Iron Widow Review

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao is a Sci-Fi interpretation of the rise of China’s only Empress, Wu Zetian. Huaxia is a country battling against aliens beyond the Great Wall with Chrysalises, giant transforming robots. Zetian is on a mission of revenge when she volunteers herself as a concubine for a Chrysalises pilot who killed her older sister. When she fulfills her revenge plot, she is proven invaluable to her government and deemed the Iron Widow. Published on September 21st, 2021 (Happy 1st Anniversary), this became a highly anticipated read for my sister and me. We both enjoyed Xiran’s YouTube channel and videos about Chinese Culture and History before I moved out for school. In addition, this felt like a very worthy first dive into the Sci-Fi genre.

With that being said, I loved this novel, and I’m pretty sure I scared some people on my first flight to Italy. I was into this book. I think it’s fair to say that if I’m looking up TikToks about this book and squealing over the sequel announcement while in airport security, me thinks it’s a great thing!

Xiran Jay Zhao has a magical way of blending this distinctly Sci-Fi world with the historical context of Wu Zetian’s rise to power. Admittedly, the extent of my education on Wu Zetian’s rule goes as far as Xiran Jay Zhao’s videos on the topic. They (Zhao) have gone on record that this was not a historic retelling, and they took liberties. Which, ya know, if anyone reads a sci-fi retelling/reinterpretation of a famous story and is shocked that its not 100% accurate. I'm sorry, I don’t know what to tell ya. Regardless of the liberties taken, I feel that this is such a cool way to show Empress Zetian’s rise to power and having women’s rage on full display with this backdrop that would make fans of mecha anime swoon.

In preparation for my review, I looked at what others had to say about Zetian and got a plethora of mixed reviews. Some people loved the way her character was written while others felt they couldn’t root for Zetian because of her questionable morals and her actions at the very end (which we’ll talk about in the Spoiler Section). I can’t say I’m shocked at these differences. Frankly, I enjoyed how her character was written because of all of the things that made Zetian unlikable to others. For me, Zetian doesn’t feel like a character that is supposed to be the classic hero or a purely good character. She’s supposed to be a morally grey figure and her life experiences are greatly influenced by her childhood in poverty and the violence she faces before and during the duration of the novel. It’s also… interesting… that people are usually cool and supportive of characters who are morally gray or characters doing terrible things, but here it’s a different response. Guess it’s only okay to like morally grey characters when they’re hot white at least borderline abusive men… Cool. (Please read the sarcasm here).

I also appreciate Zetian being part of an entirely Chinese cast, thus being a great source of representation, but also being a representation for the differently abled. Zhao told on themselves admittedly because I learned from one of their videos that bound feet and Empress Zetian’s rule never intersected in history. So this was one of the liberties taken for this story. It is undeniable that Zetian is a strong figure for Chinese Women who live with disabilities.

Part of this book’s reputation is thanks to its revolutionary solution to the love triangle. For those who don’t know, Iron Widow does contain a love triangle. Instead of Zetian choosing one over the other, all parties become a polyamorous throuple. Thanks to the craze of love triangles in the mid-2000s thanks to Twilight Saga, I grew up reading a lot of lackluster or forced love triangles. So it was refreshing to see a love triangle handled so differently while also highlighting polyamory. In addition, I enjoyed having every party openly question their sexualities in a way that I feel isn’t explored often. It was treated like a normal circumstance and there was no judgment. It was so welcomed!

The last thing I want to discuss before I go into spoilers, I want to discuss the action scenes. Sci-Fi and Fantasy scenes got a whole lot of them, Iron Widow has mecha fights, so let’s dive into this. So fight scenes and action scenes are usually really hit or miss for me (no pun intended) and I stress over them because I know they are HARD to write. With all that being said, I found some of the fight scenes hard to follow. I found myself being lost during some of them and having to do some rereads. I will give massive kudos to the idea behind them, conceptually they are amazing, and the more I got used to the scenes the easier it got to knock out these scenes. But the rereads did make me struggle especially early on.

Now, this is the part of the review where I’ll be talking spoilers. So I’ll ask that you don’t wish to be spoiled, go ahead and skip down to the ending!

[SPOILER TERITORY]

So, we begin with Zetian preparing to leave to become a Concubine for Yang Guang on her 18th birthday. We get an idea of Zetian’s character early on, a passionate, stubborn young woman who calls out everyone’s shit constantly (which I adore). She does, however, have a secret relationship with Gao Yizhi, who is the son of one of the wealthiest men in the country. She leaves this relationship despite a marriage proposal to follow through with becoming a Concubine for Yang Guang. (But it's okay, Gao Yizhi comes back to a bisexual king) This is because of her aforementioned mentioned revenge plot to kill Yang Guang, the man who killed her sister. I loved this part of the book. It was a very strong beginning, it solidified Zetian as a character, and built up Yang Guang’s death incredibly well. Also from what little we saw of Yang Guang and Zetian’s interactions, there were very interesting implications and I feel like it sufficiently built up a believable relationship given the circumstances. I’m torn because I wanted the moment before she killed him last longer, but at the same time, I fear if it continued it could have stolen the spotlight from the rest of the story or weakened Zetian’s motives. So while I wanted more because selfish readers (like myself) are gonna be selfish readers, I also understand the length of this section. I did love Yang Guang’s death scene and it was a great introduction to the Concubine and Master relationship. There’s also this undertone of horror that accompanies this process that I feel like not a lot of readers have discussed in their reviews.

But what I want to discuss is the ending. Specifically, the plot twist that occurs in the Epilogue. We hadn’t really seen much of the aliens that they’re fighting outside of combat situations and for the most part, they were an enigma. In a way they still are. However, the twist is that the characters we’ve been following have been the invaders of this planet the entire time. XIRAN. And we basically leave it at that? XIRAN! I can’t remember the last book I read that has such a dramatic cliffhanger. Keeping the aliens as a threat while keeping this air of mystery around them throughout the novel adds to the twist while also giving the readers room to build up for the sequel. It made me, what my workshop group calls, a selfish reader which is of course a wonderful thing. That is what makes readers ready for the next book.

[SPOILER END]

So overall, yeah, this book rocks! Great representation in multiple fields, a very interesting beginning to what is looking like a series. In addition, this book ending on a cliffhanger, especially after the twist was disrespectful but I’m also thankful that it ended the way it did. It gives excitement for the next book. If you want a book full of feminist rage, morally gray characters, and dismantling the patriarchy? Check this book out! I will encourage anyone interested in this book to read the trigger warnings because this book does get really dark. Xiran Jay Zhao, take my damn money. If you write it, I’ll buy it. Just gotta get Zachary Ying and The Dragon Emperor and I’ll be caught up.

I’m giving Iron Widow is getting a 4.5 out of 5 stars. I eagerly await the next book, Heavenly Tyrant, in Spring 2023.