Empire of the Sun vs Sons of Heaven: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: China, Bildungsromans, History, Fiction
Empire of the Sun
“WARS CAME EARLY to Shanghai, overtaking each other like the tides that raced up the Yangtze and returned to this gaudy city all the coffins cast adrift from the funeral piers of the Chinese Bund.”
A fictionalized account of the author's experiences as a boy in Shanghai, China, during the Second World War, and in Lunghua C.A.C. (Civilian Assembly Centre), where he was interned from 1942 to 1945.
1 film adaptation
vs
Sons of Heaven
“Grandfather believed in warriors, and dragons.”
"Sons of Heaven is an epic novel set against the backdrop of one of modern history's most haunting events: the Tiananmen Square massacre. In June 1989, the world watched in horror as China's military was mobilized to…
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Empire of the Sun has the widest readership — 23272 ratings behind its score.
- Empire of the Sun runs the darker storyline; Sons of Heaven stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Empire of the Sun | Sons of Heaven | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 4.0 (23272) | 3.8 (121) |
| Hardcover | 3.9 (58) | 4.0 (5) |
| Google Books | 3.0 (3) | — |
| Apple Books | 4.0 (43) | — |
Reception
| Empire of the Sun | Sons of Heaven | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 23272 | 121 |
| Editions | 28 | 11 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | — |
| Want to read | 28768 | 113 |
| Reading it now | 829 | 3 |
| Written reviews | 1441 | 23 |
| Wikipedia attention | 5801 | 3490 |
| Pages | 352 | 324 |