He Who Drowned the World
He Who Drowned the World is a 2023 historical fantasy novel by Australian author Shelley Parker-Chan. It is the sequel to the author's 2021 British Fantasy Award-winning debut novel, She Who Became the Sun, and completes The Radiant Emperor Duology''.''
Plot
The novel continues the story of She Who Became the Sun, in which Zhu Chongba, a peasant girl in 14th century China, assumes her dead brother's identity and his promise of greatness in order to escape the "nothingness" of her own fate. Seeking refuge in a monastery, Zhu Chongba maintains the deception, slowly gains status, rises to power, joins the Red Turbans when the monastery is destroyed, then, having eliminated her adversaries one by one, eventually occupies the capital, and having succeeded in summoning the Mandate of Heaven is finally crowned King.In He Who Drowned the World, Zhu Chongba, now Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is triumphant, happily married to a woman who knows the secret of her identity, and victorious, having liberated southern China from its Mongol masters. But her ambition is not yet satisfied: she means now to seize the throne and crown herself emperor.
However, Zhu's ambitions are threatened by powerful courtesan Madam Zhang, who covets the throne for her husband. To consolidate her own chances, Zhu must enter a risky alliance with an old enemy: the brilliant, complicated eunuch general Ouyang, who cut off Zhu's hand in their last encounter, and who is still seeking a chance to avenge the murder of his father by the Great Khan.
Meanwhile, the scholar Wang Baoxiang has also found his way into the capital, and plans through a series of lethal intrigues to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also seeks revenge: his plan, to become the most depraved Great Khan in history—and in so doing, take revenge on both the patriarchal society that despises him for who he is, and the Mongol warrior family who scorned him.