**Iron Widow** is a fantastic book that I absolutely adored. I read it in a breathless, single day on the edge of my seat, excited about what was going to happen next, enamored with its protagonist and extended cast. It was about a girl using giant robots to destroy the patriarchy - what isn't there to love? **[[Heavenly Tyrant]]** is...not that. Frankly, I don't know what **Heavenly Tyrant** is meant to be, other than an awful read. At twice the length as **Iron Widow**, not a single one of its pages earns that length. It is a plodding, boring mess, stripped of any of the things that made **Iron Widow** so wonderful, and a terrible start to my [[2025 Books]] journey. Let me be very clear about something before someone who loved this book gets mad at me: I completely understand what **Heavenly Tyrant** was trying to do. I just don't think it did it well at all, with even the slightest bit of nuance. If I wanted to get lectured on Socialism 101, I'd just resubscribe to Hasan Piker. None of the characters in **Heavenly Tyrant** are characters, they are simply mouthpieces that dump literal paragraphs of communistic ideology. This is an ideology I'm super about by the way! But again, I didn't think I'd be getting roped into political theory for an entire 500+ page book. At times it feels like the characters are looking directly into the camera and saying "capitalism is bad." The book is so bogged down in theory that I legit am not sure if Zhao had an editor for this book. If they did, they should probably ask for a new one, because this book absolutely did not need to be this long. Absolutely nothing happens within it, as Zetian recovers from a surgery that gets rid of her bound feet. On that note, I am not a disability rep expert, but something about that feels very gross? I feel like Zetian's bound feet were a big part of her character but it just gets waved away by a surgery that happens while she's unconsious. This is because the book's new semi-antagonist, Qin Zheng, does it without her consent. Qin Zheng sucks. I don't mean that as like, "oh what a deviously evil character," I mean he, like most things in this book, is poorly executed as a character. He's the driving force behind the Socialism that gets enacted in the first 400 pages of this book, but has his own hang-ups that are meant to make him ✨️ morally gray ✨️. By that I mean he's a kinky BDSM-loving misogynist. This aspect of him might be the worst part of the book, as Zetian starts to hook up with him while they use "private property" as a safe-word. Zetian wakes up with bruises the next morning. There are maybe three giant robot fights in this book, by the way. I dunno man. Am I boomer? Do I need to stop reading YA books? Maybe I'm getting aged out. But again, I *adored* **Iron Widow**. I don't know who to blame for this travesty of a book. It's paced like molasses, it barely has a plot until the last 100 pages where it remembers that it had a wild twist at the end of the first book that it needs to get back to. Those last 100 pages are so rushed and poorly implemented to cliffhang ahead of a third book. We have made zero progress outside of hamfistedly applying the communist manifesto to a fictional country. Strangest of all is how Qin Zheng seems to regress in personality after he and Zetian fuck, with him randomly telling a person "kill yourself," like a 4channer when up until the climax he was supposed to be this intimidating force. So cool! Again, everything about **Iron Widow** that made it so good simply isn't present in this book. Zetian spends all of her time under Zheng's thumb, and her feminist rage barely has an outlet unlike last time, her cool poly relationship doesn't even exist in this book unlike last time, *again* there are barely any cool robot fights unlike last time. When Zhao said that this book would be different from the first one, I assumed it was because the scale was about to increase into an Alien threat, with Zetian navigating the politics of a country that hates her and a war she would need to wage against the Gods. Instead we have Zheng giving her a necklace before saying "it is always ethical to steal from the rich" and winking at the camera. If you *do* want a book about a revolution that increases in scope from a planetary to galaxy-level threat, check out **Red Rising**. The first book has a problem with fridging one of its female characters, but that gets addressed as the books goes on, because unlike with **Iron Widow**, *that* series of books has its writer improve as time goes on, as opposed to falling apart. Or I dunno, just watch **Gurren Lagann**, that show does it all in like 24 episodes. Just don't read **Heavenly Tyrant**, unless you like getting hurt or need a 7th grade level understanding of **The Conquest of Bread**. 2 out of 7, this book made me want to start drinking.