Science fiction author Xiran Jay Zhao has announced the long-awaited science fiction novel Iron Widow Consequence Heavenly Tyrant opens this holiday.
Xiran Jay Zhao is an avid weeb. In 2021, Xiran published the science fiction novel Iron Widow, This is both a love letter and a response to the popular anime Darling in the Franxx.
Although Xiran is a huge fan of the anime, he was disappointed with the ending and decided to create a brand new story that uses similar tropes but goes in a different direction. Iron Widow was a huge blockbuster hit, reaching number one on the New York Times bestseller list in its first week of release. Now, after a delayed release, the sequel to Iron Widow Heavenly Tyrant is scheduled to be released in December this year.
Originally, Heavenly Tyrant was due out in September 2023. Iron Widow is a massive 400-page volume, so it’s understandable that the sequel took a few years to write. The release was pushed back to April 2024. When the date was pushed back again, there was speculation that people at Xiran’s publishing house were trying to sabotage the book because they disagreed with Xiran’s politics.
Unlike other similarly popular authors such as Sarah J Maas or Neil Gaiman, Xiran Jay Zhao is not politically correct and has strong moral convictions which he is vocal about on social media. In recent years, his anti-war stance and criticism of neoconservatives has been most prominent. Xiran has also criticized book censorship. This has alienated some in the publishing industry, but has earned him respect and a large following from readers and anime fans at the grassroots level.
Shortly after the censorship allegations arose, however, it was announced that Heavenly Tyrant would be published after all, but in December rather than April. This would be very foolish considering that Xiran is one of the publisher’s most popular authors of the last decade.
Iron Widow is even being produced, and will likely go into production next year. Recently, Xiran made headlines for exposing fellow writer Cait Corrain’s attempts to sabotage her fellow writers, which shows that Xiran is not afraid to denounce corruption in real life, just like the protagonist of Iron Widow does in the book. Cait Corrain later admitted to the allegations Xiran made against her and her book was canceled.
Here is the plot summary of Heavenly Tyrant:
After a devastating loss, Zetian finds herself at the center of power in Huaxia. But her world is not what it seems, and revelations about an enemy more fearsome than she imagined force her to share her power with a dangerous man. Zetian must join this man in a dance of truth and lies to defeat their common enemy.
As dangerous forces seek to undermine Zetian at every turn, can she be a fair and just ruler and bring about positive change? Or will she be forced to rely on fear and violence, giving in to her darker instincts in her quest for vengeance?
