Iron Widow is the debut novel of Chinese-born Canadian writer Xiran Jay Zhao, published in 2021, in the "science fantasy" genre, for adult and young adult readers. Iron Widow follows the ascent to power of a fictionalised version of Wu Zetian, China's only female emperor, in a setting where giant robots are used to combat gigantic otherworldly monsters called hunduns.
In Zetian's world, women are treated as chattel to men, and women who copilot a mecha are killed by the very mechas they occupy, in order to give power boosts and advantages to the mechas' male pilots. Zetian is a "widow" mecha pilot, a one-of-a-kind phenomenon of a woman pilot who wrests control of the mecha away from the male pilot, causing him to die instead of her. This status causes Zetian to be seen as an abomination, and she is later paired with Li Shimin, an elite prodigy male pilot and incarcerated criminal who is treated like a rabid beast by the military. What the military intends as a punitive measure to keep both Shimin and Zetian under control, proves to be the means for both to pursue their personal goals of revenge and liberation against those who have wronged them and brought about the deaths of thousands of women to advance the careers of other pilots.
Iron Widow features fantastic combat scenes with giant robots and alien monsters, as well as blistering dialogue and believable depictions of polyamory and complex relationships with gender roles in an extraordinarily sexist civilisation. The themes and morals of the text can be overly blunt and heavy-handed in some places, which is understandable for a book which anticipates high schoolers as its primary reader demographic.
Iron Widow is a worthwhile read for fans of the Pacific Rim (2013) film duology, as well as those who have enjoyed the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), Attack on Titan (2013), and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress (2016). Other books I would recommend to those who have enjoyed Iron Widow are Yoon Ha Lee's Ninefox Gambit (2016) and Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant (2015).
Iron Noder 2023, 28/30