mysimas 's review for:

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang
2.5
mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
I’m torn about this one. The first 40% or so were very enjoyable — the writing flowed, the free inclusion of sex was refreshing and fun, and I was really curious to see where the three stories were going. I mean, exorcism of a vicious fox spirit; intrigue at old Chinese court; a heady contemporary ever-so-slightly futuristic mystery with drugs, heists and a touch of the supernatural — what’s not to love?

But after the 40% mark the book started to lose me. There were some laughable revelations only weakly supported by the previous text (if at all); there were summaries or explanations of the plotline that likewise didn’t really mash with what we were actually shown earlier in the book; and I still don’t understand the significance of the jade stamp (
if the revenge was entirely the Emperor’s decision, what does the stamp have to do with anything? My best idea is that the Emperor was of the lineage cursed with the stamp, and this curse is what brought about all this other mess
).  Also, I wasn’t really convinced of the tremendous love that was supposed to be there…

One last thought — how many lives have these guys gone through? I’ve seen some reviews complaining that there were lots of lives and we only got to see three — but I’m inclined to think there only were three, or at least there were only three in which the protagonists met.
The fox spirit says he was the Emperor, then after much deliberation reincarnated as the fox spirit and roamed the Earth until he found his lover again — that’s 2 lives without any more in between. There could technically be some between nr. 2 and the slightly-futuristic one, but there’s literally zero hints pointing that way.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings