AWARE OF SWORD (pleas pet sword)
Sep. 19th, 2021 01:30 pmWow, it's... been a while, hasn't it? In retrospect, disappearing at the start of 2020 was pretty unfortunate timing, but I've been safe and well as can be expected; just preoccupied enough to lose track of social media. It's good to be back, though!
In between real life responsibilities, one thing I've been doing more of in the past year or two is reading. (I got an e-reader, and it's amazing how much easier that's made things.)![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
surskitty got me into the webnovel Mo Dao Zu Shi (魔道祖师, lit. "Founder of Demonic Cultivation") by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu—which, for the record, is fantastic and I'd highly recommend it if you like social/political worldbuilding, complicated dysfunctional relationships, and aggressively gray morality, among other things. The plot in brief: Wei Wuxian, the young inventor of demonic cultivation who went from war hero to public enemy after the war, wakes up thirteen years after his widely-celebrated death to find that he's been mysteriously resurrected, and his relationships with the world and people he left behind have gotten no less fraught in the time he's been dead.
Afterwards I went back to check out the author's first novel, The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, in which the protagonist dies and is reborn into the trashy power-fantasy harem novel he hatereads for the plot... as the hate-sink villain fated to die horribly at the hero's hands. I'd recommend this one much more selectively, but it's a delight if you're into what it's offering—ridiculous metafiction/internet fandom humor, dubious life and relationship choices, and The World's Least Self-Aware Man as narrator—and don't mind the wonky pacing and more purely relationship-driven plot.
I recently got around to starting the author's third novel, Heaven Official's Blessing, and while I'm not even halfway through, I'm having a great time. The main character's PoV is a delight to read from, and every worldbuilding detail feels like a gift to me personally. ♥ I also felt like after reading the author's first two books, I ought to have a bingo card for this one, so I threw one together before starting:
( MXTX Novel Bingo )
Under the cut are my notes while reading Heaven Official's Blessing, Book 1: Crimson Rain Sought Flower.
( things are going really well for me now that ive changed the meaning of really well to the opposite of what it means in my head )
My bingo card, as of the end of Book 1:
( Bingo card )
Since I'm only a little ways in, I've chosen to play conservatively and only mark off squares the book has definitely earned already, so some of the unmarked ones may be arguable. We'll get there eventually, though!
I'm still laughing at how I played myself with that necrophilia square. "Main Character Death" may also have been a mistake...
In between real life responsibilities, one thing I've been doing more of in the past year or two is reading. (I got an e-reader, and it's amazing how much easier that's made things.)
surskitty got me into the webnovel Mo Dao Zu Shi (魔道祖师, lit. "Founder of Demonic Cultivation") by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu—which, for the record, is fantastic and I'd highly recommend it if you like social/political worldbuilding, complicated dysfunctional relationships, and aggressively gray morality, among other things. The plot in brief: Wei Wuxian, the young inventor of demonic cultivation who went from war hero to public enemy after the war, wakes up thirteen years after his widely-celebrated death to find that he's been mysteriously resurrected, and his relationships with the world and people he left behind have gotten no less fraught in the time he's been dead.Afterwards I went back to check out the author's first novel, The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, in which the protagonist dies and is reborn into the trashy power-fantasy harem novel he hatereads for the plot... as the hate-sink villain fated to die horribly at the hero's hands. I'd recommend this one much more selectively, but it's a delight if you're into what it's offering—ridiculous metafiction/internet fandom humor, dubious life and relationship choices, and The World's Least Self-Aware Man as narrator—and don't mind the wonky pacing and more purely relationship-driven plot.
I recently got around to starting the author's third novel, Heaven Official's Blessing, and while I'm not even halfway through, I'm having a great time. The main character's PoV is a delight to read from, and every worldbuilding detail feels like a gift to me personally. ♥ I also felt like after reading the author's first two books, I ought to have a bingo card for this one, so I threw one together before starting:
( MXTX Novel Bingo )
Under the cut are my notes while reading Heaven Official's Blessing, Book 1: Crimson Rain Sought Flower.
( things are going really well for me now that ive changed the meaning of really well to the opposite of what it means in my head )
My bingo card, as of the end of Book 1:
( Bingo card )
Since I'm only a little ways in, I've chosen to play conservatively and only mark off squares the book has definitely earned already, so some of the unmarked ones may be arguable. We'll get there eventually, though!
I'm still laughing at how I played myself with that necrophilia square. "Main Character Death" may also have been a mistake...
