in who they are, what made them who they are, and who they want to be. I would notice my jaw literally dropped as I was reading, because I could appreciate their depth in real time, with each sentence. Parker-Chan's prose adds to this tenfold. Absolutely incredible writing in all aspects.

Natalie Naudus is, yet again, a master and makes an already amazing experience even better. Would highly recommend the audiobook.

Pub date: 8/22/23
Genre: historical fantasy
Quick summary: Zhu Yuanzhang is on her way to her ultimate goal: becoming emperor. Despite her gifts, the journey to defeat her rivals will be anything but simple.
Do I need to read book 1 first? Yes, you will be totally lost if you start with this one.

I've been branching out into fantasy read this year, and Parker-Chan's series came highly recommended. I read book 1 a few months ago, so I still remembered the characters, and I felt like things came back to me as I listened. That being said - this is definitely NOT an audiobook to multitask while listening - there are a lot of characters doing a lot of different things and keeping a lot of different secrets. You won't want to miss any of the twists! I enjoyed Naudus' narration - she did a great job with the snarkiness of the various characters, but also showed their vulnerability in difficult times.

This book is so vast that it's hard to even describe it - there's the war, the dissection of identity, sexual desire, trauma, and destiny - plus a few love stories, and lots of betrayal. But the sweeping nature of it works if you're patient and wait for everything to come together. I had been waffling between 4 and 5 stars, but the last 2 hours of the audio tipped it up to 5 stars for me. Other reviewers have described this book more eloquently than I have, but I'll say that Parker-Chan makes sure the reader always has plenty to ruminate about.

This is a thinking reader's historical fantasy, and the duology has a lot to offer!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Parker-Chan did it again. It would have been hard to pull off a suitable ending to this duology, but they did. And they should feel smug about it. The same danger, scale, and machinations that you would expect. And the same truly beautiful storytelling.

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan
5/5 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

•••Spoiler free review below•••

This is a FANTASTIC sequel - very grim and horror filled at times, but wonderfully written and beautifully plotted out. Our characters from She Who Became the Sun are even more fleshed out and forced into new challenges that will leave you begging to know what will happen next. This book is full of terrible people doing terrible things...but like you want at least some of them to succeed? It's hard to explain but all I can say is to give this masterpiece a try. It is 100% worth it.

Read this book if you like:
- dark fantasy retellings
- epic historical fantasies
- multi plot stories that converge
- complex stories and complex characters

He Who Drowned the World was released August 22nd and if it's not already on your tbr, it should be!
.
.
.
Special thanks to Macmillan/Tor for sharing a free copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

4.25 stars
The narrator did a great job expressing the character’s emotions. This novel explores Ouyang’s and Baoxiang’s deep feelings about Esen and how they’ve been regarded by everyone. It describes all the ways they’ve been humiliated and disrespected. No one understands them (except Zhu) and so they wish to “drown the world” as their emotions are drowning them. I really appreciated how the author explored their masochistic desires as a tool to distract and relieve them of their hatred and loss of Esen, and their shame inflicted by others. This is a continuation on the exploration of gender, sexuality, and trauma. Parker-Chan has done a great job further delving into the characterizations. This novel didn’t have me on the edge of my seat like I hoped. I never felt intense in my feelings toward this narrative. I really loved the dynamic between Zhu and Ouyang. This was the best aspect of the novel to me.

This story took on the difficult task of taking all the brightness of book one and showing us the shadows that inevitably form beneath without making the story or characters feel stagnant or letting them lose their ambition. Vulnerability entwined with cruelty, ambition with betrayal, and the ever-present question resurging like a heartbeat: “will it be worth it?”

Zhu has the same drive as ever, and I think keeping her as this anchor while shifting the world around her kept the story balanced. She’s cunning, willing to take steps that others would balk at, and willing to take blame and shoulder responsibility for all of it. Though she is told once, early on, “you are young enough to believe that, since you haven’t experienced loss, you will never lose” - and of course that simply must come back with a vengeance later. And my how hard that hit when it did.

Then there is General Ouyang, coming apart at the seams, slavering in his mindless desperation for revenge, to “make it all worth it” in the wake of the ending of the previous book. He is rabid with it, and it gives him a jagged edge that drags at and catches on the other characters in brilliant and devastating ways. His story is quite likely the most tragic of the lot, though none are particularly happy.

And Baoxiang who could outsmart and out-strategize everyone else in the cast, who is so gutted by his own darkness that he’s drowning in it (the title is all about him, by the way), who consistently mistakes his vulnerability for the cruelty he tells himself it must be, even as he is laid bare all the same. His story felt so much more human.

I was a little sad to see less of Ma in the story, but when she does finally take center stage, it is well worth the wait. Her empathy, freely given, provides such a good foil for Zhu and the other men.

The darkness of the story, the consequences for lives carelessly spent like so much coin, and the very real emotional center at the heart of each of our main cast cemented this one as a new favorite for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Shelley Parker-Chan brings an amazing historical fantasy once again! The brutal world of tragedy, culture, beauty, politics, intrigue, and ambition is just as vivid and heart-wrenching as the first book. The characters are still flawed, unique, nuanced, complicated, and real to a fault. But, my complaint from the first book was even more prominent in this sequel - there are so many characters with similar names and places and motivations and relationships to keep track of.....it made it hard to follow along at times. That's why this is only a 4 star instead of a 5, but it was still amazing.

Parker-Chan brings forth a strong ending to an amazing duology. I never knew exactly what was going to happen, who would survive (spoilers, a lot of people die), and who would succeed. I laughed, I cried, I was so confused I didn't know what my own name was - and man was it enthralling.

This series is heavy and complicated - it's not for the feint of heart or those that was to fully relax while reading. But, it is intricate and beautiful and tragic and thoughtfully executed. You'll find yourself immersed in the themes of ambition, fate, gender, sex, sexuality, expectations, and loyalty. The reader gets a front row seat to how the smallest of actions can have a gargantuan impact on not only your life, but everyone's. Be prepared to ask yourself - how far am I willing to go for what I want, would I go even a fraction as far as the characters?

I would caution readers that the changing of POV and intensive list of characters and locations can become confusing, especially because the changes often happen mid-chapter. Context clues are enough throughout to keep you interested and informed, but there were times where something was referenced and I felt like I was missing a connection. But, I still loved the story and wasn’t confused in the end, even if I worry I may have missed a few enhancing details.

I highly recommend this book and author to any historical fantasy lover!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an audio copy to listen to in exchange for an honest review.

Oh oh oh this was amazing! Violent and descriptive but also endearing. There is love and betrayal. War and a semblance of peace. It's a thrilling conclusion to She Who Became the Sun..

This was an amazing conclusion to The Radiant Emperor duology. The gasps I gasped throughout were genuine. The pacing was immaculate, the brutality was heartbreakingly real, and the ending made all of the emotional ups and downs worth it. The best part about this book is the layering and all of the political games being played. It keeps you guessing and rooting for different characters from scene to scene. Overall, it felt SO REAL. So horrifyingly real. The decisions that the characters made had actually, real-world consequences and things didn’t just work out the way they would in a standard fantasy. When a character felt regret, I felt that same regret. The emotional weight was felt. This was real and heartbreaking and exciting and ultimately, hope…I think? At least in the last sentence we get to grab onto something that may mean change.

Ma is the best.

I absolutely loved this and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys political fantasy with interesting, complex characters. But, go in expecting to be horrified. 5 Stars.

This book did not live up to She Who Became the Sun. It was too much of a slow burn for me. I appreciate the expected queerness we’ve come to love from Parker-Chan, but it just wasn’t enough to make this book “good” and worth its length. I’m really hoping the third book will be more like the first. I haven’t given up all hope just yet.

(I received this audiobook ALC via NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you.)

I was absolutely thrilled to get approved for the audiobook, especially after realizing that Natalie Naudus is the narrator for it. She was the perfect choice for this, voicing a range of characters and navigating the Chinese terms wonderfully.

Before jumping into this, I had to quickly reread the audio version of the last book so that I could refresh myself on what was going on, since this is a fairly complex story. The plot only got more complex in this book, between the battles, the shifting alliances, and the different factions vying for power. I will say that I struggled to fully follow this as an audiobook, and realized pretty quickly that this would have worked better as a physical or ebook read for me. However, I just listened to certain segments twice if I got lost, and was able to follow along well enough.

There was so much growth that happened for Zhu over the course of this book. While she struggled with setbacks, she also continued to bring her creative and out-of-the-box solutions to any issues that came up. I loved watching her come to terms with what her own gender identity is, and how it defines her, considering that she lives her life outwardly as a man with very few knowing her secret. She’s forced to live her life as a man so that she can achieve what she views as her destiny.

Perspectives shift between Zhu, Madam Zhang, and Wang Baoxiang, and while their goal is the same, their motivations are shockingly different. Madam Zhang is working to consolidate power on behalf of her husband, while Wang Baoxiang is working to take his revenge on his Mongol family.

The story was fast-paced and kept my interest engaged from start to finish. There were battles and emotional moments, intrigue and romance, revenge and family dysfunction throughout the story, and it was absolutely thrilling. I couldn’t drag my attention away from this book, and it was addictive. While I’m sad that this duology is over, I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next from the brilliant mind of Parker-Chan.

The follow up to She Who Became the Sun was much like the title darker and more intense. We continue the story with Zhu and Ma, while also following the story of Ouyang and Baoxiang. There are 3 main story lines that run throughout the book, but with a few characters along the way that build the surrounding story.

I do think this book was good, but did suffer from some of the sophmore slump. I enjoyed it, but it was a bit more of an effort to get through sections of the book. It may have just been that the tone of the book was so drastically different from the first.

I listened to this as an audiobook and as usual Natalie Naudus is fantastic!! She is by far one of my favorite narrators and helps bring these dark and complex characters alive.

My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for allowing me to read (listen) this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Who loves a good ending? I said good not safe and comforting btw. Shelly Parker-Chan's "He Who Drowned the World" had me on the edge during the final parts. Which was hazardous because I had a rather large knife making diets for animals and was distracted...

Thank you Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the copy!

What do you risk to get everything you want? And is it worth it? Zhu Yuanzhang, The Radiant King; Ouyang the eunuch general; Wang Baoxiang, scorned by his society, all making moves to get what they want. Each has their motivations. And woe to those who get in their way.

Narrated by Natalie Naudus, once again a force. The highs, the lows (damn some parts hurt) given voice.

Reason to read:
-More use of The Mandate of Heaven
-Excellent politicking
-"Ming-Spreading"
-The nature of want
-The justification of said want
-Great ending

Cons:
-Noooo not (REDACTED)

He Who Drowned the World is part 2 of Shelley Parker Chan's Radiant Emperor Duology. Like it's predecessor, She Who Became the Sun, it is a shrewd exploration of gender coupled with a compelling portrayal of court and politics and military strategy set a the end of Mongol empire in 14th century China, leading up to the beginning of the Ming dynasty in 1368. This alternate history imagines Zhu Yaunzhang as assigned female at birth and assuming the identity of her brother to survive. The first installment Chronicles Zhu's rise to greatness. He Who Drowned the World continues to follow her as a The Radiant Emperor destined to rule all of China, exploring the cost of such a single-minded focus-not just to Zhu, but to those she cares for most.

As counterpoint to Zhu's story, we also follow General Ouyang and Lord Wang Boaxiang on their own journey's to power and revenge. Like Zhu, each is also outside the norm of masculinity (one a Eunuch the other unabashedly effeminate) and each are utterly consumed with their very personal missions. For all three, Parker-Chan explores the psyche of those who are willing to do anything to get what they want. When is the cost worth it? To what extent is it ever worth it? It's an amazing deep dive into the ugly side of winning and what it means to do what is necessary to win.

Though I do highly recommend this series, I also caution readers to check out content warning (violence, sexual assault and self harm among the them). These are deeply flawed characters acting in horrific ways towards others and themselves. And yet, Parker-Chan never allows us to lose sight of their humanity and the things outside their control that bring them to the place we find them. It's a glorious complicated mess that will make you think, but without any easy answers to placate the impact.

I was fortunate to have access to an audiobook of the novel as well as an eARC. The audio was masterfully narrated and well produced. Thanks to MacMillan audio for allowing me to listen.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor for access to an eARC of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

This was an interesting follow up to "She Who Became the Sun," but it just didn't hold my interest as well as the first book did.
I enjoyed learning more about Wang Baoxiang, but missed Zhu Yuanzhang's perspectives. It seemed that most of her scenes involved her going from one battle to the next, with little of the charecter development I enjoyed so much in the first book.
The narration was good.

Thank you to Net galley for an e-audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ALC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an amazing, worthy conclusion to Shelley Parker-Chan's debut duology. I was captivated from the very first word untilt the very last, extremely fitting sentence that came out of Zhu's mouth.

Parker-Chan is an absolute master at characterization. This book picks up where the first left off; Zhu has the mandate of heaven, and now has to defeat her rivals to become the true Emperor of China and begin a new dynasty. This book follows her defeating each man who stands in her way. My favorite part of the book was the last quarter. Ma, Zhu's wife, really gets her time to shine in this novel, and it was incredibly moving to see how much Zhu and the ones who trust and love her are willing to sacrifice in order to allow her to achieve her destiny of greatness. I would truly read anything Parker-Chan puts out after this masterpiece.