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

It’s a fun book with interesting characters. I’m excited to continue the series and see what adventures they go on next , and how their relationship develops :)

Content Warnings

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 you’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 haven’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 it’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

Content Warnings

bonriki's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

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thedisfiguredpeach's review

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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atsuanna's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

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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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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vigil's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

it was cute. which is the only emotion i'm really feeling coming out of this. i read it really quickly, the story is blunt and uncomplex, the characters are engaging enough for me to keep turning the page, the prose is plain and easily understood, if not rather bland and awkward, etc etc. there's nothing quite wrong with this first volume, but there's not too much right with it either.

it is the first volume in the series and it's aggressively obvious. the entire volume is set up. setting up the world, the characters, the plot, everything is just beginning. if we began in a place where the main couple is already or soon to be established, this would be the flashback b-plot. the actual plot itself is a bit akin to taking two video game side quests, and making them your main story: plot events that are meant to serve your characters and the world their in, not necessarily further the narrative (though in this case i do suspect there will be callbacks and tie-ins later on, hence the flashback b-plot comparison) or to be the most engaging by itself. this did get a bit irritating in the banyue arc, which dragged on for longer than it needed to.

the characters are engaging enough, but everything in this series seems to move glacially, so we learn them better much slower than you'd might like, if at all. we have an messy outline of xie lian by the end, but by no means the full picture. san lang

aka hua cheng

is still largely a mystery. the side characters are present, but not especially noteworthy.

this is probably the mxtx work with the most misogynistic undertones (at least in this volume) with the crazy overbearing jealous scorned woman trope, who takes her anger at a man out on other woman, and the near constant description of nearly every woman of prominence as ugly, which is especially noteworthy because there isn't many of them.

i have checked out the next two volumes from my library and i will be continuing with the series, but my first impression of tgcf so far is that it's aggressively fine. it's a slow burn in everything, character, plot, relationships, and unfortunately, this first volume was a spark that didn't really lead anywhere. i could tell you what happened, but outside of the relationship inception and further development, not much did so it'd be pretty useless. i don't think they chose a bad place to cut off per se, but that the start of the web novel so far is more concerned with set up, exposition, and info-dump, and didn't bother to leave room for much else. i'm aware things will get meatier later on, but for right now, it has nothing to really go against or for it.

as is standard with mxtx translations by seven seas, translation issues abound. they are not as present or severe as the ones in mdzs, but they have not disappeared.

overall, i'd say if you already like mxtx, go for it, but if you're a newcomer to her or danmei in general, pick up something else. tgcf is longer than the bible and the first volume doesn't give you much incentive to continue with the rest of it, because it has very little meat to it, and relies on established tropes of the genre.

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