She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1)

by Shelley Parker-Chan

civilization is something to be cherished, not just fodder for conquest and destruction.

you know what’s worse than suffering? Not suffering, because you’re not even alive to feel it.”

Ouyang realized he had always believed revenge would change something. It was only in having done it that he understood that what had been lost was still lost forever;

All Ouyang’s life he had believed he was suffering, but in that instant he knew the truth that every past moment had been a candle flame compared to this blaze of pain.