Scan barcode
A review by pjmbyul
残次品 [Can Ci Pin | Imperfections] by priest
3.0
I wanted to give this a 4/5, but I ultimately have to settle on a 3/5 ... but more like a 3.5/5. I enjoyed reading this, don't get me wrong — there were instances where I spent 3 hours just speeding through the chapters, but the last two books took me forever to get through. It was fun, but don't ask me what happened in this story, because I couldn't tell you.
My reviews are entirely for myself to look back on and are also entirely based on my personal enjoyment level. In no way am I trying to be some superior art critic and judge whether something is good or bad. So, with that said, let me first start off with what I enjoyed.
What I Enjoyed
1. Lu Bixing and Lin Jingheng are ideal main characters for a story. As individuals, they have very clear personalities that are easy to like from a reader's perspective. None of the sarcasm or bluntness from Jingheng ever comes across are actually cruel. I really admire that when it comes to how Priest wrote him, because it could be so easy to make him unlikeable, but she did the complete opposite. And Lu Bixing is just a lovable little shit.
As a team, the pair have such an enjoyable dynamic. It really is the definition of opposites attract — as well as literally "Ooh, you want to kiss me so bad." They are a very pure couple who sincerely love each other, going on a realistic emotional journey as they navigate their relationship within this made-up universe. The way they come together is super natural (and actually far earlier than I thought? I assumed there would be an extremely long slow-burn, but we got something different — only because we got a different form of angst later on, ugh). As a couple, they were separated from each other during part of the story and when they came back together, there was such a realistic aftermath that I really appreciated. It was just done so well.
2. The morality concepts within this story. However, there was so much of it that I can't even remember enough to explain further. You just gotta read it yourself.
3. The use of metaphors, similes, and analogies. This plays into what I didn't like about the story, which I'll mention later, but the good part is that because there are many battle scenes that utilize a lot of tech-related fighting within the vacuum of space, Priest utilizes very specific metaphor, similes, and analogies to explain the scenes with easy-to-understand language.
4. The prose (something I also didn't enjoy at the same time). It read like I was reading an oral tale transcribed onto paper. I think that's a typical trait of c-novels, at least from what I've read so far. It's a very different style of writing from western authors, and I find that I really admire it for its difference. It's not overly descriptive, but genuinely more like you're ready some old fairytale being told to you. This feeling is strong also because we have an omnipresent narrator, which I personally really enjoy and so rarely get to experience in western novels.
What I Didn't Enjoy
1. The battle scenes. There are so many. I mean, practically a third of this book is just very long-winded battle scenes between "mechs", or fighter spaceships, using things like particle cannons and blowing up transfer portals and ... yeah. For the LIFE of me, I couldn't envision any of these scenes in my head. They were just bare words on the screen that I skimmed over, because how many times can you write a space battle scene without all of them sounding the same? Stakes were different each time, but the formula for each one was pretty much the same.
2. The length of this book all-together. It did not need to be 197+ chapters. I understand that c-novels are often very long like this, with multiple arcs similar to how western TV shows have multiple seasons making up one ultimate story, but every "arc" was just a different slew of battle scenes.
I found that I was far more invested in this story when I was reading literally anything that wasn't a battle scene. My favorite part of this book was actually the middle during its most depressing, angsty time, because that all just felt more "human" to me. Less technical. You don't need to know anything about tech to read this, but be prepared for real sci-fi scenes and language.
I don't know, I think that the last two "books" dragged this story on. Every time a conflict was resolved, a new one popped up and I'd think, "...Really? We're not done yet?" It's why I took forever reading the last bit of this story.
3. The prose. For the same reason why I liked it, it's the same reason why I didn't. I wish some scenes had more descriptions of environments and what characters looked like, because like I mentioned above, it was so difficult to picture many of the scenes happening.
Overall, this was a monster of a story and difficult for me to get through. For my own comparison, I read a book as long as TGCF in 9 or 10 days whereas this one took me 6 weeks. I wish it had less battle scenes, but I really enjoyed everything else. However, I'm ultimately more neutral on this one, thus my 3 stars.
My reviews are entirely for myself to look back on and are also entirely based on my personal enjoyment level. In no way am I trying to be some superior art critic and judge whether something is good or bad. So, with that said, let me first start off with what I enjoyed.
What I Enjoyed
1. Lu Bixing and Lin Jingheng are ideal main characters for a story. As individuals, they have very clear personalities that are easy to like from a reader's perspective. None of the sarcasm or bluntness from Jingheng ever comes across are actually cruel. I really admire that when it comes to how Priest wrote him, because it could be so easy to make him unlikeable, but she did the complete opposite. And Lu Bixing is just a lovable little shit.
As a team, the pair have such an enjoyable dynamic. It really is the definition of opposites attract — as well as literally "Ooh, you want to kiss me so bad." They are a very pure couple who sincerely love each other, going on a realistic emotional journey as they navigate their relationship within this made-up universe. The way they come together is super natural (and actually far earlier than I thought? I assumed there would be an extremely long slow-burn, but we got something different — only because we got a different form of angst later on, ugh). As a couple, they were separated from each other during part of the story and when they came back together, there was such a realistic aftermath that I really appreciated. It was just done so well.
2. The morality concepts within this story. However, there was so much of it that I can't even remember enough to explain further. You just gotta read it yourself.
3. The use of metaphors, similes, and analogies. This plays into what I didn't like about the story, which I'll mention later, but the good part is that because there are many battle scenes that utilize a lot of tech-related fighting within the vacuum of space, Priest utilizes very specific metaphor, similes, and analogies to explain the scenes with easy-to-understand language.
4. The prose (something I also didn't enjoy at the same time). It read like I was reading an oral tale transcribed onto paper. I think that's a typical trait of c-novels, at least from what I've read so far. It's a very different style of writing from western authors, and I find that I really admire it for its difference. It's not overly descriptive, but genuinely more like you're ready some old fairytale being told to you. This feeling is strong also because we have an omnipresent narrator, which I personally really enjoy and so rarely get to experience in western novels.
What I Didn't Enjoy
1. The battle scenes. There are so many. I mean, practically a third of this book is just very long-winded battle scenes between "mechs", or fighter spaceships, using things like particle cannons and blowing up transfer portals and ... yeah. For the LIFE of me, I couldn't envision any of these scenes in my head. They were just bare words on the screen that I skimmed over, because how many times can you write a space battle scene without all of them sounding the same? Stakes were different each time, but the formula for each one was pretty much the same.
2. The length of this book all-together. It did not need to be 197+ chapters. I understand that c-novels are often very long like this, with multiple arcs similar to how western TV shows have multiple seasons making up one ultimate story, but every "arc" was just a different slew of battle scenes.
I found that I was far more invested in this story when I was reading literally anything that wasn't a battle scene. My favorite part of this book was actually the middle during its most depressing, angsty time, because that all just felt more "human" to me. Less technical. You don't need to know anything about tech to read this, but be prepared for real sci-fi scenes and language.
I don't know, I think that the last two "books" dragged this story on. Every time a conflict was resolved, a new one popped up and I'd think, "...Really? We're not done yet?" It's why I took forever reading the last bit of this story.
3. The prose. For the same reason why I liked it, it's the same reason why I didn't. I wish some scenes had more descriptions of environments and what characters looked like, because like I mentioned above, it was so difficult to picture many of the scenes happening.
Overall, this was a monster of a story and difficult for me to get through. For my own comparison, I read a book as long as TGCF in 9 or 10 days whereas this one took me 6 weeks. I wish it had less battle scenes, but I really enjoyed everything else. However, I'm ultimately more neutral on this one, thus my 3 stars.