Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Robots, monsters, and medieval, chinese culture

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

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I first encountered Xiran Jay Zhao via twitter when friends linked to her takedown of the 2020 Mulan film (well worth watching – the takedown, not the movie) so when I read that she was writing a novel that built on Medieval Chinese concepts with giant robots and monsters/kaiju I was obviously going to read it. In Iron Widow we see a patriarchal society in which women are very much second class citizens. For most it’s marriage and hope you get a good husband. And […]

He will not kill me. He does not get to make me a statistic.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

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You cannot appease someone into loving or respecting you. ― Xiran Jay Zhao, Iron Widow I chose this book because I saw it reviewed on CBR14 and damn, did it look interesting. Feminist wrath? Yes, please. To sum it up, Wu Zetian is angry. Not just a little pissed, but vengeful and rightly so. In her world, humanity is in a centuries-long battle with the Hundans, an alien species which invaded their planet. The only way to keep the Hundans from overtaking the entire planet is to […]

Fighting the Spirit Robot Patriarchy

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

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I picked up this novel because I was seeing it mentioned quite a bit on Twitter. And…I loved it. Nice job, queer literature Twitter. In this alternative world China, poor families sell their daughters either as wives or to the military, where they are partnered with the male pilot of a Chrysalis. Essentially a Chrysalis is a giant fighting robot made of spirit metal, which can morph into different forms. It is fueled by the qi of the male pilot and a female companion. Often […]



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