Claire Manns

-This review contains spoilers- Iron Widow was certainly an interesting read. I’m definitely not the target audience for this book - I don’t hold any feminist rage, so the visceral anger throughout was at best not relatable and at worst off-putting to me. However, the concepts were interesting enough to keep me reading. The book definitely has a pacing issue, especially the final part, and there are multiple skips to new scenes with many developments from the last, with little explanation given as to how we got here. Any explanations in these cases only explain things that aren’t actually important. It’s like the author just wanted to get to the next exciting part without taking the time to lead up to it, or do some character-building or something. Speaking of the characters, the main character is downright tyrannical. I get why, I get she’s not meant to be likeable, but I disagree with other reviews saying we’re not meant to root for her. If we’re not rooting for her, who or what are we rooting for? No alternative is given. Also, for such a proudly feminist book, there’s an extremely surprising lack of strong female characters. Zetian is the only female member of this budding revolution. All the other women are at best gaming the system to best serve them in their privileged positions (as compared to those who aren’t balanced match pilots), and at worst simply subservient. Why is there no ‘girl power’? Back to the budding revolution, the book ends with Zetian essentially taking over a city. She has done this with the help of two other people. Just two. Yes, both of these people have a lot of influence in different ways, but I’m pretty sure you need more than just an inner circle to carry out a successful revolution. Where are their allies? I think the gratification of relating to the very prominent feminist rage may have biased some of the five star reviews. The book doesn’t hold up THAT well, but I would be interested to see what a sequel holds. My problems with the series may be resolved in later instalments.