Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 1

One of the first books I fell absolutely in love with and got me back into reading !! It’s so romantic, funny, the found family makes me sob but it’s also so emotional. I ADORE all the characters and love how fleshed out and lovable they are. The missions are so fun to read and it checks off so many of my favorite tropes! It’s a book I think about so often. It’s not without its fault as it’s MXTX but it’s one of MXTX’s only good works in my opinion. If you really wanna read it though please check the content warnings. In other words I love hualian so much I never stop thinking about them </3

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mxpringle's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

3.0

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wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

The beginning was a little on the slow side but it picked up and quickly became engaging and I didn't want to put it down.

I think the main deterrent I have might be with the style of translation. I am used to translated works using footnotes for quick reference so having one chunk at the end describing all the nuance that is otherwise lost in translation interrupts the flow. I chose to discern by context and then read through the glossary and such after so I think it will improve the experience for reading the next book in the series. I admit that this is a personal preference.

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tiredtori's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.25

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drtx_bwt's review

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adventurous informative lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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ruby_the_gem's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

Heaven Official's Blessing volume 1 follows Xie Lian, a thrice ascended and twice banished heavenly official, as he solves two mysteries of the ghostly variety. Along the way, he is helped by two suspiciously familiar junior heavenly officials and an oddly knowlegeble young man.

This was my first book is either of the danmei or wuxia genres, so I wasn't too familiar with certain aspects of Chinese culture or Daoism prior to reading this book. Thankfully, there are guides and a glossary in the back of the book that helped explain different concepts and helped me keep different characters straight with all their different names and titles.

I loved Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's world building, writitng style, use of suttle foreshadowing, and use of number or color associations to provide greater insight. She balances the plot and characters connections pretty well. I especially loved seeing the suttle ways in which character's emotions were shown, particularlly the use of "...." or character silence. However, some points in the book felt slow which is why I didn't give this book five stars.

Be aware that this series is a very slow burn romance with a lot of tragedy. This book also ends on a cliff hanger, and the english translation of this series won't be finished until next year. However, there are five elnglish books out, one season of the donghua both subbed and dubbed, and about 80 english chapters of the manhua to help fill the void.

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blacksphinx's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious slow-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

2.5

I am really conflicted about this book (hence the middle rating). On one hand, I really like our protagonist and his love interest. Hua Cheng is charming, and I have plenty of theories about his backstory I want to see play out. The arc format of the story is appealing, with each arc having a ton of many wild plot twists, and I'm going to continue on with the series. But there were also grating things I just can't ignore.

The only way I know how to describe the prose is to say that it's like a fanfic. It is quite jarring to see such things in an original story I paid money to read - for example, characters' dialog consisting only of "..." or "???????". If you had never read fanfic before, I cannot imagine how this would come across!

The other is something the many fans encouraging me to read it or the discussions I've seen about the book never mention - the transphobic and Islamophobic elements in the plot. It was extremely uncomfortable to hear characters say things like "if I kidnapped someone I thought was a woman and they turned out to be a man in a dress, I'd kill them!" or

"the warmongering, brutish, Middle Eastern coded country was going to send civilians wearing bombs into public places to blow them up in acts of terror" as justification for genocide.

It makes me wonder what other harmful stereotypes of minority groups I'm going to have to grit my teeth through in the future.

Overall, my feelings are really mixed...

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squinnittowinit's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Heaven Official's Blessing Vol. 1 is hilarious, witty, and thoughtful all at the same time. Xiè Lián is a wonderful main character, a kind soul who truly sees the best in people and wants to help them, but at the same time he isn't naive or sheltered. He is a calm and centered presence in the crazy situations he finds himself in.

The biggest difficulty a reader might have with this book is how many names some of the characters have, as many of them are immortal gods who have gained names over time. Keeping a paper nearby to make a character log or keeping the Heaven Official's Blessing wiki pulled up (but beware spoilers) as you read may be helpful.

Another thing to note is this is a translation from Chinese. In order to more closely capture the meanings of the original text, this version is not quite written in the 'literary English prose' style that English readers may be used to, but it is grammatically correct and overall quite understandable.

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