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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 […]

I love everything this book chooses to be. #CBRBINGO – Font

Iron Widow (Iron Widow, #1) by Xiran Jay Zhao

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“How do you take the fight out of half the population and render them willing slaves? You tell them they’re meant to do nothing but serve from the minute they’re born. You tell them they’re weak. You tell them they’re prey. You tell them over and over, until it’s the only truth they’re capable of living.” This book is a scream of rage into the night, and I’m so glad it got published. Even if you don’t normally read YA, I would urge you to […]

full of sound and fury, signifying not quite as much as it could

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

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I’m not going to bury the lede on this one: I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. The nutshell premise is undeniably cool: space fantasy with strong Pacific Rim vibes, in that you have these mecha-type constructs piloted by psychically-linked soldiers who are fighting terrible alien monsters, powering their robots through the power of their chi, but everything inflected strongly through Chinese history and mythology. Except the system is horribly corrupt: girl pilots (we’ll say girls because the protagonist always does, and […]

Anger and Iron: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

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In the world of this book, humans are in constant battle with alien insect creatures. Mecha robots, piloted by 2-person male-female teams, are critical to the battle efforts. However, the female member of the team is mainly used as kind of battery for the mecha – generally dying during battle as their life force is drained by the mecha. Human society is centered around this war – glorifying battle – and in order to ensure a steady supply of women volunteered for battle, their families […]

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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