2021 SF, first of a duology. Zetian's older sister died as a
pilot-concubine, co-piloting a giant mecha to fight off the aliens
from beyond the Wall. She knows she will also die, but she plans to
take someone down with her…
This is a fascinating book. It's filled with characters inspired
by Chinese history, starting with Wu Zetian (624-705), but also
including Li Shimin (598-649), Qin Zheng (259-210BCE), Gao Qiu
(1076?-1126), Sima Yi (179-251), Zhuge Liang (181-234), An Lushan
(703-757)… and I'm giving those dates to emphasise that these are not
at all direct copies of the historical characters whose names they
share, though they do borrow elements of their characterisation.
Indeed, this is a setting of the far future, with alien invaders and a
new Great Wall to keep them out, and… why doesn't this annoy me the
way The Tiger's Daughter did when it borrowed Japanese history
wholesale for its fantasy world?
Maybe because Zhao does have Chinese cultural roots, though they moved
to Canada as a child. But also because there's frankly more energy
here, perhaps at times too much; this story is very much in the spirit
of good mecha anime, which yes, has lots of giant robot fights, but
also has serious things to say about the sort of people who will
happily strap children into a war machine and send them off to die.
And where you win battles not by having the better technology but by
channelling your qi better, reconfiguring your mecha on the fly.
I mean, I know perfectly well mecha in the real world don't make any
sense, but sometimes the fantasy of them as effective war machines is
science-based (as in Fang of the Sun Dougram or for that matter
BattleTech), and someties it's more explicitly fantastic, as in
Evangelion or Sousei no Aquarion. This is very much in the latter
camp.
And in between all that Zhao tackles institutional sexism (and other
things) by means of Zetian saying "well, why does it have to be like
that" and refusing to be fobbed off with non-answers. Various tools
are used to manipulate her, and she gradually makes efforts to break
free.
OK, maybe it's not advanced feminism, and if you don't have the
residual love that I do for giant mecha done right maybe this won't
work as well for you. I enjoyed it hugely.