Blessed by Death, Ruying tries to hide her abilities from the Roman invaders who have conquered her planet of Pangu.
However, after she accidentally reveals her powers during an altercation with a guard, she becomes captured by the enemy prince. She then is left with an impossible choice: to either become a weapon for the Roman Empire or die.
To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang weaves a confusing dark science fantasy that left me somewhat baffled.
At a sentence level, yes, the writing is lush and lyrical and I really liked Ruying’s death-based magical abilities.
However, it’s the worldbuilding that was hard for me to wrap my head around. For starters, the story itself is inspired by real-life atrocities (i.e. The Opium Wars and Unit 731), but it changes the perpetrator to a high-tech version of the Romans. Why not use a sci-fi analog of Imperial England or Japan?
Moreover, the huge technology gap between the Romans and Pangu (a Chinese-inspired planet) felt strange to me. The Romans here have guns, warships, and radio, but Pangu still hasn’t progressed beyond the invention of fireworks over the course of centuries (despite fireworks being a percussor for gunpowder and guns). There aren't any philosophical, religious, or logical circumstantial explanations as to why either. Their gods died. They had the land resources, and since magic is rare, limited in its abilities, and must be used sparingly because it shaves time off of the user’s life, it makes no sense for Pangu not to try to advance technologically.
There are so many arcanepunk stories like Monstress or The Legend of Kora that fuse magic and technology in interesting ways, so the whole magic vs science conflict here feels overly reductive and uninspired.
Maybe I’m too much of an overthinker and a history nerd, but I found that the world’s lack of believability kept me from being able to immerse myself in it.
Thank you, NetGalley and Del Rey, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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