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flamebyrdSo after making my post about my TO READ list for 2020, I took the initiative to get all of said ebooks on my Kobo, which included the version of the Mo Dao Zu Shi | The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation translation I'd downloaded in, apparently, July 2019.
Anyway, so I started reading it on January 1st and after 2 days of doing basically nothing but reading (with pauses to eat and sleep occasionally), I finished it!
I'm a fast reader. It's a long book.
The non-spoilery review is that I really enjoyed it! I read the English translation available here.
Spoilers below!
Despite many people I follow posting about this novel for many moons, and reading those posts, I really had no spoilers before beginning. Even the spoilers I knew I lacked context for and so they were still surprises!
General comments:
- Yes, the names were confusing. After reading a while I pulled up a character guide, read it through multiple times, then slowly trained myself to pay closer attention to the ends of names, and eventually they became clearer.
- The structure is definitely weird, I can see how the flashback format is necessary but it leads to some odd pacing issues.
- There's a lot to unpack about gender, sexuality and class in this book, but I am definitely not qualified to do it.
Reactions:
- Me toalias_sqbr, somewhere around chapter 21: I can't tell if I'm *supposed* to be reading adult Lan WangJi as hopelessly pining after Wei WuXian or not, but...
Me: Just kinda... living life collecting things that remind him of that awful kid who teased him all the time.
Me shortly afterwards: OK, he is DEFINITELY pining.
- I was not expecting Jiang Cheng and Lan WangJi to both have figured out that "Mo XuanYu" was actually Wei WuXian by chapter 25. In fact, I had been thinking, "If Wei WuXian wants to hide who he really is he really needs to stop being terrified of dogs around people who knew him well", and the book promptly decided to resolve that issue.
- The contrast between present day Wei WuXian and annoying teenager Wei WuXian is so stark, and it makes me feel bad because I do prefer the more serious, terrifyingly-competent Wei WuXian. But I'm more Lan WangJi than Wei WuXian, so in the early flashbacks I was mostly feeling indignantly sympathetic towards Lan WangJi. Look, some people LIKE studying and following rules.
- I skipped the flashback ("empathy") section of the Yi City arc, because I could already tell it was going to be awful and tragic and I figured I could get by without seeing it all play out in detail. And I could! But that arc was probably the most frightening and suspenseful part of the book, while also giving me whiplash as it jumped between horror and adorable teenagers learning how to hunt ghosts, so I'm glad I didn't skip it entirely.
- Speaking of contrasts, specifically expectation vs reality, Wen Ning was wonderful for that and I just want to give him a really big hug.
- I did a lot of quickly skipping ahead through pages in certain parts, particularly any part where Wei WuXian was exacting revenge. That boy has a really vicious, vindictive streak, and I have no capacity for reading graphic violence and torture.
- I enjoyed the romance! Sometimes I'm just really weak to classic tropes like "A thinks B finds him annoying and only tolerates him out of necessity, meanwhile B is pining hopelessly". Obliviousness is a thing I get a lot of delight out of reading, and Lan WangJi's desperate, jealous pining somehow managed to be less obnoxious than is usual for that trope. All the scenes where Wei WuXian senses that the situation between them has gotten awkward and brings girls into the conversation, making it even worse, were particularly great.
- But that said, I could have done with only the first drunk Lan WangJi scene. And particularly without the drunken sex scene.
- And their sexual dynamic is sadly not my kink. But you can't have everything!
Bigger spoilers below! These are the type that I recommend not reading if you haven't already read the book.
- I was completely taken by surprise by the revelation that Wei WuXian had given his own golden core to Jiang Cheng, even though I'd been wondering exactly what happened there for ages. And it's an incredible revelation, just adding so much extra complexity and tragedy to their relationship. Wei WuXian turns to demonic cultivation because it's the only option he has left to survive, and it just increases the wedge between him and Jiang Cheng. Ugh, I want to hate it because it's so sad but it's just so brilliant.
- I think I missed how the missing head was finally located and joined with the rest of its body.
- For all the talk about them clearing Wei WuXian's name, in the end he did lose control and kill all those people, whether he was innocent of everything he was accused of or not... So it makes sense that his relationship with Jiang Cheng was not completely fixed by the end of it.
- Lan XiChen... poor guy. To be honest I still didn't entirely understand why Nie MingJue would choose to become sworn brothers with Jin GuangYao after their history, making it rather a "curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal" moment, but it's still sad to leave poor Lan XiChen all alone.
To be honest, I got through it so quickly I've undoubtedly missed some things and should go back and reread parts. But I've started on Scum Villain's Self-Saving System now...
Anyway, so I started reading it on January 1st and after 2 days of doing basically nothing but reading (with pauses to eat and sleep occasionally), I finished it!
I'm a fast reader. It's a long book.
The non-spoilery review is that I really enjoyed it! I read the English translation available here.
Spoilers below!
Despite many people I follow posting about this novel for many moons, and reading those posts, I really had no spoilers before beginning. Even the spoilers I knew I lacked context for and so they were still surprises!
General comments:
- Yes, the names were confusing. After reading a while I pulled up a character guide, read it through multiple times, then slowly trained myself to pay closer attention to the ends of names, and eventually they became clearer.
- The structure is definitely weird, I can see how the flashback format is necessary but it leads to some odd pacing issues.
- There's a lot to unpack about gender, sexuality and class in this book, but I am definitely not qualified to do it.
Reactions:
- Me to
alias_sqbr, somewhere around chapter 21: I can't tell if I'm *supposed* to be reading adult Lan WangJi as hopelessly pining after Wei WuXian or not, but... Me: Just kinda... living life collecting things that remind him of that awful kid who teased him all the time.
Me shortly afterwards: OK, he is DEFINITELY pining.
- I was not expecting Jiang Cheng and Lan WangJi to both have figured out that "Mo XuanYu" was actually Wei WuXian by chapter 25. In fact, I had been thinking, "If Wei WuXian wants to hide who he really is he really needs to stop being terrified of dogs around people who knew him well", and the book promptly decided to resolve that issue.
- The contrast between present day Wei WuXian and annoying teenager Wei WuXian is so stark, and it makes me feel bad because I do prefer the more serious, terrifyingly-competent Wei WuXian. But I'm more Lan WangJi than Wei WuXian, so in the early flashbacks I was mostly feeling indignantly sympathetic towards Lan WangJi. Look, some people LIKE studying and following rules.
- I skipped the flashback ("empathy") section of the Yi City arc, because I could already tell it was going to be awful and tragic and I figured I could get by without seeing it all play out in detail. And I could! But that arc was probably the most frightening and suspenseful part of the book, while also giving me whiplash as it jumped between horror and adorable teenagers learning how to hunt ghosts, so I'm glad I didn't skip it entirely.
- Speaking of contrasts, specifically expectation vs reality, Wen Ning was wonderful for that and I just want to give him a really big hug.
- I did a lot of quickly skipping ahead through pages in certain parts, particularly any part where Wei WuXian was exacting revenge. That boy has a really vicious, vindictive streak, and I have no capacity for reading graphic violence and torture.
- I enjoyed the romance! Sometimes I'm just really weak to classic tropes like "A thinks B finds him annoying and only tolerates him out of necessity, meanwhile B is pining hopelessly". Obliviousness is a thing I get a lot of delight out of reading, and Lan WangJi's desperate, jealous pining somehow managed to be less obnoxious than is usual for that trope. All the scenes where Wei WuXian senses that the situation between them has gotten awkward and brings girls into the conversation, making it even worse, were particularly great.
- But that said, I could have done with only the first drunk Lan WangJi scene. And particularly without the drunken sex scene.
- And their sexual dynamic is sadly not my kink. But you can't have everything!
Bigger spoilers below! These are the type that I recommend not reading if you haven't already read the book.
- I was completely taken by surprise by the revelation that Wei WuXian had given his own golden core to Jiang Cheng, even though I'd been wondering exactly what happened there for ages. And it's an incredible revelation, just adding so much extra complexity and tragedy to their relationship. Wei WuXian turns to demonic cultivation because it's the only option he has left to survive, and it just increases the wedge between him and Jiang Cheng. Ugh, I want to hate it because it's so sad but it's just so brilliant.
- I think I missed how the missing head was finally located and joined with the rest of its body.
- For all the talk about them clearing Wei WuXian's name, in the end he did lose control and kill all those people, whether he was innocent of everything he was accused of or not... So it makes sense that his relationship with Jiang Cheng was not completely fixed by the end of it.
- Lan XiChen... poor guy. To be honest I still didn't entirely understand why Nie MingJue would choose to become sworn brothers with Jin GuangYao after their history, making it rather a "curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal" moment, but it's still sad to leave poor Lan XiChen all alone.
To be honest, I got through it so quickly I've undoubtedly missed some things and should go back and reread parts. But I've started on Scum Villain's Self-Saving System now...
no subject
Date: 2020-01-04 10:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-04 11:52 am (UTC)And terrifying ghost general.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-04 12:06 pm (UTC)We'd be further through both of those but I've been sick lately.
It's so tropey.
And the TV version is significantly gayer than I expected, seriously.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-04 12:10 pm (UTC)I haven't watched the Untamed, but the Guardian TV show was like that. I'd been expecting it to be dropping hints but staying a respectful distance from The Line, and instead it kept sidling up to the line and winking significantly.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-05 12:38 am (UTC)I will say, if you should choose to watch it: while most of the violence is very very stylised, with quite limited amounts of clearly fake blood, when you get to the "Wei Wuxian sadistic revenge" sections - do NOT look. They're not nearly as bad as they are in the book. They are still pretty bad.
Fortunately, having read the book, those scenes are going to be SUPER sign-posted for you before you see anything terrible.
Fortunately for me, that was one of a small number of episodes Vel watched before I did, because it hits one of my personal squicks, and she was able to warn me. (I hadn't got to that section of the book at that point.) (If I had, I probably would have looked away in case they matched the book more closely. The stuff in the book is within my tolerances for stuff I read, and way, way past my tolerances for stuff to see.)
no subject
Date: 2020-01-05 01:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-05 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-04 04:42 pm (UTC)Quick question though: I haven't read your summary because spoilers, but does it ends well? If one of the main guys die, I don't actually want to read it lol
no subject
Date: 2020-01-04 10:32 pm (UTC)Neither of the main guys d-- Well, okay, the premise is that one of the main guys died 13 years ago and has been resurrected (sort of), so technically one of them dies, but for the purposes of the question...
Ahem. Anyway, it does end well, but it's a long, hard road to get there, and the flashback parts become one tragedy after another after a point. So I'd say, don't read it as a "happy place" book, but at least it doesn't end tragically!
no subject
Date: 2020-01-05 12:41 am (UTC)"Does one of the main characters die?" "Well, yes. In the prologue. He gets better when the book officially starts."
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Date: 2020-01-05 04:06 pm (UTC)And yeah, I made it in a ebook because there was no way I was reading a novel on my screen and then wow, 500k words. It's amazing how I barely twitch when it's for a fic, but for an actual book I sigh lol Anyway, I put it on my ereader, thank you!
no subject
Date: 2020-01-05 11:27 pm (UTC)I feel like if I'd realised it was 500K I might have hesitated longer before beginning. So maybe I'm glad I didn't know? XD
no subject
Date: 2020-01-06 11:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-05 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-05 05:28 am (UTC)