She Who Became The Sun

She Who Became The Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan. I started this book in a state of almost total cluelessness (a state I find very natural!) - my reading-list note said "alt-hist China fantasy", by which my past self could have meant anything from a second-world fantasy like Empress of Salt and Fortune that's a lot *like* China in some ways, to ultra-specific change-one-thing-and-here's-what-else-changes stories. I'm going to put my eventual journey out of cluelessness behind a spoiler cut, so before that let me just say that I thought it was good and interesting and I recommend it, in general, and will specifically throw out some tags, in the least spoilery way possible, for "gender", "strategy", "ambition", and "loyalty". And I'm almost certainly Hugo-reccing it.

Spoilers behind this cut, but I'm still being cagey about the specifics. ( Read more... )

And now behind *this* cut, more specific major spoilers. ( Read more... )

And, hey, one more cut for a couple of content notes, including major spoilers. I guess if you want the content notes but not the above spoilers, just... don't look up?? ( Read more... )