He Who Drowned The World was not as good as She Who Became The Sun

Spoilers for She Who Became The Sun and He Who Drowned The World.

First off, I just wanted the say that I loved the first book She Who Became The Sun. It was the first time I read something with its setting, and I was instantly hooked.

I loved the protagonist. Zhu Chongba may have committed some horrific acts, but they were still charismatic throughout, which made sense why so many people followed them (unlike a certain other morally grey lead of an East Asian Fantasy). They were clever, strategic and used her/their gender to her advantage.

I also loved learning about the other side. Ouyang was also a delight to read about, same with the Wang brothers. See, this is how you add moral complexity to the antagonists, unlike other said East Asian Fantasy book series.

My love of the book increased when I learnt a lot of the characters involved were real people. I love history so it was a delight. The book still stuck closely to history while also adding its own spin.

The second book, on the other hand, was not as good as the first.

Don’t get me wrong, I still liked reading about Zhu and Ouyang, and the court politics of the Great Khan was interesting, but things started getting rushed.

The last third felt rushed, like it was supposed to be its own book but it was mandated that the series had to be a duology.

I also felt that it strayed far too much from actual history. Obviously it wasn’t completely accurate because of the Fantasy elements and the fact that there was no evidence that Zhu Yuanzhang was actually a woman but the Prince that died in the book was supposed to rule the remnants of the Yuan dynasty in Mongolia so…

But I still liked the book.