Play Book Tag discussion

Mecha aliens lurk beyond the Great Wall of China thousands of years in the future, having conquered much of the the country, with a goal to eradicating all humans. Huaxia, a province on the other side of the Great Wall, remains controlled and occupied by humans, but they are constantly at war with the aliens, succeeding in battle against them only because they have superior warcraft - giant transforming mechanicals. Operating these war machines are pilots, boys with high qi (mental abilities), partnered with girls with lower qi who generally do not survive the mental strain. While the pilots are treated as celebrities and kings, the girls are concubines and thus disposable. Across the entire culture, girls are from birth kept subservient and powerless, indoctrinated to serve men from perfect lotus feet to not even being taught to read.

We Zetain is a rebel, the younger daughter in an impoverished frontier family. Her older sister was taken as a pilot's concubine, dying suddenly Zetain, convinced she was murdered by her pilot, vows vengance and volunteers as a concubine, her goal being to kill the pilot who murdered her sister. Only things don't quite work out as she planned as Zetain finds herself an Iron Widow with an exceptionally high qi, higher than all but the Iron Demon, Shimin, a boy guilty of patricide and fratricide. Zetain finds a new goal: changing the pilot system so girls are no longer sacrificed. At the same time, Zetain is maturing, finding her own strengths, leanring to maneuver in the world as herself, not just in an assigned role. The strongest theme is without a doubt female empowerment.

Of course, there're a lot more themes -- the mythology of the Yellow Dragon, political maneuverings, systemic abuse and torture, and a love triangle just to name a few. It's action-packed, keeping the reading engaged, anxious to see what comes next. I really enjoyed it, finding myself immersed. Yet ... as the end approached, a certain amount of discontent started entering my reading, culminating in some disatisfaction at the end. I flet almost cheated. I was constantly reminded of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy which clearly was a strong influence, as well as one particular element of N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season, both of which are fine but led me to see the large holes in the world building that haunt the story. The ending - meaning the last couple of pages in the Epilogue - remind me so much of a certain 1980s nightime soap opera ridiculous storyline that I instantly knocked a star from my rating.

The author is young, and for a debut, this is really quite good, quite entertaining. Will I read the sequel or other works by the author? Probably.

Note: this is the April pick for my Feminerdy Book Club. It's going to be a very lively discussion! I would absolutely recommend this for a book club read.

BWF - Letter I - Coming of Age tags 15x

Definitely fits fantasy romance though I have no idea if tagged that.