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]

Didn't read a cnovel this week... Was reading Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche over the weekend.

I'm planning to start reading TKA this week. I suddenly have a lot of free time.

[dayadhvam_triad]

TKA!!!! I hope you enjoy it. :D As a non-gamer, I was overwhelmed by the gaming detail the first time I tried reading it (and thus stopped early on), but then I gave it another try... and uh speed-read the whole thing in less than a week x__x It's still the longest cnovel I've ever read XD;

FYI, Yuewen recently fucked around with the translation so the official Webnovel text is all messed up. It's better to read it elsewhere (or cough acquire an epub cough).

[geraineon]

Good that I have already prepared for this! I do have the epub through... sources... XD

The length is pretty intimidating but I really liked the donghua!

[bettablue]

I received my copy of Legend of the Exorcism today and I started reading it. The extras are beautiful. I am conflicted though, since I have reasons to think the translation may have been butchered and it uses epithets, which I doubt the author uses in the source text. Keeps calling the main character "the youth". I was excited and now disappointed, but I'll wait and see when more people get the book to exchange opinions.

[douqi]

Oh, that's a letdown. I don't read translations myself generally, and I've never thought Seven Seas was producing anything in the way of great literature in translation, but I thought they would manage to reach an acceptable standard at least.

[bettablue]

I have suspicions that Chat GPT has been used due to certain speech patterns being repeated. I don't want to make an accusation just yet and I hope I am wrong but this is what I suspect.

[duckprintspress]

...this worries me so much, sigh.

[aurumcalendula]

Did the special edition get released early? (I thought it wasn't going to be available until next week)

[bettablue]

It is released on the 18th. I was surprised too when I got a message on tuesday from the shop I preordered it from, saying it had been shipped, and arrived yesterday. I guess they received the book from the supplier and wanted to make sure the preorder customers received their copy early rather than late. One never knows with the mail. Or maybe a little perk for people who preordered.

[geraineon]

Oh nooo. That sucks. I wish there's more care given in translating these works.

[shipperslist]

I'm reading Cyan Wings' Something's Not Right and... well. It's cracky and we'll see how much I'll enjoy it.

(I'm also reading Sang by Elina Pitkäkangas. It's not a c-novel but it is very very much LIKE a c-novel and reminds me of Iron Widow. VERY weird to listen a c-novel inspired audiobook in Finnish. At least the reader has been coached in how to pronounce Chinese names and terms. It's not perfect but hey, he tries.)

[larryhammer]

I'm reminded of Jade Warrior, a Finnish-Chinese produced wuxia movie that mixed in Kalevala mythology. Bit of a mess (see: wuxia movie) but the scene of courtship-by-combat, shifting from sparing to dancing, was amazingly beautiful.

[shipperslist]

Oh, I'd totally forgotten about that! It was a good movie, if a bit of a mess, like you said.

[geraineon]

Hope you do enjoy it!

I should read that. I do like Cyan Wings

[aurumcalendula]

I finished Taiwan Travelogue early this week and really enjoyed it! I hope more of Yang Shuang-zi's work gets translated!

Highlight for spoilers!*Aoyama Chizuko's relationship with her translator Ong Tshian-hoh (Oh Chizuru) is very poignant. Chizuko fall head over heels for Tshian-hoh, but they never quite conect (Chizuko, despite her efforts, tends to have a blindspot w/r/t the power dynamics between herself and Tshian-hoh). It's tragic in a what-could've-been way. I though it was very clear that Chizuko had romanic feelings for Tshian-hoh that went beyond friendship. Also, reading this made me kinda hungry.*

I really liked the frame stories of it being a translation of a 1954 novel with introductions and afterward to that effect. imho Yang's 'translator note' is particularly poignant (it's written as if from her twin Yang Jo-hui).

I also got caught up on Dragon Subjugation Incantation and Wen Guan's translations!

Dragon Subjugation Incantation (chapter 76): Highlight for spoilers!*Ruan Li's reached the Golden Core Stage and realized her feeling for Luo Qingci (who she knows as Chi Qing)! Luo Qingci has Shen Qingqiu levels of self-awareness of her feelings for Ruan Li and when told about Ruan Li's (by the system) assumes it's along the lines of a teenage crush. The system is dismayed by all this.*

Wen Guan (chapter 103 and 104): Highlight for spoilers!*Song Shijiu and Li Shiyi conflict re: what should be done about Chun Ping hasn't been resolved yet, but they have made up. I'm curious if Tu Laoyao seeing Chun Ping's face will have consequences later on. The description in chapter 104 are really evocative and I'm curious if the person who has just shown up is Xi Wangmu.*

Also I thought it was a neat coincidence that both these novels Highlight for spoilers!*have love interests that are dragons*

[halfcactus]

reading this made me kinda hungry.
ADDING THIS TO MY LIST.

[geraineon]

Taiwan Travelogue is definitely on my TBR after seeing it mentioned by nnozomi, then douqi and you!

[silverblade219]

I finished the novel for Nirvana in Fire! I feel like the drama actually handled the ending arc slightly better and was slightly better at integrating the side characters consistently, but otherwise it was remarkably close adaptation. Really enjoyed it also.

[halfcactus]

Yeah reading the novel really made me appreciate what the drama adaptation did with the source material! I kind of struggled with the novel version haha.

[larryhammer]

I finished rereading all four volumes of Sherwood Smith's wuxia-inspired novel, The Phoenix Feather, and have started the prequel series, Sagacious, which is not a single novel but rather three novels in (again) four volumes. I'm 4/5 of the way through the first, Tribute, which has some plot twists I did not see coming, and have the next novel, Sage Empress in two volumes, on tap. The fourth volume doesn't come out for two weeks, which was a bit of a mis-timing on my part.

Oops. Well, I can always read the next volume of Dungeon Crawler Carl (acquired today) while I wait.

[geraineon]

Oops. Waiting for the next novel in a series is always a test of patience!

[larryhammer]

I haaaaate it. Always have. A series has to be very special indeed for me to start reading before it's complete. I'll sometimes sample the first volume / opening chapters to see if it's worth waiting for the rest but unless it REALLY hooks me hold off until it's all available.

[douqi]

I'm halfway through Across the Empire (2005 baihe court intrigue) and while the political plotting is not gripping me so far, the depiction of young love is pretty good (the leads are like, 15 to 17 years old at this point). We have a cross-dressing female main character, but intriguingly everyone in the novel KNOWS that she's a girl — she was just raised a boy for luck/health reasons. There are some really visually striking scenes — a winter one where the main character snaps off a bunch of branches with plum blossoms on them to present to her love interest, and then embraces the other girl while still holding the branches, so that when they finally draw apart, their robes are stained red from crushed plum blossoms (pretty sure this is not ominous at all).

[aurumcalendula]

That sounds neat! (and yeah, a bit ominous w/r/t the red plum blossom stains)

[larryhammer]

"not ominous at all" lol

[geraineon]

There are some really visually striking scenes — a winter one where the main character snaps off a bunch of branches with plum blossoms on them to present to her love interest, and then embraces the other girl while still holding the branches, so that when they finally draw apart, their robes are stained red from crushed plum blossoms (pretty sure this is not ominous at all).

I really love this imagery! Fan-art bait at its best.

[halfcactus]

I'm back in my shoujo/josei nonsense and recently read a reverse transmigration manga--in which the main character is the villainess whose body gets taken over by a transmigrator. It lends an otherwise tropey story a more interesting PoV + revenge motivation.

Cnovel-wise, waiting for April for the new episodes of the Modu live action to drop, though I think I'm better off waiting for them to get fansubbed. My track record for finishing dramas in any form has been very bad, so we'll see if I finish this one. XD

[geraineon]

Shoujo/josei stuff is nice! Oh wait, does that mean the villainess takes over another body?

I feel you about finishing dramas. Especially cdramas, because they are usually so long =(

[halfcactus]

The villainess has her body taken over, can't do anything but watch the transmigrator change her life out of kindness, and then gets her body back when the transmigrator leaves the body. The plot is about her avenging the tranmisgrator whom she's grown to love.

Yeah any cmedia I've been managing to watch lately has an episode length to 20-25 minutes... And I still haven't finished anything on my own yet. XD

[alterkrmn]

Finally made it to chapter 100 of Married Thrice to Salted Fish!!!

And...

Spoilers

I knew Gu Fuzhou's death was coming, and when things started getting rocky in the palace thanks to Xi Rong, I just couldn't stop reading. I didn't think Lin Qingyu would die, but I was nervous. I was biting my nails lol

I enjoyed so much Gu Fuzhou's death! Now I need to see Lin Qingyou's reaction 👀​, and the next transmigration 👀​

I wonder if my prediction for the next flesh vessel of the young transmigrator will come true or not

[geraineon]

<3

such a good scene!

[ehyde]

I've finally taken the plunge and started reading the Grave Robbers Chronicles and currently having a similar experience to when I first started watching season 1 of Supernatural: cool horror/adventure story but I was led to expect uhh something that is not here yet. Enjoying it, though!

(I didn't finish Thousand Autumns, but I'm waiting on v2 still)

[duckprintspress]

very curious what you were expecting lol. but yeah I do think the fandom oversells certain aspects of it.

[duckprintspress]

I read The Missing Piece by Kun Yi Wei Lou! Rather odd book overall, but with a surprisingly fluffy premise. I wish I hadn't gotten jumpscared with kidfic again, sigh, but it was mostly ignoreable. All in all, nothing all that remarkable but not a bad way to spend a couple days reading.

I'm now reading a not-C-Novel (Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle - a library hold came in) and after that I'll be onto vol. 1 of Rosmei's Global Examination translation (I've read a fantranslation).

[geraineon]

Oh nooo, may your next book have no kidfic content! Ah, how would you describe the oddness of the book?

[duckprintspress]

well, I bounced off it the first time I tried to read it, maybe six months ago, because page 1 is literally ml balls deep in mc's mouth. So uh. There's that.

but also... okay, so the premise is (mind you I'm so bad at names I've already forgotten everyone's, oops)...

mc is ml's fake live-in significant other. they've signed a contract to this extent, the details of which are never all that clear. mc was originally an artist, but for Reasons, he doesn't art anymore; ml is rich and does something celebrity/media related that's never clearly defined.

at the start of the story, mc finds out that his long-lost ex is returning... in company with ml's sister, who is in a relationship with long-lost ex.

cue mc, ml, and ml's sister cohabitating, and ex visiting regularly.

the story hinges around why sister + ex are a couple, why mc and ex broke up, and how mc and ml end up "together" and then end up together.

there's kidnapping, torture, amnesia, and mistaken identity involved.

it's just. a very odd story, yet despite all the kidnapping, torture, amnesia, and mistaken identity, it somehow ends up weirdly fluffy.

anyway, my next read is a re-read of Global Examination vol. 1, so I'm positive there'll be no kidfic ambush there; after that I've got Babel by R. F. Kuang, then I think Lip and Sword by Jin Shisi Chai. I'm relatively hopeful it won't have surprise kidfic??? reviews on Goodreads are describing it as "toxic age gap danmei" so I'm not really sure where a kid would fit in there. I really hope not.