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Iron Widow is a sci-fi retelling of the rise of Wu Zetian, the only female emperor in Chinese history. The series follows an 18-year-old re-imagining of her as she avenges her sister’s murder by an intensely patriarchal military system that pairs boys and girls up to pilot giant magical mecha based on creatures from East Asian myth (Nine-Tailed Fox, Moon Rabbit, etc.), but in which boy pilots are treated like celebrities, while girl pilots must serve as their concubines.
Note about its age rating: This series initially sold as YA and its contents fall well within the norm of Upper YA, which is meant for older teens and up. There is a massive difference between Lower YA and Upper YA, just as there is a massive difference between a 12 year old and an 18 year old. However, I understand that different people have different expectations when they hear “YA series” and may not be aware of the industry history that caused the normalization of mature content in Upper YA, such as the failure of the New Adult genre to establish itself, the shelving of books by femme-presenting authors into YA no matter the contents, and authors not being able to jump age categories mid-series even as their themes matured. Due to this widespread confusion, I will no longer personally be marketing it as YA at all, though please keep in mind that I cannot control where booksellers and librarians stock it. To be cautious, I will refrain from putting graphic, extended sexual activity on page, but please be aware that the level of violence and sensuality in this series is not appropriate for younger teens, and I as a person do not approach social media as if I have a mostly teen audience. All main characters in this series are over the age of 18.
FOR BOOKSELLERS: I can send you signed bookplates free of charge! Please email your store name and address to xjzhaoinfo@gmail.com
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Accolades:
Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller
An Amazon Editors’ Pick for Best Young Adult & Best Science Fiction and Fantasy
A Polygon Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of 2021
An Indigo #1 Teen Book of the Year
An Indigo Best Teen Book & Best Teen Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book (2021)
A Barnes & Noble’s Best YA Fantasy & Adventure of 2021
A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens (2021)
A Canadian Children’s Book Centre Favourite Book of the Year (2021)
A Boston Globe Best Book of 2021
A Cultured Vultures’ “21 Best Books Of 2021”
One of Book Riot‘s “20 best science fiction books of all time”
Winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award
Winner of the British Science Fiction Association Best Book for Young Readers
Winner of the 2022 Barnes and Noble YA Book Award
Winner of the 2022 Arlene Barlin Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy
Winner of the 2022 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award
Finalist for the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
Finalist for the 2022 Locus Awards for Young Adult Novel & First Novel
Finalist for the 2022 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book
Official Summary:
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.
International Editions:
Iron Widow will be coming out in the following languages from the following publishers! If you have any questions about these translated editions, such as when they’ll release, please poke the publishers themselves. I know very, very little of what goes on with my foreign editions and I have no control over which ones I get, because I do not own the translation rights to my books.
French: Out now from La Martiniere, translated by Isabelle Troin
Canadian French: Out now from Lux & Nox, also translated by Isabelle Troin (Copies come with signed bookplates!)
Italian: Out now from Rizzoli, translated by Paolo Maria Bonora
Spanish: Out now from RBA Libros, translated by Scheherezade Surià López
German: Out now from Blanvalet, translated by Michaela Link
Ukrainian: Out now from Vivat, translated by Julia Sheket
Brazilian Portuguese: Out now from Intrinseca, translated by Caroline Chang
Portugal Portuguese: Out now from Saida Emergencia, translated by Luís Santos
Romanian: Out now from Bookzone, translated by Alina Scurtu
Czech: Out now from Euromedia, translated by Jana Kunová
Slovak: Out now from Slovart, translated by Katarína Kvoriaková
Polish: Out now from Poznanskie, translated by Maciej Studencki
Turkish: Yabanci
Hungarian: Out now from Alexandra Kiado, translated by Kiss Viktória
Japanese: Out now from Hayakawa Publishing 早川書房 as 鋼鉄紅女, translated by Naoya Nakahara 中原尚哉訳
Korean: Out now from Book21, translated by Shim Yeon-hee
Dutch: Out now from Pelckmans, translated by Floortje Zwigtman
Bonus Summary for Weebs:
Under siege by monsters beyond the Great Wall like that shitty Matt Damon movie, except the monsters are Cybertronian-like sentient machines, a society that has the fashion, social customs, and beliefs of Ancient China but futuristic tech fights back by pulling a Neon Genesis Evangelion and rebuilding their very invaders into giant mecha. A boy-girl pair in their teens, because of course they have to be teens, pilot the mecha Darling in the Franxx style, except in a much more sensible position (he hugs her from behind). Under command of human pilots, these mecha take on forms inspired by East Asian myth creatures and transform like Transformers through Digimon-esque evolution lines that get more humanoid as you go on. The pilots physically embody them, so it’s more Attack on Titan rules than Gundam. Oh, and they blast qi attacks, so the battles honestly read like a bunch of furries engaged in a Dragon Ball Z fight, and that’s no one’s fault but mine.
Catch this in your local bookstore TODAY.