picaresquedreamer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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biscuitgale's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious medium-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? Yes

4.25

This story focuses on a character named Xie Lian who was once a god, turned scrap collector, turned god again. We see him navigate the nuances of godhood and brilliantly solve Scooby Doo-ish mysteries that surface resentment, corruption and further questions. Along the way he meets a mysterious, but handsome character, San Lang. A loving relationship develops between them as they spend time together in a domestic setting and while on an adventure.

I truly enjoyed the slow-burn romance moments in this book, but want to caveat that this story includes dark themes and gore. Like many xianxia stories, there are characters with multiple names and titles. If youโ€™re finding it tough to keep track of the names, I highly recommend keeping track of them and other confusing elements on the side on paper.

This volume does a lot of legwork to set up the world, but it can be a bit confusing if you havenโ€™t read other stories of this genre. It introduces us to heaven, some cultivation and ghosts. The different realms mentioned are truly intriguing. The characters in this story are so fun and chaotic. Not all are fully developed, but they are definitely written with unique personalities and motivations. The pacing of this book can be challenging at times as there are scenes that go on for a bit longer than anticipated. But then there are moments where it picks up and itโ€™s hard to put the book down because I just had to know what happens next. The story leaves us with a ton of loose threads going into the rest of the series!

Here are a few of the darker topics that came up in the story (behind a spoiler tag):
Moral Grayness, Genocide, Empires, Death, Body Horror, Desecrating Bodies, Casual Misogyny, Violence in General

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zia_c's review

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

โ€œ๐™„๐™ฉ ๐™˜๐™š๐™ง๐™ฉ๐™–๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™ก๐™ฎ ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™ฅ๐™–๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™›๐™ช๐™ก ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™ฉ๐™๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™  ๐™–๐™—๐™ค๐™ช๐™ฉ, ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™๐™–๐™ซ๐™š ๐™œ๐™ž๐™ซ๐™š๐™ฃ ๐™š๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง๐™ฎ๐™ฉ๐™๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™ก๐™ค๐™ซ๐™š ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™ก๐™ค๐™จ๐™š ๐™š๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง๐™ฎ๐™ฉ๐™๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ž๐™ฃ ๐™ง๐™š๐™ฉ๐™ช๐™ง๐™ฃ.โ€ โ€” Xie Lian


This line is going to ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต me (and everyone) when the 8th volume drops. ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ #Iykyk. 

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saltycoffee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-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? Yes

4.5


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lenchen25's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0


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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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maximauve's review against another edition

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adventurous funny informative fast-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? Yes

5.0


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samugranjo's review against another edition

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adventurous funny relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was so fun to read, truly a blessing. And I like how we are building up the relationship between the main characters while also giving us mysteries and making us reflect on the unbalanced way in which power exists in this world.

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