She Who Became the Sun
The Number One Sunday Times Bestseller
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- 5,99 €
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- 5,99 €
Publisher Description
The Number One Sunday Times Bestseller
An immersive historical fantasy, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan is a queer retelling of one legendary Chinese ruler's rise to power.
'Magnificent in every way. War, desire, vengeance, politics – Shelley Parker-Chan has perfectly measured each ingredient' – Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree
In a famine-stricken village on a dusty plain, a seer shows two children their fates. For a family’s eighth-born son, there’s greatness. For the second daughter, nothing.
In 1345, China lies restless under harsh Mongol rule. And when a bandit raid wipes out their home, the two children must somehow survive. Zhu Chongba despairs and gives in. But the girl resolves to overcome her destiny. So she takes her dead brother’s identity and begins her journey. Can Zhu escape what’s written in the stars, as rebellion sweeps the land? Or can she claim her brother’s greatness – and rise, ruthlessly, to take the dragon throne?
This is a glorious tale of love, loss, betrayal and triumph by a powerful new voice.
She Who Became the Sun is a reimagining of the rise to power of Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu was the peasant rebel who expelled the Mongols, unified China under native rule, and became the founding Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
‘Epic, tragic and gorgeous’ – Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Reading Shelley Parker-Chan’s blazing historical debut is a profoundly immersive experience, the author’s evocative prose hooking you in from the very first page. Boldly reimagining the true story of Zhu Yuanzhang, the peasant who became the founder and emperor of the Ming dynasty, She Who Became The Sun transports us to Mongol-ruled China in 1345, where we meet the poverty-stricken Zhu family. When bandits ransack their home, the father is killed, forcing the two children to go it alone—until the young son dies of despair. In a bid for survival, the unnamed daughter—who a fortune-teller once pronounced would amount to precisely nothing in life, while her brother would go on to achieve greatness—decides to inhabit his identity. She is s a brilliant, ruthless, complex protagonist who you’ll root for and dislike, and who will stop at nothing to live out her brother’s destiny—and escape her own. Bearing shades of Mulan, She Who Became the Sun is a rich, thrillingly original debut that dazzlingly explores gender, fate, love, identity and survival.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Parker-Chan's fascinating debut, the first in the Radiant Emperor duology, gives the historical Red Turban Rebellion a grimdark 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. Though Parker-Chan's unrelentingly grim view of humanity bogs down the middle of the novel, her nuanced exploration of gender identity and striking meditation on bodily autonomy set this fantasy apart. Fans of Asian-influenced fantasy have just been given their newest obsession.
