Read-in-Progress Wednesday

[geraineon]

This is your weekly read-in-progress post for you to talk about what you're currently reading and reactions and feelings (if any)!

For spoilers:

<details><summary>insert summary</summary>Your spoilers goes here</details>

<b>Highlight for spoilers!*</b><span style="background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #FFFFFF">Your spoilers goes here.</span>*

Comments

[geraineon]

... So now I'm sick, again! But well, I did manage to read a book on my flight. I finished volume 1 of Lie Huo Jiao Chou (Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire), and hm, I really enjoyed how it started but I find the pacing to be both too fast and too slow in the second half of volume 1.

Still, I'm interested enough to continue!

[halfcactus]

Just donghua which may or may not be based on cnovels:

Soulmate Adventure: Finished S1, loved the girls and the soulmate adventuring, but I'm really not cut out for wuxia OR plot; I zoned out every time other characters were onscreen, oops! The New Year special was so good though omg 10/10.

哑舍 Ya She: Each episode features a different character and artifact (the main character runs a magical antique shop, which is sort of like Yuuko's shop in xxxHolic in that it attracts people with wishes and ~fate~). I've only seen the first two eps and wasn't particularly moved by the stories, but I do like the concept and format so I might pick it up again. CW for stylized visions of animal harm in ep 1 (the animal will be fine).

百妖谱 Bai Yao Pu: I've only finished three eps but this is shaping up to be my favorite donghua and I'd be interested to know if there are more donghua like this. The main character is a traveler who assists the spirits she meets along the way and is kind of morally dubious. She is joined by a baby monk and a gray fox. Customer-of-the-week format with a quietly emotional atmosphere, folk fantasy, and nice storytelling. Seems pretty gen too! But while I'm usually kinda neutral/forgiving about subtitles, it aggravates me that yao is translated as "fairy" throughout the show (the official English title is Fairies Album, which is why I kept scrolling past it 😂).

(Outside of cnovels, I finished the Run with the Wind novel and loved it and now want to rewatch the anime.)

[halfcactus]

Oh nooooo get well soon!

[larryhammer]

Not a c-novel, but adjacent: I'm rereading Sherwood Smith's The Phoenix Feather, a four-volume wuxia-inspired story that engages with the genre (and with historical c-dramas) at a deeper level than ye typical tropes. I read this as each volume first came out, but am now bounding straight through in preparation for reading the sequel and the recent prequel.

Highly enjoyable. Parts of it chime interestingly with the author's earlier Inda (also four volumes) but it's entirely its own story -- not to mention clearly wuxia.

[ehyde]

Oh, cool! My high school friend group was very into the Crown Duel/Court Duel duet, ages ago, but I haven't read anything else by Sherwood Smith yet. I do know she's written Nirvana in Fire fanfic though!

[aurumcalendula]

I hope you feel better soon!

[larryhammer]

Crown/Court Duel is great. It's a sidestory of a much larger series that she's been working on pretty much all her career, including several trad-pub volumes, that she only recently wrapped up. She's also written some faboo Jane Austen fic. And is on DW as sartorias -- I got recs for practice texts for learning Mandarin from her.

But we digress from the comm's topic ... but um, yes, some excellent Nirvana in Fire fic.

[ehyde]

I finished the first volume of Thousand Autumns and am waiting for more from the library. In the meantime I'm reading The Imperial Uncle, which is--different! I'm honestly not sure what to make of it yet.

[alterkrmn]

I finished my assignmet at work and I'm finally reading Married Thrice to Salted Fish again. I'm on chapter 92

Spoilers

Gu Fuzhou is away in the Northwest, and Lin Qingyu made Prince Xiao Li smile. I kind of think the third transmigration is going to happen soon (there's an author note at the end of this chapter that hints at it). Maybe I'm wrong, but a prince whose soul is "missing" seems like the perfect vessel for the young transmigrator's soul 👀​

[headstone]

Eager to hear where you eventually land on The Imperial Uncle! I loved it but it's a bit divisive and I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it until some time after reading.

[headstone]

Read the first volume and a bit of Ballad of Sword and Wine (aka QJJ) and have been having a real "now THIS is podracing" time with it. I'm a little worried it'll lose me along the way because seven is a lot of volumes, but it's so far been delighting me at every turn (except for the horrific donkey chapter, which was very effectively written but also, dear god.)

[aurumcalendula]

I'm about halfway through volume 4 of The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish. So far there's a bunch of kidfic and palace intrigue stuff (although I think the latter might be mostly resolved now). Highlight for spoilers! *I wish Prince Jing's muteness hadn't been something that could be cured, but at least it wasn't instantaneous and he had to do some speech therapy.* tbh I'm more into the fish identity shenanigans than kidfic, but I'm still enjoying it.

I'm also really enjoying To Embers We Return and Wen Guan (both fan translations updated this week)!

[aurumcalendula]

I'm glad you're enjoying it so far! (and yeah that donkey scene was horrifying) I think it's my favorite cnovel at the moment.

[aurumcalendula]

I've enjoyed what I've seen of Soulmate Adventure! I really need to catch up on season 2 (although I've heard it ups the wuxia plot considerably).

[ehyde]

Hope you feel better soon!

Hm, I previously had some issues with LHJC and didn't manage to finish, but that was later on--I think it was more the translation than the pacing, but I can see the pacing doing that too. I haven't given the Rosmei translation a try yet.

[douqi]

Oh no! Feel better soon!

[douqi]

Oh yay Soulmate Adventure!

Have you seen the original MV that started it all off? Super cute.

[douqi]

I'm halfway through an American urban fantasy (The War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, I've forgotten how nice it is to read competently-written genre fiction again) and then Across the Empire is the next c-novel on my list.

I really, really do need to find time to write up my reviews for the last couple of baihe novels I read though.

[silverblade219]

Hope you feel better soon also 🍀

[sam_gardener]

Hope you feel better soon! and that you get a chance to rest and recover.

[halfcactus]

I can't watch it right now but I internally screamed at the song choice SO APT

[halfcactus]

I hope you can watch S2 so I don't have to hahaha!

[aurumcalendula]

I should reread that sometime! I think that was one of the first few urban fantasy novels.

[geraineon]

I do like the customer of the week/story of the week format ala xxxholic/mushishi/Natsume. Will check out!

And lol, yao as fairies is so weird. So many things get translated into "fairies"...

[geraineon]

Ah, I haven't read anything by Sherwood Smith. I do like a good wuxia/wuxia-inspired story!