Tuesday, September 21, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

 



There have been few books this past year with more hype in the circles I pay attention to than Shelley Parker-Chan's debut novel "She Who Became the Sun".  The book is historical fantasy, telling an alternate tale of 14th century China featuring an alternate take on the rise of the first Emperor in the Ming Dynasty (and the end of the Mongol dynasty).  The fantastical elements are minor, but what there is, and what is what's getting much of the hype, is how the genderflipped and queer tale hits some really interesting themes as the first part of a new duology.  

And She Who Became the Sun really does earn the hype, with a pair of fascinating main characters: a peasant girl who takes the name and supposed destiny of greatness of her dead brother Zhu and a eunuch general Ouyang who is the favorite of a prince, despite his inner desire to get revenge on the prince's family for his disgrace.  The two characters (along with two side characters) are fascinating as they each deal with their own gender issues, with Zhu afraid that her female form will keep her from her brother's greatness and Ouyang ashamed his form gives him a femininity that others mock - all as both reach for their own desires and fate in a land filled with ambitious and jealous nobles and generals who will squash anyone in their path.  It's a hell of a first half of a duology and unlike many duologies, actually is entirely satisfying as the first part of a story, even as it has me eagerly anticipating the conclusion.  

-----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
In 14th century China, a fortune teller prophecies the futures of two peasants, brother and sister - the brother, would be destined for greatness, while the sister was destined for "nothing."  But the brother and their father would die in a village beset by bandits, famine, and drought, leaving only the daughter alive....and so she takes her brother's name, Zhu Chongba.  Seeking first only to survive, Zhu enters a monastery as a boy hoping for food, and finds a complacent life there....until the monastery is burned down by a Mongol lord's most hated general, the Eunuch General Ouyang. 

Surviving once again, Zhu sets out to take her brother's destiny of greatness in her own hands amidst the forces of a rebel army.  But the Rebel Army, blessed by a boy believed to be a divine incarnation signaling a change in the mandate of heaven, is run by a bunch of squabbling men with their own ambitions, ambitions that threaten their own forces as much as the Mongols.  Zhu will need to find a way to take the reins of power from these men if she means to be great, but to do so will require her to take actions that neither her monk teacher or her brother would ever have taken, actions that may jeopardize her ability to take her brother's fate from heaven. 

And then there is the Eunuch General Ouyang, leading the Mongol forces against the rebels, determined to crush them in pursuit of his own objective - for Ouyang was disgraced and shamed as a boy when he was cut and his family destroyed, and despite his standing as a general, has been harboring thoughts of vengeance for years....and the rebels may give him the perfect opportunity to carry that vengeance out...
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She Who Became the Sun is mostly told through the eyes of its two largest protagonists: the girl who becomes known as Zhu and the eunuch general Ouyang.  The story occasionally jumps to other perspectives, most notably that of Ma Xiuying, the daughter of a well-liked rebel general (more on her below), but really the story spends about 60% of its time being told from Zhu's perspective and 30% from Ouyang's.  The two characters find themselves throughout on opposite sides of the conflict, but each have similar issues in some ways to the other that they get through in very different ways. 

And they are both tremendously fascinating characters.  Zhu is the star of this book, as she struggles first just to survive, taking her brother's identity to enter a monastery where she can find a way to be fed...if her true gender can remain undetected.  Then, when the safety of the monastery is taken from her by Ouyang, she decides the only course of action is to lean further into her brother's identity....and his prophesied fate of greatness - heading towards the Red Turban rebels with no plan and little resources other than her wits, her ambition, and her belief that her destiny must be inevitable....as long as heaven doesn't see through her ruse. 

And that makes Zhu such a fascinating mess of contradictions as a character.  She's a woman in body - and her point of view chapters use "she/her" as her pronouns (while others use masculine ones) - but who is not just pretending to be a man, but is deathly terrified of doing any action, or taking advantage of any attribute, that stems from her female body instead of her brother's male one.  For most of the book, it is this fear that causes her biggest breakdowns, as she fears that taking actions that no male would take would result in her losing her destiny, with heaven taking it away - until a pivotal moment where she realizes she owes her survival and her continued destiny to her female form and decides that being both is what makes her special.  Similarly, on a different note, Zhu begins the story ambitious but tempered, unwilling to take certain acts that violate the code of her monastery (killing), and later asks Ma, the young woman she finds herself attracted to, to be her conscience....only to seemingly abandon that all after her big realization in favor of going full on towards her ambition, risks be damned, because she's convinced that her unique attributes and fates promise her everything she desires....greatness.  

Our second major character, Ouyang, is a fascinating counterpart to Zhu.  Cut as a child due to his family's disgrace (the rest of them were all killed), Ouyang has lived his life hoping to get his revenge on the Mongols and their subordinates who did this to his family.  And while he has managed to achieve the rank of general by becoming close to Esen, the son of a Mongol noble (the Prince of Henan) who thinks him his best friend...it has come with years of disgrace, of insulting looks and treatment due to his face his body being more woman-shaped than that of a man.  As one smart character notes, it has made Ouyang desire men rather than women, mainly because he hates women because they remind him of what Ouyang appears like as a Eunuch (something that isn't helped when Esen, who Ouyang is attracted to despite his want of vengeance, admires his womanlike qualities in a drunken passionate moment).  And it drives Ouyang among his path of vengeance, even as it requires him to kill the one he's attracted to and sort of loves, because he hates everything about his life, and is intent upon his death inflicting as much vengeance as possible.  

The rest of the cast also features some great additions.  The most prominent side character is Ma Xiuying, the only character that can be considered "good" and "ethical" in this book, as she feels empathy for even her original asshole betrothed and falls for Zhu, who tries to tell Ma that it is okay for Ma to reach for her own desires....something that hardly seems possible given what limitations society places upon her gender.  Her role is honestly the most tragic, as she becomes more and more tied to Zhu, whose initial good advice becomes threatened by Zhu's own ambition, and if there's anyone you truly feel for in this book, it's her.  Esen is probably the next most prominent side character, but he's so much less interesting than several other side characters, such as his adopted brother Wang Baoxiang, who is hated by his father and Esen for caring about womanly ideas like negotiations, reading, and governing instead of waging war, and finds understanding with Ouyang (as a man who doesn't act like a man).  Another highlight is Madam Zhang, a woman who is the true power behind her husband, a local ruler, who has ambitions of her own of claiming the Mandate of Heaven, and is fully willing to let a man be the figurehead for her so that she can get it.  

These characters inhabit a plot that takes some tremendous swerves, but fair warning, is incredibly dark, with Ma Xiuying being the only character anyone could even consider to be "good" or "ethical" in their overall actions....and she does not get off lightly for it.  The real world of this time was brutal and cruel, and that is still very much the case here, and the book ends on some real incredible climactic moments - ones that both satisfy and will have the reader craving the other half of this duology.  Easily one of the books of the year.  

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