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4.48 AVERAGE
4.48 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
tense
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:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I love mushrooms. I love their connection with death, decay, decomposition, and through that, the possibilities they create for new life. It makes for a natural affiliation with apocalyptic stories. I was pretty hyped to find a Chinese story about a gay mushroom at the end of the world. In that respect, I wanted to like it and I was able to.
BUT
- it was too ambitious with the in-world physics, I had to be so generous with my suspension of disbelief
- male lead has zero character growth, he never experiences a shred of doubt despite the atrocities he commits in the name of the greater good—this is justified by him being always correct, even though the criteria he uses are later revealed to be sort of baseless (this is not explained)
- something I’ve seen a few times in Chinese media, sort of like in Marvel’s Black Panther—they create these dissenters whose sole purpose is to ask the main character (and audience) “Isn’t this unfair? What are you going to do about it?” And the MC and audience don’t have to do anything about it because then the dissenters die. And it’s like… why did they die? They were right! The rule of law is unjust, the power behind it corrupt in intent or execution. So the story gets to be “serious” without being uncomfortable.
- I enjoyed the ending from an ecocritical perspective, but SPOILER ALERT it was enabled entirely by the mushroom’s miraculous existence and sacrifice and neatly sidestepped the ethical quandaries that the author built the entire world around. Everything changed and nothing was truly lost except a bunch of off-screen NPCs. The yaoi mushroom redeems his authoritarian murderer tsundere boyfriend with the power of true love and being submissive and breedable (I’m serious, that’s the end of the novel).
3.5/5 for the fluffy safari ride through the gritty aesthetics (but not politics) of the dystopian apocalyptic genre. Promising premise, but too convenient to be more than just pretty and fun.
BUT
- it was too ambitious with the in-world physics, I had to be so generous with my suspension of disbelief
- male lead has zero character growth, he never experiences a shred of doubt despite the atrocities he commits in the name of the greater good—this is justified by him being always correct, even though the criteria he uses are later revealed to be sort of baseless (this is not explained)
- something I’ve seen a few times in Chinese media, sort of like in Marvel’s Black Panther—they create these dissenters whose sole purpose is to ask the main character (and audience) “Isn’t this unfair? What are you going to do about it?” And the MC and audience don’t have to do anything about it because then the dissenters die. And it’s like… why did they die? They were right! The rule of law is unjust, the power behind it corrupt in intent or execution. So the story gets to be “serious” without being uncomfortable.
- I enjoyed the ending from an ecocritical perspective, but SPOILER ALERT it was enabled entirely by the mushroom’s miraculous existence and sacrifice and neatly sidestepped the ethical quandaries that the author built the entire world around. Everything changed and nothing was truly lost except a bunch of off-screen NPCs. The yaoi mushroom redeems his authoritarian murderer tsundere boyfriend with the power of true love and being submissive and breedable (I’m serious, that’s the end of the novel).
3.5/5 for the fluffy safari ride through the gritty aesthetics (but not politics) of the dystopian apocalyptic genre. Promising premise, but too convenient to be more than just pretty and fun.
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It was kind of basic, but still good. Sci-fi elements are well developed.
3/5
First off, I REALLY wanted to like this book. This was my first experience reading a translated Chinese novel. In general, I was definitely interested in the world, and in general the world building felt rather fleshed out. However, the writing/translation was very jarring at times. I'm assuming some of this disconnect is me not being used to writing quirks of a translated work, but it definitely took me out of the story. This writing style also made it a bit difficult to connect with An Zhe and Lu Feng in terms of their characterization. The characterization was fine, but it wasn't as fully fleshed out as I feel like I've seen some reviews make it out to be. I'll eventually read the sequel, and fingers crossed the culmination of the story makes me more engaged in what's going on. In summary: 1) good world building and sci-setting; 2)translation quirks that take awhile to get used to; 3)characters that are mildly interesting but really fluctuate in terms of how engaged I felt reading about them.
First off, I REALLY wanted to like this book. This was my first experience reading a translated Chinese novel. In general, I was definitely interested in the world, and in general the world building felt rather fleshed out. However, the writing/translation was very jarring at times. I'm assuming some of this disconnect is me not being used to writing quirks of a translated work, but it definitely took me out of the story. This writing style also made it a bit difficult to connect with An Zhe and Lu Feng in terms of their characterization. The characterization was fine, but it wasn't as fully fleshed out as I feel like I've seen some reviews make it out to be. I'll eventually read the sequel, and fingers crossed the culmination of the story makes me more engaged in what's going on. In summary: 1) good world building and sci-setting; 2)translation quirks that take awhile to get used to; 3)characters that are mildly interesting but really fluctuate in terms of how engaged I felt reading about them.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
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:
N/A
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
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:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced