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Iron Widow

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Iron Widow

By: Xiran Jay Zhao
Narrated by: Rong Fu
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About this listen

Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA listeners.

The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.

When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected - she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.

To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way - and stop more girls from being sacrificed.

©2021 Oneworld Publications (P)2021 Penguin Random House Canada Limited Asian & Pacific Islander Creators Fiction LGBTQIA+ Creators Literature & Fiction Multicultural Science Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Women's Voices Aviation
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This was genuinely one of the most incredible books I’ve written. Such a strong female lead, such incredible love interests, such amazing displays of poly situations. I can’t wait for more.
I hope in the next one it’s more steamy… :)
But this was absolutely wonderful. Read this book. You will not regret it.

Oh my god read this book.

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Couldn’t put this book down from start to finish. Heavily suggest for those who love progressive sci-fi narratives.

I wish there were 3 more books I could binge

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The audio version made the narrative come alive, with the reader expertly navigating both the Chinese names with the English story telling and the emotional roller coastal ride of the narrative. Excellent!

Breathtakingly exhilarating adventure

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found out about this one on tiktok, absolutely loved it.
excited for the second book.

mythological mecha

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Fun tick of so many tropes. And perhaps a still necessary antidote to the lunacy of patriarchy - gut wrenching to remember how many centuries China practiced footbinding, and still practices female infanticide. (Definition of a feminist: any woman who expresses opinions that differentiate her from a doormat.)

An entertaining call to arms for humanists and feminists

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wow! this book blew me away. I'm very picky with books and it's a struggle to find books with interesting plots and characters. I love the combination of SciFi, history, feminism and Polyamory it sounds like a chaotic combo but the author does a beautiful job of weaving it together. I love how realistic the main character is and how unapologetic she is when it comes to fighting an oppressive patriarchal system. I think vengeance and rage are emotions fround upon especially in women, there's these characteristics often pushed onto women to be forgiving caring and self sacrificing there's non of the bullshit here. I can't wait for the second book !

best book I've read in a long time

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this book is absolutely phenomenal!! the worldbuilding is really creative, the plot is great, and don't even start me on the characters... the narrator did a really really good job and made it such as enjoyable experience. i really would recommend you read this because it's seriously good!

amazing, please read!!

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I was expecting something amazing and was not disappointed in the slightest. It has mecha, love triangles and incredible writing with true emotion. now I’ll be moping until Heavenly Tyrant comes out.

Simply incredible

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At times this book can be a little on the nose with it’s takes on feminism and social commentary, and the prose and dialogue ring a little YA fiction. However, as a massive fan of sci fi fiction across several mediums I really had a great time with this book. It moves fast but it’s punchy and exciting and has a lot of unique spins on the mech genre. The performance is also perfect and really amplified my enjoyment of the book.

Fun and exciting take on Darling in the Franxx and Pacific Rim

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if you're here because you've heard good things. yes this book lives up to them quite well. If you're here without context, this book is loaded with queerness, urgent desperation, knife edged sweetness and righteous violence.

This is hecking good.

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