Title: Iron Widow (Iron Widow #1)
Author: Xiran Jay Zhao
Genre: Fantasy, epic fantasy 
Publisher: Penguin Teen Canada
Publication Date: 2021
Format: Audiobook 
Length: 12 hours

Read if you like: feminist characters, reimagining of Chinese history, sci-fi style fantasy, oppressive regimes and politics, polyamorous relationships, badass FMC

Rating: 

In January I was getting ready to make a lengthy solo road trip when I realized that I didn’t currently have an audiobook on loan. I quickly went to my library’s Available Now selection and right at the top of my suggestions sat Iron Widow. 

The premise of this book had intrigued me in the past, but I’d never quite managed to get it off of my TBR. I used my long drive to sink into the audiobook and within the first half hour, I was hooked.

Iron Widow was a gloriously unique, violent sci-fi-style fantasy full of feminine rage. Set in a futuristic reimagining of medieval China, I didn’t want to stop listening because I was so enthralled with the premise, the characters, and the action. 

I would have liked to have seen the main character evolve a little more, but given that this is book one in the series, I think there’s still time for that in the subsequent stories. This was probably one of the most unique stories that I’ve consumed in a long time and I’ll be very interested to see where it goes from here.

The Book Synopsis: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn’t matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.

When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it’s to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalise instead.

To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.

The Review

I picked this book up on a whim, but wow, what a ride.

I almost feel like feminine rage isn’t a strong enough descriptor for what this book encompassed. From the very first chapter, it was pure, undiluted feminist vitriol about how women have been treated and their role in traditional society, with direct connections to practices rooted in Chinese history. Even in a fantasy-heavy environment, you could still see clear tangents to real-world applications, and it was all the more infuriating for it. 

As a character, Zetian was the perfect embodiment of the suffering that women experienced, both physically and mentally, as a survivor of significant physical and emotional abuse by her family and then as a pawn for her male-dominated government. That said, she was also perceptive and powerful, and I appreciated her willingness to do whatever it took to make things right for her sister and make things better for women as a whole. She’s all fire and fury most of the time, seldom showing emotions other than calculation and rage, but the injustice she and other women are suffering through is so severe that it always felt justified to me. I would have liked to see her grow a little more, but I suspect there will be plenty of time for that in the next book. 

The plot itself was extremely inventive; I can’t recall the last time I read a novel that was so unique. The nature of the gendered approach to the world was familiar with female oppression at least as severe as books like The Handmaid’s Tale, but the Chrysalises (fighting mechas powered through spirit pressure) and the Hunduns (alien life forms) were unlike anything I’ve read before. The plot was action-packed and the stakes were always desperately high, which made for a gripping audiobook. 

This was a super solid read for me, it kept me hooked the whole time and had a lot of nice setup for what will undoubtedly be a thrilling second book. I’ll be picking it up on audio when it’s available from my library.