Iron Widow
by Xiran Jay Zhao · first published 2019
5mentions
2recommended by
4HN commenters
2023–2024first – last mentioned
50% recommend50% neutral
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 pilo
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Have you considered sending him some of Nnedi Okorafors Binti series? You might also think Iron Widow by xiran jay zhao (giant mechs vs aliens), anything by marie lu, aurora rising by amie kaufman & jay kristoff, invictus by ryan graudin
on “Samuel R. Delany Reimagined Sci-Fi, Sex, and the City” ↗…excitement of suddenly getting a nice number out of a PRNG or a cool story out of GPT is a very different from experiencing a story passionately crafted by a human. When I read an amazing story like the Iron Widow, I feel respect towards the skills of the author, excitement for her future plans for the sequel; I follow the author on twitter and maybe interact a bit, because I appreciate what that human made me…
on “Artist banned, told to “find a different style”- AI-made art” ↗…just by how the piece itself is drawn: that's the whole point of human artistic intent. Another reason why human intent is important for me, from my comments below: when I read an amazing story like the Iron Widow, I feel respect towards the skills of the author, excitement for her future plans for the sequel; I follow the author on twitter and maybe interact a bit, because I appreciate what that human made me…
on “Artist banned, told to “find a different style”- AI-made art” ↗…There's been multiple times I've looked up something from a list of, say, AAPI sci-fi/fantasy novels that I've never heard of, only to find out adaptations are being worked on for them. (examples include Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, The Poppy War by R.F. Huang, and Jade City by Fonda Lee). Who are you to suggest that the authors behind these works are doing it out of some misprioritization of what the market is…
on “The Uprising of Mesopunk Books: A Subgenre Guide” ↗> Zhao’s novel “Iron Widow” was flagged as being a “reimagining of the rise of the Chinese Empress Wu Zetian.” This is funny, Wu Zetian lives long before the PR China even existed, why should they even what image it paints.
on “Science fiction authors were excluded from awards for fear of offending China” ↗