The Sundays in Bed With… meme, hosted by Midnight Book Girl, dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning. Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today!
He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan
I’m about 50% through an ARC of this book and at this point I definitely won’t finish it by its publication date. But that’s ok because I’m trying to absorb as much as I can on this first read through. And there’s a lot to absorb in addition to 14th century cultural customs that are not my own. This final book in the duology is way more intense than SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN in so many ways. I honestly have no idea how it’s going to end and I’m a little nervous based on some quick, non-spoiler reactions I saw on Twitter. It’s a book that definitely deserves to be savored rather than speed read, I’ll just put it that way!
About the Book
Author: Shelley Parker-Chan
Series: The Radiant Emperor #2
Age Category: Adult
Publisher: Tor Books
Publish Date: August 12, 2023
Print Length: 496
The sequel and series conclusion to She Who Became the Sun, the accomplished, poetic debut of war and destiny, sweeping across an epic alternate China. Mulan meets The Song of Achilles.
How much would you give to win the world?
Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor.
But Zhu isn’t the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband–and she’s strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who has already sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his father’s killer, the Great Khan.
Unbeknownst to the southerners, a new contender is even closer to the throne. The scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang has maneuvered his way into the capital, and his lethal court games threaten to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also desires revenge: to become the most degenerate Great Khan in history–and in so doing, make a mockery of every value his Mongol warrior family loved more than him.
All the contenders are determined to do whatever it takes to win. But when desire is the size of the world, the price could be too much for even the most ruthless heart to bear…
This is on my radar for this week and I am so looking forward to it
Excellent. If you’re like me, you’ll probably find yourself reading it a bit slower than you might other books.
I’ve read some books like this recently too, dense but worth taking your time. I hope it you end up loving it😁
Sometimes you just have to slow down & savor it otherwise you’ll miss something important. I hope I like the book as a whole, too!
The hosting blog seems inactive now! I went to see and half says unavailable and the rest is like, 2022 since the last post😳 I like the TTT community because they all come comment on posts LOL
I just checked and you’re right! What a shame. I’ve been doing this meme for a little while never but hadn’t checked out the host blog’s site in a while. There are definitely others that participate in it, though…I think I’ve seen Janette (Wicked Witch’s Blog) & Julie (One Book More) do this one from time to time.
Isn’t the TTT one more list based? I avoid those types of memes because I hate all the formatting that that entails since it’d make me want to include book covers. 😂