Reviews with content warning for Death - Tales of the Celestial Kingdom

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Tales of the Celestial Kingdom by Sue Lynn Tan

6 reviews

savvyrosereads's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Rating: 5/5 stars

A short story collection, including prequels, deleted scenes, and the epilogue to the CELESTIAL KINGDOM duology.

It’s a running joke among my friends that I am obsessed with bonus content of all kinds—if there is an extra, an extended scene, or a novella associated with a book or series I’ve read, I must have it. Occasionally, this trait leads to me finding true gems, and friends THIS IS ONE OF THOSE TIMES.

I absolutely LOVED this collection, which I humbly beg you to read if you enjoyed the duology. The final three stories in particular were incredible, and I’m so glad the full-length books exist purely so we could get the absolute WORKS OF ART that those three stories constitute. I devoured them and will never stop thinking about them—genuinely, they elevated what was already an enjoyable duology into what is now one of my favorite series and worlds.

CW: Death/violence; some grief

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hello_lovely13's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This made my heart happy. I was quite disappointed with the second book in the duology, so I was happy to revisit the characters I cared about so much in this collection (and I enjoyed this much more, though you definitely need to finish the series to fully get the most out of this book). The strongest voices were definitely from the first section with the retelling of the legends of Houyi and Chang'e. However, apart from the first stories of both Wenzhi and Liwei, the other stories' narrative voices were nearly as strong. The stories from Wenzhi and Liwei that were set during the first book just seemed to read a bit more YA and juvenile than their other stories. I understand that they were younger and encountered a good amount of character growth in between the two, but the style itself didn't haven't read with as much of a jump in age as it did (the narrative voice is much stronger in the respective second stories; I did prefer Wenzhi's first story to Liwei's as Liwei's felt a bit too short). I really liked that we got a story from the perspective of Shuxiao. She was always such a badass and we never got enough of her. Also, the event that this story centers around was a pretty big deal, and I was surprised it was glossed over in the second book the way that it was. I was not disappointed, though having read the second book definitely influences the reader because we know what direction the story is going to go after it ends (

the fact that the demon general and Shuxiao get together was not quite subtle during this story, and sometimes felt a bit rushed

). The main reason I wanted to read this was to see Xingyin and Wenzhi finally be happy together, and I am so satisfied with the result. It was left a bit too vague (though hopeful) at the end of the second book, so I'm glad that I got to see the resolution (I will admit that I want even more of them, but this time I feel like their story is more complete and I can be satisfied with it ending). Anyone that has read the series should definitely read this. I will definitely be thinking of how much it adds to the series and be wanting to reread it. This has definitely rose my ranking of this series back up (I loved the first book, was disappointed by the second, and enjoyed this one).

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amyreh's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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eatallthestars's review

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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shadymist's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Sue Lynn Tan has wrote another fantastic trilogy. Her passion for her stories is all in the pages themselves. You envision it like you are there with the characters. Xingyin is a fierce and bold young lady who goes above and beyond for her loved ones and for the Celestial army. This book is the perspectives from all the well known and beloved characters from the book "Daughter of the moon goddess and heart of the sun warrior. " Focusing primarily on Chinese mythology. The trilogy is worth a read. You won't be disappointed!

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ezwolf's review

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adventurous hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Tales of the Celestial Kingdom follows the story of Chang’e and Houyi before they are separated, stories with Xingyin both with Liwei and Wenzhi, as well as Shuxiao.

Shuxiao’s story was the most interesting one because it felt like a new aspect to the world and overall story. The others seemed repetitive to me. Both Liwei and Wenzhi’s stories didn’t seem to add anything to their backstories or relationships with Xingyin and a lot of the writing felt like it was saying the same thing over and over just in slightly different ways.

I also unfortunately noticed the author’s favor of starting sentences with “For”. Once I noticed this I couldn’t stop and it pulled me out of the story every time.

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

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