Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow 2) mini review

No spoilers

I reviewed Iron Widow a few years ago and I enjoyed it but I had some caveats. I read Heavenly Tyrant basically day of publication and I fucking loved it.

If Iron Widow is "female rage," Heavenly Tyrant is "eat-the-rich rage" and maybe I have a lot more eat-the-rich rage than I do female rage or maybe Xiran Jay Zhao got better at writing or maybe I was in a better mood but regardless of the reason I was 100% here for 100% of this book. It's so much fun and it nails the tone at every point, not taking itself too seriously but also never once lessening up on its rage.

This book isn't going to wow you with shocking plot revelations or deeply emotional characters, but it doesn't need to, it's not that kind of book. Tax the rich, abolish private property, viva la revolución, liberté, égalité, fraternité, peace, land, and bread, and enjoy Heavenly Tyrant.

Highly recommend, 5/5.

BTW the one thing this book doesn't do a great job of is providing a recap for the events of book 1 early on, so you might want to find one on youtube or something if you read book 1 a long time ago. I was slightly lost here and there a bit because there's really almost no recapping at all. Which will be great for people binging in the future but was not great for me reading 2? 3? years apart.

Bingo: Dreams NM, Prologues HM, 2024 NM, Disability HM, Author of Color NM, Reference Materials HM. Also the cover is lovely!