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A review by emergencily
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong (Novel) Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
4.0
From the same author who wrote MDZS - another Chinese danmei (boys' love) xianxia (martial arts fantasy) novel that I love. It's a satirical subversion of transmigration xianxia webnovels. The main character transmigrates (i.e. isekai) from the modern world into the trashy, smutty, male power fantasy webnovel that he's reading when he dies, and that he loves to hate on. He's thrown into the body of the book's villain, who relentlessly abuses the fictional MC, and later gets butchered by him for revenge. He tries to change his fate while walking the tightrope of having to stay somewhat within the bounds of his established character (can't be too OOC!), but the changes he makes to the story leads to the fictional MC developing an obsessive puppy crush on him.
This is MXTX's first book , and I think that lack of experience does show here. Even accounting for this book being satirical and light-hearted in tone, the prose and writing style does feel more immature than in MDZS, and I find that she leaves behind some underdeveloped areas. It's still a fun and entertaining read with an interesting cast, but at first it's a bit obscure and hard to immerse yourself into.
This book satirizes a lot of tropes in xianxia, a very well-established genre in China with its own canon, and makes fun of webnovel cliches (e.g. transmigration, male power fantasy, convenient deus ex machinas, harem tropes, filler arcs), and references online fandom culture in China. So I think to fully appreciate the humour in the book, you probably need to be somewhat familiar with Chinese internet culture and the Chinese literary canon. The footnotes and glossary helps, but it means a lot of flipping back and forth at first until you get used to the tongue-in-cheek references - and even then, I think fully appreciating satire is difficult when you're not really a part of the cultural context it's rooted in.
Overall, I still had a good time with this book and I thought it was a fun and engaging read. You just need an open mind and willingness to sift through a few footnotes to overcome some of the translation barriers (or having watched some historical C-dramas probably helps).
Also, absolutely love love love the illustrations provided by Velinxi and I'm in love with their interpretations of the characters. VELINXIIIIII....IF YOU'RE OUT THERE...DO YOU KNOW MY LOVE FOR YOU?!?!
This is MXTX's first book , and I think that lack of experience does show here. Even accounting for this book being satirical and light-hearted in tone, the prose and writing style does feel more immature than in MDZS, and I find that she leaves behind some underdeveloped areas. It's still a fun and entertaining read with an interesting cast, but at first it's a bit obscure and hard to immerse yourself into.
This book satirizes a lot of tropes in xianxia, a very well-established genre in China with its own canon, and makes fun of webnovel cliches (e.g. transmigration, male power fantasy, convenient deus ex machinas, harem tropes, filler arcs), and references online fandom culture in China. So I think to fully appreciate the humour in the book, you probably need to be somewhat familiar with Chinese internet culture and the Chinese literary canon. The footnotes and glossary helps, but it means a lot of flipping back and forth at first until you get used to the tongue-in-cheek references - and even then, I think fully appreciating satire is difficult when you're not really a part of the cultural context it's rooted in.
Overall, I still had a good time with this book and I thought it was a fun and engaging read. You just need an open mind and willingness to sift through a few footnotes to overcome some of the translation barriers (or having watched some historical C-dramas probably helps).
Also, absolutely love love love the illustrations provided by Velinxi and I'm in love with their interpretations of the characters. VELINXIIIIII....IF YOU'RE OUT THERE...DO YOU KNOW MY LOVE FOR YOU?!?!