A review by niakantorka
Qiang Jin Jiu 将进酒 by Tang Jiu Qing

adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious tense slow-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

4.5

Qiāng Jìn Jiǔ was a very good book. I really loved most of it - except for the last 250 pages or so.

But let’s start at the beginning: Our MC Shen Zechuan is a teenager when the book starts. He’s kinda doomed from the start because his father (Shen Wei) has betrayed the emperor of Dazhou and especially its six prefectures of Zhongbo. Following his betrayal around 40.000 soldiers and many more people of this region died under the onslaught of the Biansha cavalry. Even though I’m not sold on kin liability, it's a fact that it was commonplace in imperial China (and Dazhou is some sort of fantasy Ming dynasty equivalent of China). So, our MC is well hated and many people would like to see him die. 

Among them is Xiao Chiye, our ML, whose family of military leaders had to give it their all to get the enemy to retreat out of the country with a ruined Zhongbo left behind. 

From there the political situation sets off and many intrigues and hidden agendas are waiting to be revealed. There are not only some epic battles but also many verbal or mental duels happening between different fractions of the imperial court or of the many educated people we meet along the way. 

Our MC and ML clashed regularly at first and yes, one nearly killed the other, but over time they got to know each other and also learned where the other got their drive from. Their relationship progressed in an absolutely lovely way (and I loved that for them). 

Honestly, I also loved the complicated plot and the fact that I had to consult a character sheet a lot in the beginning and a map of Dazhou through the whole book. There were some great side characters and the fate of one of them nearly made me cry. Let’s name a few of those cool people not to spoil anything: Li Jianting, Qiao Tianya, Xiao Fangxu, Yao Wenyu, Qi Zhuyin, Hua Xiangyi and the youngsters, especially Jiran. 

Another thing I highly appreciated was that there were no fragile women in this book. The women were as capable and intelligent as the men. They schemed and fought and - though this shouldn’t be something worth mentioning - it is a plus compared to other danmei stories. I also thought I spotted a budding Bai he story but I’m not totally sure if that wasn’t just wishful thinking. 

Now to the points that rubbed me the wrong way: 

First of all, the overly hectic and forced ending. The showdown in the desert felt as rushed to me as the one in Qudu. The book is at least 2.5k long in Chinese (depending on the editions I saw) and a lot of plot points and arcs are slowly built up which only makes the ending feel more hastened to me. 

Secondly, I disliked the cliched revelation about who the scorpion masterminds in Qudu were. 

Thirdly, it was disappointing to see what happened (or didn’t happen) with Duo’erlan and Li Jianting. I mean this is a book about many morally dubious characters who - with only a few exceptions - make a lot of questionable decisions. And in the end, the author conveniently offs one person, but offing the other looks too bad although it’s absolutely illogical not to kill them. 

Last but not least, I thought it didn’t make much sense who ended up on the throne. Like, I totally get who’s supposed to end up on the throne in the future but if one looks once again at the premise of this book I just am not sold. Feels like one of Lanzhou’s fever dreams that all the people of Dazhou happily embraced their new emperor when corruption and nepotism had been running rampant for decades. 

The longer I’ve been writing this review the bigger the itch to curb my rating became. I did have a great time with over 90% of this story so I’ll just leave it be