Book Review: "Iron Widow" by Xiran Jay Zhao

*Spoiler warning!*

4.5/5 stars

Yes, I can see why people would say this story is a blend between The Handmaid's Tale and Pacific Rim. I think it also shares elements of The Hunger Games, and a healthy dash of Game of Thrones. While it shares a lot in common with those popular franchises, it manages to stand on its own in a relentless sci-fi tale about a young woman looking to change a system that tends to oppress and sacrifice women. 

Our heroine, Wu Zetian, is loosely based on the only empress to rule in ancient China. The fictional nation of Huaxia has been in a long struggle with the Hunduns (aliens). Humans have managed to turn the tides with Chrysalises, giant transformable mechas powered by a male-female Pilot pair. However, that price has been the deaths of countless women, who often die in the process of lending their mental and physical energies to the cause. 

"It's not like I wouldn't want humans to annihilate the Hunduns and end this nightmare at the root. What I hate is the pilot system that insists girls are an unavoidable sacrifice in the process."

Wu Zetian's older sister is murdered by a famous mecha Pilot, the latest casualty in the Huaxia-Hundun war. Zetian wants revenge, and, more than that, to change the system that has its boots on the collective necks of girls and women. A system she's watched demean and grind down her mother and grandmother into submissive servility to the men around them. And she's not letting anything get in her way of those goals. 

"Countless times, I watched my father turn my mother into a nervous wreck by simply transforming himself into a dark cloud of a presence. He wouldn't use any curses or shouts, but he'd set his bowl down a little too loudly, or slam doors a little too harshly. She'd step cautiously around him as if he were a bomb, worrying about her every move for fear of setting him off. Without uttering a single word, he'd teach her to twist herself into knots to prioritize his needs and wants, in some strangling hope of quelling the pressure in the house and returning things to normal.

I was never willing to learn my father's lessons."

So, at age eighteen, she volunteers to join the army and gets paired with that Pilot. 

When she overpowers and kills her Pilot partner in a battle, she becomes one of the few women to survive the process of powering a battle mech, reversing the usual outcomes of battle. There's a term for that: "Iron Widow." A female Pilot that can power a Chrysalis by sacrifcing her male partner.

"Women aren't supposed to survive battle. They're supposed to be willing, noble sacrifices for the cause."

Pretty much seen as a monster by the rest of society, Zetian nevertheless is needed in the war effort for her tremendous power in battle. A counterattack is being planned to retake a lost province and Zetian is part of that. Yet, there are powerful elements of Huaxian society that see her as a danger to be eliminated. 

So, Zetian is paired next with the most powerful male Pilot in existence, Li Shimin. Short-term, the powers-that-be see them as humanity's best weapon against the Hunduns. But there are many that see this as the way to off Zetian without outright assassinating her after her usefulness to them ends. 

At first, Zetian is afraid, because she's heard about Li Shimin, "The Iron Demon," a murderer plucked out of prison to fight the Hunduns, and the many women that have been killed in battle with him. She's afraid to be next.

However, Zetian is ambitious, defiant, and relentless, not willing to give up her life that easy. Easily a morally gray character, her noble aims to fight gender-based discrimination and violence are tainted by the violent means she uses to these ends. Yet, I still found myself rooting for her in her quest to change things, even if that meant working with Li Shimin, surviving battle after battle. While no angel, Li Shimin is not who he seems, and Zetian finds in him a valuable partner in her quest.

Even when Zetian's childhood friend, Yizhi, saves the day when the odds seem to be too much for Wu Zetian and Li Shimin to overcome, the trio finds themselves in mortal danger. 

For the planned offensive against the Hunduns is not what it seems, the line between enemy and friend blurred. 

A rollercoaster of emotions and twists, The Iron Widow is a fast-paced sci-fi thrill ride. Highly recommended!

--BookOwl