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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
I received a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
Striking and memorable, To The Sky Kingdom is a magical journey of love lost, love found, and love reunited.
Bai Qian is dynamic. For a goddess, life should be easy, however, Qian’s long life has been filled with turmoil and love just the same, and she is once again thrown for a loop when the son of the Sky Kingdom’s heir calls her mother.
It's part action-adventure, love story, and mystery all wrapped up into one impressive story. To The Sky Kingdom is a fantasy on epic proportions. Tang Qi, used an interesting technique to flesh out Qian and move the story line along, bringing the narrative to the present and to the past almost fluidly. However, this may come across as choppy to some readers.
Qian is admirable, with her faults and strengths. Her voice really comes across through her actions and dialogue.
For a translated work, I think the story did a great job in keeping the original story’s beauty and intentions. It does make me wish I could read it in it's original language.
[Edit: March 2017] Now, onto the plagiarism allegations. In this post, a Chinese literary translator discusses their decision of taking down their translations for T7’s (Tang Qi) novels. There are similarities between Tang Qi’s novel and the source people claim it’s plagiarized from. Of course, this is bound to happen when people write in the same genres and use similar writing styles, techniques, and literary devices.
Some things are bound to be the same. For instance, a coming of age novel is going to have inner turmoil and outward trials. If two books have this, it doesn’t necessarily make one be a plagiarized source.
Plagiarism as defined is taking someone’s ideas/work and passing them off as their own. There’s a difference between being inspired by and paying homage too and taking dialogue, scene situations, etc. word for word.
Please be wary, when reading, recommending, and sharing books. And please give credit to where credit is due.
Striking and memorable, To The Sky Kingdom is a magical journey of love lost, love found, and love reunited.
Bai Qian is dynamic. For a goddess, life should be easy, however, Qian’s long life has been filled with turmoil and love just the same, and she is once again thrown for a loop when the son of the Sky Kingdom’s heir calls her mother.
It's part action-adventure, love story, and mystery all wrapped up into one impressive story. To The Sky Kingdom is a fantasy on epic proportions. Tang Qi, used an interesting technique to flesh out Qian and move the story line along, bringing the narrative to the present and to the past almost fluidly. However, this may come across as choppy to some readers.
Qian is admirable, with her faults and strengths. Her voice really comes across through her actions and dialogue.
For a translated work, I think the story did a great job in keeping the original story’s beauty and intentions. It does make me wish I could read it in it's original language.
[Edit: March 2017] Now, onto the plagiarism allegations. In this post, a Chinese literary translator discusses their decision of taking down their translations for T7’s (Tang Qi) novels. There are similarities between Tang Qi’s novel and the source people claim it’s plagiarized from. Of course, this is bound to happen when people write in the same genres and use similar writing styles, techniques, and literary devices.
Some things are bound to be the same. For instance, a coming of age novel is going to have inner turmoil and outward trials. If two books have this, it doesn’t necessarily make one be a plagiarized source.
Plagiarism as defined is taking someone’s ideas/work and passing them off as their own. There’s a difference between being inspired by and paying homage too and taking dialogue, scene situations, etc. word for word.
Please be wary, when reading, recommending, and sharing books. And please give credit to where credit is due.
hundreds stars only for bai qian and ye hua
The story itself is captivating and creative. However, it is plagiarized wholesale from a boy's love novel which could not be published in China due to homosexual content. To the Sky Kingdom has been adapted into a hugely successful Chinese TV drama. Tang Qi has recently been convicted of plagiarism in a court of law in China.
challenging
dark
emotional
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Not sure how to begin with this review but here goes nothing.
I first want to address how I feel about the plagiarism claims, most of the reviews mention them. I was very hesitant to read the book because of that, however, after watching the show and falling in love with it I couldn't resist not reading the book as it is one of the few of this kind that has been officially translated into English. Luckily, I found the book in Oxfam (charity store), so I didn't feel too bad, as the money went to a charity rather than benefiting a problematic writer.
Now moving on to the actual review, I can't say any more praise for this novel. truly a beautiful and captivating plot and story. I can't speak for the originality, but as a western reader's first Chinese fantasy novel, it felt extremely creative and beautifully written.
Saying that however, I was surprised at the writer glossing over many combat and battle scenes, I can understand that long descriptions would be extremely tedious for the reader as there were many of them, it's just interesting that the reader is told so casually about them.
This brings me to my main issue, the book is written in the first-person narrative. like I've said I love the plot and I do think it is such an interesting story with many interesting characters, hence why I don't think first-person does it justice. Since so much is happening, just being told by Bai Qian throughout the novel was sometimes annoying and confusing. I also think that the writer could've spaced this story out to multiple books, maybe two, as again, so much was happening which could've allowed more descriptive parts.
This is why the show was so great in my opinion, we really got to see the plethora of emotions Ye Hua and other characters felt, and as someone who watched the show before reading the novel, I was let down. Also, a lot of the characters in the book were extremely flat and just boring, the show really developed them and made them multi-dimensional, such as Li Jing.
Overall, I do recommend this book, it's definitely an interesting read. It's one of a few from this genre to be translated officially, which is a sentiment to the beauty of the writer's work. Otherwise, you really aren't missing out on anything, the show, in my opinion, is slightly better and had evoked more emotions in me.
In conclusion, I gave it 3/5, with 1 star lost over the plagiarism claims, and another for the first-person narrative.
I first want to address how I feel about the plagiarism claims, most of the reviews mention them. I was very hesitant to read the book because of that, however, after watching the show and falling in love with it I couldn't resist not reading the book as it is one of the few of this kind that has been officially translated into English. Luckily, I found the book in Oxfam (charity store), so I didn't feel too bad, as the money went to a charity rather than benefiting a problematic writer.
Now moving on to the actual review, I can't say any more praise for this novel. truly a beautiful and captivating plot and story. I can't speak for the originality, but as a western reader's first Chinese fantasy novel, it felt extremely creative and beautifully written.
Saying that however, I was surprised at the writer glossing over many combat and battle scenes, I can understand that long descriptions would be extremely tedious for the reader as there were many of them, it's just interesting that the reader is told so casually about them.
This brings me to my main issue, the book is written in the first-person narrative. like I've said I love the plot and I do think it is such an interesting story with many interesting characters, hence why I don't think first-person does it justice. Since so much is happening, just being told by Bai Qian throughout the novel was sometimes annoying and confusing. I also think that the writer could've spaced this story out to multiple books, maybe two, as again, so much was happening which could've allowed more descriptive parts.
This is why the show was so great in my opinion, we really got to see the plethora of emotions Ye Hua and other characters felt, and as someone who watched the show before reading the novel, I was let down. Also, a lot of the characters in the book were extremely flat and just boring, the show really developed them and made them multi-dimensional, such as Li Jing.
Overall, I do recommend this book, it's definitely an interesting read. It's one of a few from this genre to be translated officially, which is a sentiment to the beauty of the writer's work. Otherwise, you really aren't missing out on anything, the show, in my opinion, is slightly better and had evoked more emotions in me.
In conclusion, I gave it 3/5, with 1 star lost over the plagiarism claims, and another for the first-person narrative.
I read this since it's a translation of «三生三世十里桃花» which had been adapted to a TV series and movie of the same name which experienced unprecedented popularity in China and a scandal around it's author to do with plagiarism (think of how 50 Shades is copied from Twilight). It was such a pop-culture phenomenon I thought I better investigate to understand a little more of the Chinese culture I was immersed in.
The story is generic with little to recommend it other than it appeals to common romantic ideals. Overall the tale is well paced and the highs and lows of the story are well plotted.
It seems to borrow a fair amount of concepts from wuxia, although there are only a few conflicts actually depicted, the elements of Taoism it selectively uses hearken back to an interest in feudal China but the strong female protagonist is more directly symbolic of modern China and female emancipation under Mao's communist regime.
The translation is fairly good, although reading alongside the original Chinese I was slightly bemused by changes in a few scenes, but overall the meaning was clear and the flow of the story was preserved.
I can see why it was popular as it has many elements that appeal to modern thinking and it seemed reflective of the society I found myself in (with it's conflicts between the ancient and the modern). Overall though I found the characters lacked the complexity I search for in novels so this wasn't quite the excellent read for me.
The story is generic with little to recommend it other than it appeals to common romantic ideals. Overall the tale is well paced and the highs and lows of the story are well plotted.
It seems to borrow a fair amount of concepts from wuxia, although there are only a few conflicts actually depicted, the elements of Taoism it selectively uses hearken back to an interest in feudal China but the strong female protagonist is more directly symbolic of modern China and female emancipation under Mao's communist regime.
The translation is fairly good, although reading alongside the original Chinese I was slightly bemused by changes in a few scenes, but overall the meaning was clear and the flow of the story was preserved.
I can see why it was popular as it has many elements that appeal to modern thinking and it seemed reflective of the society I found myself in (with it's conflicts between the ancient and the modern). Overall though I found the characters lacked the complexity I search for in novels so this wasn't quite the excellent read for me.
To the Sky Kingdom was one of the least straight forward books I have read in a long time. It felt very much like an oral tale with it's twist and turns and weird little back flashes of stories within the story.
It is very much a mythical story with gods and immortals having great drama and political intrigue together. I don't really know anything about taoist beliefs, so I don't know how much of this was part of that tradition, but the story did feel like being dropped into a fully formed world with a million backstories already in place and active in the world.
This story evolves around two grand stories - one is a romantic love story while the other is about a master-apprentice relationship. I wholly enjoyed both of these.
The book had me in tears more than once with heartache for the characters. I was also quite confused at times.
If you want to read something different and like mythological inspired fantasy, please consider To the Sky Kingdom.
It is very much a mythical story with gods and immortals having great drama and political intrigue together. I don't really know anything about taoist beliefs, so I don't know how much of this was part of that tradition, but the story did feel like being dropped into a fully formed world with a million backstories already in place and active in the world.
This story evolves around two grand stories - one is a romantic love story while the other is about a master-apprentice relationship. I wholly enjoyed both of these.
The book had me in tears more than once with heartache for the characters. I was also quite confused at times.
If you want to read something different and like mythological inspired fantasy, please consider To the Sky Kingdom.
I am reading about plagiarism in regards to this book and for that, supporting it would be sacrilege. I shall go straight to the other book which I have been promised is by far better and see how it fairs on.
Such an eloquent tale with the most marvelous characters and a beautiful cover. Deserves the utmost of high praises all around. Highly recommended. I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy!.
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No