Princess Weekes

Book Club Meeting May 13th 2022 4pmPST/6pmCST/7pmEST—Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Added 2022-05-05 18:01:01 +0000 UTC

Edit: I totally fucked up the time, that is on me. I'm sorry PST people, it won't happen again, but please feel free to add to the book club server.

Book Summary: The nation of Huaxia, a futuristic reimagining of Medieval China, is constantly under attack by alien creatures known as Hunduns. Aided by the mysterious and unseen gods, known as the Heavenly Council, humanity has recovered from a devastating attack that wiped out the modern era ages ago and forced civilization to rebuild. Humanity has learned to harvest the bodies of defeated Hunduns to created giant fighting mecha suits, called Chrysalises. Chrysalises are piloted by young men who register high levels of spirit pressure and can release their qi, which follows the five classical Asian elements. Treated like celebrities by the media and adoring public, male pilots rely on female pilots, called "concubines," who supply them with the necessary additional qi, but at the cost of their own lives, as their mind is typically overwhelmed and absorbed while co-piloting the Chrysalis. Male-female pairings that can co-pilot without risk of death for the female pilot are called Balanced Matches, but they are rare and treated as celebrity marriages. Though some male pilots are strong, none are stronger than the legendary emperor Qin Zheng, who was rumored to have frozen himself hundreds of years ago in stasis within his Chrysalis, the Yellow Dragon, to stave off an illness until a cure could be found. This location, in the Kunlun Mountains, was lost to Hunduns centuries ago and rural areas near the lost territory are under constant threat of Hundun attack.

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