He Who Drowned the World
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4.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
How much would you give to win the world?
Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor.
But Zhu isn't the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband - and she's strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who has already sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his father's killer, the Great Khan.
Unbeknownst to the southerners, a new contender is even closer to the throne. The scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang has maneuvered his way into the capital, and his lethal court games threaten to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also desires revenge: to become the most degenerate Great Khan in history - and in so doing, make a mockery of every value his Mongol warrior family loved more than him.
All the contenders are determined to do whatever it takes to win. But when desire is the size of the world, the price could be too much for even the most ruthless heart to bear . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Parker-Chan follows She Who Became the Sun with this intricately plotted and devastatingly brutal historical fantasy, the finale to the Radiant Emperor duology set in 1356 China. A five-way power struggle simmers between former monk and current "Radiant King" Zhu Yuanzhang, revenge-driven eunuch General Ouyang, the Zhang merchant family, Red Turban rebellion leader Chen Youliang, and Henan's prince Wang Baoxiang. Zhu makes peace with Ouyang, promising he can have his revenge and kill the overthrown Mongol ruler, the Great Khan, if he will first help Zhu defeat the Zhangs. Meanwhile, Chen offers his assistance to the Machiavellian Madame Zhang, even as Baoxiang, who skillfully manipulated his way into the Great Kahn's court, now aims to ingratiate himself to the Zhangs himself. Parker-Chan admirably continues the nuanced and compassionate examination of gender, sex, and desire that began in book one while simultaneously dialing up the intensity and frequency of the graphic violence, torture, rape, and sadomasochism. Indeed, Chen's habit of sending mutilated severed hands to Zhu and the scenes of Zhu assisting Ouyang's sexualized self-harm feel borderline gratuitous. Though Parker-Chan successfully steers the complex political machinations to a satisfying conclusion, readers will need strong stomachs to handle this gory window into the worst of human behavior.
