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

[duckprintspress]

I finished Rosmei's translation of Global Examination! I didn't want to stop, lol. I'll be reading a couple non-Chinese-originally books next.

I've also been reading vol 2 of the Global Examination manhua in Chinese as my in-Chinese-read-of-the-month. It's definitely been helpful to have just read these same parts in the book, lol.

[geraineon]

Haha, and when the next volume is out, it'll be reread no. 3?

[duckprintspress]

lol, I mean, I've only read the whole book once, and I've read a chunk of the manhua but not the whole story that way, so it just depends how you count. I'll be reading vol. 3 of the manhua as my Chinese read for April, but that doesn't get to a point in the plot past what was in the Rosmei book 1, which gets entirely through the first two story arcs and a chunk into the third.

Rosmei vol. 1 ends where
Highlight for spoilers!*You Huo confirms that he heard 020 say that he's Invigilator A, and says he wants to get to talk to Qin Jiu alone in one of the punishment rooms so the System can't hear them.

....aaaaand checking if there's word of vol. 4 print edition of the manhua is how I find out that the shopify for my preferred importer is gone, sigh. Back to Koonbooks I guess, but they're a lot more expensive. anyway no, pre-orders for vol. 4 aren't up yet.

tho this also reminded me, I got a second payment notification from ShandianGo that I completely forgot to pay. I have absolutely no idea what it's for, I thought I'd received all my orders from them lmao.

anyway. gonna shut up now.

(actually to clarify: this is my second time reading the book, and my third time reading the manhua; the other two times I read the manhua it was in English on Bilibili's app.)

[aurumcalendula]

I think I've a bit of a tipping point w/r/t To Embers We Return - like I was enjoying it before, but something about chapter 13 got me really invested in the story!

Seeking Immortality in Vain continues to be really good too (it's translated up to chapter 29)! I'm enjoying getting more glimpses of the main characters' shared past.

It was also neat to find a new translation update for The Witch Nichang (although tbh I think I've forgotten some of the plot of the earlier parts by now)

[liliacs]

Chapter 13 was really good! I'm so interested in finding out what's happening with Bian Jin and Qin Wushang.

[aurumcalendula]

Same here!

[douqi]

No spoilers but my (admittedly biased) view is that this is where the novel really starts to hit its stride.

[aurumcalendula]

I'm so excited to see where the plot goes from here and I'm very curious about Qin Wushang! (and I'm starting to speculate about who exactly damaged Bian Jin's jade core and memory module)

[geraineon]

Ah, that's one of the issues with reading ongoing works, I think. I tend to forget details from earlier chapters too.

[aurumcalendula]

Yeah. This one being on hiatus for a while did not help (I probably should reread it now that it's updating again).

[shipperslist]

This isn't a c-novel because even though it desperately wants to be danmei, it's written by a white Finnish woman, but I read Naraka, the sequel to Sang. I really REALLY wish a Chinese person read this because I'm so VERY VERY interested what they'd say. You can read my thoughts on both books in the author tag.

[geraineon]

Oof, that book sounds like a mess to read. Tone marks inconsistencies alone would have driven me mad.

There is a phenomena of writers in English wanting to write their own danmei and well, isn't that just books with plot, which just happen to have central gay couple? The genres don't really have a 1-to-1 translation, but that's basically it.

[shipperslist]

There is a phenomena of writers in English wanting to write their own danmei and well, isn't that just books with plot, which just happen to have central gay couple? The genres don't really have a 1-to-1 translation, but that's basically it.
Yeah, but the ones I've seen at least say "inspired by danmei." This claims to be completely original, nothing to do with danmei. Except that it tries very hard to be danmei. *sigh*

[douqi]

...yes. I just mentally label these books as 'not for me/people like me'.

(at the risk of having stuff thrown at me, sometimes these are... Asian diaspora authors. And then I'm even more disappointed *ducks*)

Edited to add: Not all Asian diaspora authors, obvs (being an Asian diaspora kind-of author myself).

[silverblade219]

A bit over half way through Mr. Melancholy Wants to Live a Peaceful Life! The reviews did not prepare me for how much this feels is to a Tokusatsu drama at times lol (You Zhengping doesn't have an Henshin sequence, but he does wear a mask and technically rides a bike). I have seen comparisons to Infinite Flow [?] for Yu Hua's backstory, but not as familiar with that genre, so to me it feels similar to the tower leveling subgenre in knovels. (and then it has the smallest dash of Guardian drama-verse, with Yu Hua's disguise)

Really enjoying it so far, though it would be nice it had more female characters. I am amused that Zhen Li seems to be taking the place of the lucky "Mary Sue" esque female character that Cyan Wings sometimes seems to use to stumble over plot devices.

[geraineon]

Omg, Now that you mention it, YES, IT DOES HAVE A TOKUSATSU FEEL!!!

Now I cannot unsee XD

[liliacs]

I've been busy recently so I'm only at chapter 21 of To Embers We Return. But I'm still really enjoying it! I love Shen Ni, she'd be a nightmare irl but she's funny to read. not a real spoiler but just in case*there's a scene where she makes a character trip so it looks like they're kneeling to her then she tells them "you may rise". Then she subtly attacks Li Shan while making it sound like a casual comment.*

I'm really excited to see where the plot will go, and more of the side characters! I'm just making up more theories as the book drops new hints. actual spoilers!*A recent part from Bian Jin's POV confirmed that she is losing track of time so... I'm wondering if her consciousness has been split somehow, or if she's being taken over by a different person. But well, she still seems to think like Bian Jin, so maybe there are two Bian Jins and one of them takes over our (real?) Bian Jin's body sometimes... *

[geraineon]

Part of the joy of reading is being able to enjoy people who would otherwise be terrible to know irl, I guess XD

I'll come back to this when I'm there!

[larryhammer]

Still c-novel adjacent, but finished the wuxia inspired Sagacious Sword by Sherwood Smith, which neatly wraps up both the Sagacious series with The Phoenix Feather. Smith does a very good job of looking to the roots of the genre without getting distracted by surface details -- in particular, there's a lot of examining the relationship between the society of gallant wanderers and imperial authority, including how it shifts over the several centuries the stories cover.

All highly recommended.

[geraineon]

That's great! Perhaps someday I'll get to reading too. Are there any standalone books?

[larryhammer]

Part 1 of Sagacious, Tribute, is standalone, and I’ve seen arguments that it’s as good a starter for everything as The Phoenix Feather.

[ehyde]

Just finished Evil Weapon's Self-Cultivation and I ... didn't like it much. First Cyan Wings novel I've really been disappointed by. The MC is just too perfect, he's not interesting to read about, and while I get that "look at this OP hero put everyone in their place" might appeal to some it does not appeal to me at least not after the fourth or fifth time. The MC has an idealistic streak that reminded me of the MC from They All Say I Met a Ghost but imo, it worked in Ghost because the MC was wrong about ... well, the central premise of the novel. He wasn't infallible. Unlike our ancient sword Yan Changge.

Well, I did get a kick out of the swordfucking jokes so at least there was that!

I think I will read v2 of Thousand Autumns next since that needs to go back to the library.

[geraineon]

That's disappointing, but I suppose it's hard find an author whose every work is something that works.

Enjoy Thousand Autumns v. 2!

[halfcactus]

Seems like a scanlation team has picked up the baihe manhua 流星划过之日 (known among international fans as The Day the Shooting Star or The Day When the Shooting Star Passed by) so I skimmed it a bit... It's a bodyswap romance between the cold-hearted office tyrant and the warm-hearted but sheltered office doormat. Not the most high-quality read (in both art and writing aspects) but still pretty cute if you want something mindless. I like that the PoV character is the office tyrant, which is usually a love-interest role? And she's very attracted to her own face when it's more expressive haha. CW for the MC having a lot of hang-ups about eating/gaining weight that they seem to be building up as one of her character arcs. Meanwhile the FL is simultaneously the MC's sugar baby for the duration of the bodywap but also a fuerdai in her regular life lol.

Mo Du / Silent Reading / Justice in the Dark: 1) I desperately want the road trip extra to get adapted in the audio drama. 2) Saw some users in XHS/Rednote saying that ep6 of the Japanese release of Justice in the Dark deleted a part that was in the Youku version? I wonder what scene that was haha.

[aurumcalendula]

re: Justice in the Dark - from what I gather, I think it's part of the scene around the 41 minute mark (chapter 38 in the book) where Luo Wenzhou manhandles Fei Du a bit, takes his pulse, and talks about how Fei Du shouldn't drink coffee and wine together.

[halfcactus]

Oh noooooo I can see why people are upset about it... it was a great scene. Ty for the info!

[geraineon]

Manhua does sound like an easy read!

At some point, I'll need to try watching Justice in the Dark. Are all the episodes out yet?

[aurumcalendula]

It sounds like 1 or 2 episodes are airing on WOWOW per week, so I think they might all be out by June or July.