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]

lots of life things happened/is still happening, haven't been reading except for another short story from The Way Spring Arrives collection of translated Chinese SF short stories. The story I read was Dragonslaying, by Shen Yingying, translated by Emily Xueni Jin. I thought it was a pretty interesting story (female doctor travelled far to watch a secretive medical procedure that transforms merpeople into humans to then be made to serve humans [well, concubines, wives, sex workers] and discovers other secrets about the people who were tasked with it generation by generation).

[larryhammer]

I have The Way Spring Arrives but still haven't gotten to it. Maybe I'll take it traveling, later this summer.

[geraineon]

Mm, I like short story collections for travel because they are bite sized and won't keep you reading when you're supposed to be enjoying the travel location XD

[larryhammer]

After finishing I Am Average and Unremarkable by Yue Xia Die Ying, I turned around and started Like Pearl and Jade by the same author. This one's a historical romance, so roughly on the same lines as her Eight Treasure Trousseau, with some differences: the MC is only 10 at the start, and is a transmigrator from something close to our world/era. This last detail is very understated -- she's not using modern knowledge to advance herself in any way, only to reflect on the world she's in by contrasting it to the history she knew. Well, and also to behave somewhat more maturely than others expect.

Anyway, am ~15 chapters in, out of ~100. It's about half the length of Journey to the West, which I've decided to use as my measure for c-novels.

ETA: Oh, and a detail that amuses me: the food in the imperial palace is not as good as in households of higher aristocrats, because the imperial chefs are too worried about making a mistake to cook with flair. This sounds all too plausible.

[geraineon]

Haha, definitely possible.

What is the role of the transmigrator in Like Pearl and Jade?

[larryhammer]

She's the MC, but there's been less than a handful of references to her status, all in the range of chapters 5-15, and they've all been commentary on the society of her world in comparison to (presumably) ours. No using modern knowledge to get ahead like so many other transmigration stories. It's a cheat code to make the narrator's job easier, basically.

Am up to chapter ~60, and still greatly enjoying it. Deceptively gentle, just like the MC.

[aurumcalendula]

More chapters of Seeking Immortality in Vain!

Highlight for spoilers! *I'm finding it particularly entertaining that people (notably the alliance princess) are noticing Song Juguang's feeling towards Jiang Changbai.*

[geraineon]

Highlight for spoilers!*I'm assuming they must be pretty obvious about it in public? XD*

[aurumcalendula]

Highlight for spoilers! *Somewhat, although in the case of the marriage alliance princess, she's only seen Song Juguang so she's picking up on it via SJG wanting to send Liang Jiwen away without meeting Jiang Changbai in person. SJG on the other hand hasn't realized/admitted what's she's feeling is jealousy.*

[ehyde]

Caught up on the translation of To Embers We Return and now I'm taking a break from cnovels and readingPost Captain (Aubrey/Maturin 2)

[duckprintspress]

not a c-novel comment but... this is your first time reading Aubrey/Maturin right? Are you enjoying? I'm rather fond of them, though I've never read them all.

[ehyde]

Yeah, I made it a few chapters into book 1 as a teen but it didn't really work for me back then. My mom's a huge fan of the series and I think it took a bit of distance + seeing my own peers enjoy them to remove them from the category of "mom books," lol.

[duckprintspress]

I'm lol because mine is similar - I read them as a teen because my mom, grandfather, and uncle all got massively into them - except for me it was like, "these are ADULT and COMPLICATED I must PROVE I am as good as the adults in my life by reading them too!" Disclaimer: I didn't have to prove literally anything I was just that kind of teenager lmao.

[geraineon]

Never heard of Post Captain, and now you got me to look it up!

[larryhammer]

Oh, have you got a saga ahead of you -- a great one. "Sir, you have debauched my sloth!" Enjoy!