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.

[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)

[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.

[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.

[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... *

[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.

[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.

[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.