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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked this book and I liked the world building but I found it frustrating how slowly the plot moved. I know it’s mostly build up for the later volumes in the series but it was mostly anticipation for the time skip that kept me reading to the end.
Spoiler
Changgeng gets a rude awakening when his adoptive mother (who turns out to be a barbarian goddess’ sister and actually his aunt and who’s tried to kill him numerous times) commits suicide and reveals she’s cursed him right before she dies. Turns out, the barbarians are attacking, Changgeng’s teacher Shen Yi is actually a ninja general, his lazyass godfather Shen Shiliu is actually a ninja marshal Gu Yun, and Chang Geng himself is the long-lost Fourth Imperial Prince! (…or is he?)Gu Yun takes Changgeng and his two sidekicks back to the Imperial capital and there…mostly cheerfully ignores him, jokes around, or trains him, depending on his mood. Changgeng takes it all in while also battling his nightmares/panic attacks/curse and having his gay awakening (...awkwarrddd). After Gu Yun fucks off to wage war and Changgeng fucks off to a sidequest with a monk, their dynamic sort of tilts. CG is clearly more mature (or, you know, as mature as a 15yo can be) while GY is still the joking hothead he was in the beginning (and why wouldn’t he be–it’s been a year). GY keeps treating CG like a child even though CG isn’t quite a child anymore and that pisses him off.
My first thought (after reading Mr. Melancholy, SVSSS, and the manhua): wow I like the laconic language, such different, very refresh! It’s been a short while since I’ve last read anything from priest but she has an interesting way to describe things in a mocking way: deserted islands were scattered in the sea like sheep droppings or the day was hot and damp like a camel’s breath. It’s like…you’re expecting something by the way the sentence starts and then it ends in a total 180°. And I’m not saying this like it’s a bad thing! It’s just amusing and very different after the danmei I read before this.
fast-paced
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
This was not very good. The godfather /godson dynamic was a bit weird and had zero chemistry. Chang was nothing more than a moody, horny teen unable to put words to his frustration, which also made him frustrating to read about. Gu was horrible as a “father” and a general. The whole idea of having to constantly put on manly airs instead of being honest painted him as nothing but an obnoxious toxic masculinity trope I tired of quickly. The plot dragged its feet in exposition mode for 3/4 of the book and then flipped into action/adventure mode in a meandering, ass-pull manner that made no sense. Clearly lots of secrets still hide to be revealed further in the story but the beleaguered way this volume went about the plot has completely turned me off from wanting more.
Then there’s all the awful bigotry, which made me even more annoyed. Pangxiao constantly being called a “porker” greatly annoyed me when his character had more pluck and initiative than Cheng. The fat shaming was clearly meant to demean him as a character and made me want to slap the author. Niangzi was also demeaned for simply being a very effeminate trans and made a laughing stock of a character until he was needed to further the plot in the same was Pangxiao was shamed. Both are side characters for the author to throw bigoted shade at until they become necessary, which is rather rich coming from an author of danmei. This is my first priest novel and so far I’m not impressed at all. I’m more disgusted at her writing than anything else. Aside from all the above the story was very stilted and scenes that should’ve had flowing conversations ended up chopped up by several pages of info-dumping whenever the author clearly forget to explain shit ahead of time. This whole story was a mess.
Then there’s all the awful bigotry, which made me even more annoyed. Pangxiao constantly being called a “porker” greatly annoyed me when his character had more pluck and initiative than Cheng. The fat shaming was clearly meant to demean him as a character and made me want to slap the author. Niangzi was also demeaned for simply being a very effeminate trans and made a laughing stock of a character until he was needed to further the plot in the same was Pangxiao was shamed. Both are side characters for the author to throw bigoted shade at until they become necessary, which is rather rich coming from an author of danmei. This is my first priest novel and so far I’m not impressed at all. I’m more disgusted at her writing than anything else. Aside from all the above the story was very stilted and scenes that should’ve had flowing conversations ended up chopped up by several pages of info-dumping whenever the author clearly forget to explain shit ahead of time. This whole story was a mess.
adventurous
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Aauughhh when will I learn not to start series I will have to wait for to finish...
Spicy menace x troubles good boy with court intrigue. There are a lot of different forces at play here and I can't wait to find out more.
I think this story is going to span quite a few years so I am a bit worried about how Chang Geng and Gu Yun are going to evolve. I hope they will have A Conversation or perhaps A Communication sooner rather than later.
Spicy to have 14yo yearn after his guardian right from the beginning and I am not complaining.
Spicy menace x troubles good boy with court intrigue. There are a lot of different forces at play here and I can't wait to find out more.
I think this story is going to span quite a few years so I am a bit worried about how Chang Geng and Gu Yun are going to evolve. I hope they will have A Conversation or perhaps A Communication sooner rather than later.
Spicy to have 14yo yearn after his guardian right from the beginning and I am not complaining.
I don’t know what it is about works from Priest, but they always seem to take me longer to read than any of the others in the danmei genre, but I genuinely could not tell you why that is.
I also don’t really know what I thought of this one. I don’t know whether it was the steampunk elements of it, or the pseudo father/son relationship between the two main characters or what but I don’t think I actually enjoyed this one as much as I have enjoyed others in the same genre.
I think the integration of the steampunk elements with the traditional Chinese world is a really interesting concept but I don’t know whether it is one for me. I will probably read the others in the series just so that I can form a proper opinion of it, but I’m not holding out a great deal of hope at this stage.
I also don’t really know what I thought of this one. I don’t know whether it was the steampunk elements of it, or the pseudo father/son relationship between the two main characters or what but I don’t think I actually enjoyed this one as much as I have enjoyed others in the same genre.
I think the integration of the steampunk elements with the traditional Chinese world is a really interesting concept but I don’t know whether it is one for me. I will probably read the others in the series just so that I can form a proper opinion of it, but I’m not holding out a great deal of hope at this stage.