#SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN BY SHELLEY PARKER-CHAN

[betterbooksandthings]

"All fantasy authors have to start somewhere. The best debut fantasy books ever written are a testament to what that starting line can look like. In fantasy, the delicate dance between worldbuilding, character, and craft is always difficult. Somehow, these authors got it just right with the first books they had published."

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[torpublishinggroup]

TOR WRAPPED 2023

Books for every Spotify Wrapped listener class! 

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FANATIC

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

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TIME TRAVELER

Kinning by Nisi Shawl

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

MASTERMIND

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

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COLLECTOR

The Wolfe at the Door by Gene Wolfe

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[ozymandien]

oh him? he's just a monk. no he doesn't harbor deep desires of greatness don't worry about it

#zhu my little bug (literally) #he's a praying mantis a cricket a cockroach... #i love her #AND HE HAS DIMPLES #i imagine she's the type to stare a lot at people. and it elicits an interesting reaction in them #with this polite yet knowing almost-smile and her piercing wide eyes #also i know she's described as ugly in the books and i respect that. but i want her to be just a bit alluring in a fucked up way. like #now. this took sooo long. for absolutely no reason #i redid it like 10000 times and still didn't feel 100% satisfied but today i decided to set it free #i hope you guys like it anyway! #:) #zhu chongba #zhu yuanzhang #she who became the sun #he who drowned the world #the radiant emperor #shelley parker chan #fanart #myart

[teartra]

Give the design team a raise

#he who drowned the world #she who became the sun #shelley parker chan

[eleni-anz]

nooo dont say it haha

#general ouyang #esen temur #she who became the sun #shelley parker chan #the radiant emperor #my art

[captainamsel]

Ma Xiuying from the Radiant Emperor duology!

Design/research notes under the cut

The characters read 馬秀英 (Pinyin: mǎ xiù yīng), her personal name, and 孝慈高皇后 (xiào cí gāo huáng hòu), her name as Empress.

There's certainly no dearth of material on Chinese clothing history out there. That is, if you can read Chinese, which I can't, so everything I have is from secondary and tertiary sources and/or relies on translation software. Fortunately, we're dealing with historical fantasy here, so some anachronisms are not only allowed but encouraged.

While Shelley Parker-Chan takes many liberties, the books are still set in a very specific time period, which is both a blessing and a curse. Most readily accessible resources will tell you about dynasties, which can span hundreds of years, and the duology takes place in a transitional period. So how to dress a Semu girl from the Yuan dynasty who lives with Nanren rebels wanting to revive the Song dynasty and who later becomes the first Ming empress?

Let's go through them one by one. The best resource was this book which is on the Internet Archive. I disregarded Mongol and Semu influences for the design since clothing is very much political and a way to either stand out or fit in with the surrounding society, see for example Wang Baoxiang wearing a topknot in Khanbaliq. Ma, I imagine, would want to fit in with the Nanren around her, so she's pretty much wearing the attire of Han women under Yuan rule. For the hair I went for something that looks youthful while being plausible, though I found very little on hair in this period, so who's to say.

The next one is from a specific scene in the book, so there is some description to go on: red, long sleeves with gold embroidery, high hair, red and gold ribbons. Since this is the scene where Ma declares herself queen and future empress in front of the Red Turban, it has to be a very deliberate dress. It therefore takes inspiration from Song aristocrats' broad-sleeved gowns as well as from 翟衣 (dí yī), the highest ceremonial gown of both Song and Ming empresses. (Some examples for 翟衣 are in this post, which also features the bird shaped crown I just had to include, and this post.) Her hair still has the loops, but it's much more sculpted.

Finally, Empress Ma! This is mainly based on the two actual portraits I could find of the historical figure that Ma is based on, with elements taken from other portraits and paintings. It includes 凤冠 (fèng guān), the phoenix crown, 霞帔 (xiá pèi), the sash, and 禁步 (jīn bù), the jade belt. This video shows how Ming dynasty layers are worn, but it refers to a much later period so it's not quite the same as Ma's.

(Some additional, historically irrelevant notes: I realized too late that a right-to-left timeline might be more appropriate. Oh well! Also, how the colours photograph frustrates me, I swear I did not make her this deathly pale. And finally, some of the characters look a bit smudged because my cat spilled water on them. I did what I could to save them.)

#ma xuiying #the radiant emperor #she who became the sun #he who drowned the world #shelley parker chan

[jessmontz]

took a break from reading to quickly draw Zhu ☀️ i'm rooting for her so much!!

#she who became the sun #shelley parker chan #illustrators on tumblr #my art #jessmontz #female illustrators on tumblr #female artists #illustration #artists on tumblr #digital art #fan art

[creechur-docx]

I think what really elevated Zhu’s character for me was the excellent cheer in which she goes about doing the most morally corrupt things. She’s mild and funny and grins a lot and jokes with her friends and flirts with her wife and loves her sooo tenderly (the end of swbts though oughhh); she’s a monk who can’t fight for shit (or ride a horse) and is altogether a pretty chill guy. And idk it’s so refreshing because the author subverts the (incredibly infuriating) trope of squashing every ‘badass’ non-male character into the snarky-and-cold-and-hates-everyone cast. Zhu is warm and loving and wily and incredibly fucked up and it’s so much more fun to watch than whatever is going on with most YA leads

#swbts #she who became the sun #Shelley Parker-chan #zhu chongba #the radiant emperor #general ouyang

[fullmetalneverland]

"Her eyes slid over General Ouyang’s shoulder and met the stares of his ghosts. She had wondered, before, what bound them to him. But it was the opposite: he bound himself to them. That was his tragedy. Not being born to a terrible fate, but not being able to let it go."

-Shelley Parker-Chan, She Who Became the Sun

#quote #book #book quotes #she who became the sun #he who drowned the world #shelley parker chan

[justanotherclosetednerd]

"Ouyang was the only person in the world who knew what it felt to be loved by Esen. When Ouyang died, that knowledge would go with him. It would be destroyed, and it could never be undone"

- Shelley Parker-Chan, He Who Drowned the World

#she who became the sun #he who drowned the world #shelley parker chan #zhu chongba #general ouyang

[maria-taiwin]

Baoxiang and Ouyang being devastated about Esen's death would have been predictable, everyone would know it, but what amazed me is their devastation to the knowledge that Esen's death was worthy of nothing, it gave no realization. Maybe just one: that they wasted their chance to tell how much they loved each other out loud. They will no longer be able to fix it, because Esen is dead and he will never come back and there is nothing that can console them because they were the ones who killed him for the belief that revenge would fill the emptiness they had inside. But it didn't. They lost and became mentally unstable because they didn't grasp how much more important love was. They couldn’t believe it or understand it. All of them failed to nurture their true good feelings, in order to adapt into what society ot destiny expected, and they paid for it with agony.

#he who drowned the world #she who became the sun #general ouyang #wang baoxiang #lord esen #prince esen #Ouyang #esen #the radiant emperor #hwdtw spoilers #Ouyang x esen #esen temur #shelley parker chan

[layaart]

she who became the sun lesbians

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[yourneighborhoodbibliophile]

Reading She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan.

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[ozymandien]

later, ouyang thought esen wouldn't even had noticed: the moment his stillness of anticipation flicked into the stillness of shame, as quickly as capping a candle. his blood ran cold; his body burned. it was the feeling of a blade slid gently into his heart.

#[transmigrates into this book to prevent esen from opening his mouth] #if he had kissed him here ..... #anyway this scene lives in my mind rent FREE #it all started with me wanting to draw ouyang with his hair down like a sad wet cat. then i thought ha what if he had sheer silk inner robe #AND THEN i thought what if esen's hand ended up in his mouth. like just hypothetically . #i must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul so i did just that #i'm so soo soso normal about ouyang's pretty face as you can tell #general ouyang #esen temur #('s hand) #the radiant emperor #she who became the sun #he who drowned the world #shelley parker chan #fanart #digital art #myart

[silastofa]

#general ouyang #she who became the sun #madam zhang #shelley parker chan

[eleni-anz]

General Ouyang 😤

#general ouyang #the radiant emperor #she who became the sun #shelley parker chan #ouyang #he who drowned the world #zhu chongba