Free-For-All Friday

[geraineon]

Time for free for all Friday, a day for random chit-chat!

Do you want to talk about the other novels you are reading or find a read-along partner? Practice your Chinese? Request for fics? Ask for beta readers? Just talk about your day?

Go right ahead!

... Since I completely forgot the Read-in-Progress post this week, this doubles as a Read-in-Progress too if you wish!

Comments

[geraineon]

life keeps happening and if I miss posting again next week, I might ask for help.

mostly, it's that i don't want to post and not be around to reply, yet that has been happening (my social energy has been very, very low lately).

[halfcactus]

Good luck with all the life things! If only Dreamwidth had automated tools for weekly posts. ;__;

(And please don't feel pressured to reply to me ever lol)

[llonkrebboj]

This may take a bit of testing, but it seems possible to do scheduled posts with an email workaround!

https://www.silversspace.com/2023/10/scheduled-posting-on-dreamwidth/

[geraineon]

I've done that before! But messed up the dates once and then didn't do it again (also because I won't be there to reply, which is not that different from now I guess so I'm gonna do that again...)

[geraineon]

<3

[douqi]

Very happy to help with the regular posting if needed.

I love your replies but don't feel pressured if you're low on energy!

[geraineon]

<33 I can automate the regular posting but if you have time/energy, it'd help to have extra eyes on the replies here if anyone needs questions answered or opinions on things (though tbh, comm members have been great with that!)

[larryhammer]

Still reading Gourmet of Another World, and reached chapter 1500 (!). Long-ass xianxia is seriously long-ass, but it remains bounding fun so it's not like it's a chore.

However, I am eying Lady Cultivator (一仙难求) by Yun Ji (云芨), a xianxia with a female author and female MC. A few years ago, I read about half of it before catching up with the translation, and I just realized that the translation finally finished last year. I really enjoyed it (and the two other xianxias I sampled from the author) and am seriously considering switching. FWIW, this one is three times as long as Journey to the West, as opposed to Gourmet's 7+ times.

[geraineon]

1500 is an amazing milestone!

How many chapters is Lady Cultivator. Tbh, I'm also really amazed at the dedication of the translators for sticking with it for that long and finishing it!

[larryhammer]

Lady Cultivator is 675 chapters, and I caught up with the translation at 356. (I'd translate the title as "an immortal is hard to find," but since LC is the official licensed title I guess we're stuck with it.)

Except, wait a second, WebNovel's translation is still stuck at 356. The new chapters in my copy aren't credited. Which means, dang it, there's a good chance they're machine translated. Urph. Well, I'll see how they are when I get to them. (I'll have to start over -- can't remember details from six years ago, and I liked it enough I doubt I'll mind rereading even if I did.)

ETA: FWIW Gourmet of Another World has many credited translators, over the years it came out.

[headstone]

I have been reading Nanchan and will finish the first volume (of three) this morning. Tang Jiu Qing has a knack for vivid secondary casts, and she and I share an id regarding main couples. That said, this novel is less immediately gripping than Ballad of Sword and Wine, with a clunkier official translation.

[anehan]

with a clunkier official translation

That's a bummer.

[headstone]

There are definitely worse, but there are more than a few sentences with bad grammar or odd/incorrect word choice (e.g. "daft" instead of "deft). Could've used a tighter editing pass for sure.

[geraineon]

Disappointing to hear that the tl is not as polished as it can be.

[halfcactus]

I tried reading the official translation for—I think—How to Survive As a Villian manhua and it was... bad. Like the translation was bad, and the manhua pacing just didn't work, I was so bored. Presumably the novel reads better.

In other news, I got to catch the Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint movie! I think my familiarity with the original actually made the movie more enjoyable because I could at least enjoy the visualization and impose my memory of canon events/characterization over it. It was an extremely "safe" movie in terms of what is shown onscreen. There is little blood, and cockroaches are only onscreen once (thank God lol this was my greatest fear going in), but unfortunately this also meant that Jung Heewon's background story/motivations were erased.

Overall: I didn't hate it, but I think as a movie it's subpar, especially when compared to adjacent movies/TV with apocalypse settings, survival games, and trains. Movie!Kim Dokja sucked as a protagonist, they wasted every opportunity to make him remotely interesting or fleshed-out. The flashback of his "deepest trauma" was so ????. The entire production looked cheap. Even the expensive actors felt cheap because of how underwhelming the shots were. But the dokkaebi were so cute!

[larryhammer]

I may skip the ORV movie -- I'm hearing enough comments about the thinness of the adaptation to not make it worth it.

[halfcactus]

Yeah if you care about adaptations being faithful I 100% wouldn't recommend it. ^^;

[geraineon]

I've heard so many complaints about the ORV movie and it's making me super curious to see how bad it is... I can't really see how they can adapt ORV into a movie tbh. It's such a sprawling story.

Glad that the dokkaebi are cute at least!

[shipperslist]

I haven't read any proper c-novels in ages! A Travesty Indeed!

I have the last 2ha waiting and a bunch of baihe and the ubiquitous 14th year of Chenghua that I've been meaning to read for a year now. 🫠 But I have so many other books that I need* to read first!

(* I don't need to. I'm doing this to myself because I'm overachieving and unable to set borders to myself.)

[geraineon]

I haven't had a reading brain for a while. not for anything new. So, I'm with you on that. Though with the library due date of one of them approaching fast, maybe that's motivation enough.

[liliacs]

I've read more of To Embers We Return and it continues being very enjoyable. I love Zeng Qingluo and just want nice things for her, and I'm excited about the first mentions of Li Ji!

I love the cast in general; they all have distinct personalities and I'm looking forward to where their stories are going.

[geraineon]

That's great! Love it when the whole cast is interesting

[yueliangist]

i've started reading 论救错反派的下场 after saying i wouldn't immediately read another xianxia, and OH BOY! i'm on chapter 18 and my brain is so fried every time because not only is this xianxia, its about a medical student and patient transmigrating into the body of a medic grandmaster. so basically i hopped on a train to difficult terms central station.

i am really enjoying the story so far and am pretty attached to the 2 main characters (and also the only recurring characters), but oh man. i'm giving it another few chapters before i decide if it's worth it or not to struggle through

[lee_bella]

The main plot goes to some interesting places, and it has quite a few twists and turns along the way. But yeah, the medical stuff is really dry and dense.

[yueliangist]

i'm so close to stopping, but then i have to find something else to read sighs

[lee_bella]

I actually dropped it once before I picked it back up again and gave it another try. There were some neat ideas, but the book itself annoyed the hell out of me.

[yueliangist]

i dropped it, now i need to find something easier ;_;

[hazevi]

I put baihe wuxia on pause to binge like, 40+ chapters of All the Waters of The World (全世界的水都会重逢) by Yi Zhan Ye Deng in two sittings since it finished updating a little while ago. I also have a pretty specific reading thread of it on twitter. Unfortunately my reading speed has slowed back to a crawl so the thread will have inconsistent updates.

The way Yi Zhan Ye Deng writes conflict dynamics within this book is very interesting! Most conflicts come from people losing it at each other (family) when life's pressures build up. It definitely makes me think that there might have been a lot of things inspired from (their) real life. Also, all the mothers in this book personally make me feel much gratitude towards my mother, (I haven't told her yet, maybe I will..? but wow. East Asian mother-daughter dynamics are sure something...and I feel sad that this is realistic because it does hurt in other ways).

Also, to absolutely no one's surprise, I love the mc Chen Xing. She is the true star in the night sky, the resilient and hardworking gal I'd want to be. I also feel very hard for the other half of the ship Xie Qingli... honestly loving one means that you love the other because they are mirrors of each other; Yi Zhan Ye Deng made it very clear that all of the mirroring details between Xie Qingli and Chen Xing will become the bridges that will close the gap. Waiting to see how the next realistic obstacle of them living in two separate countries (and probably the biggest hurdle between them getting together) gets solved.

[geraineon]

That is a very realistic conflict dynamic. Sometimes, I find it hard to read stories that are a little close to reality, and Asian family dynamics (plus all the toxicity) can be that for me.

Do you think you will say something to your mother? And will your mother be uncomfortable with it?

[hazevi]

I already did haha! Wasn't as difficult conversation than I thought actually, it was more like I gave her
"you're a great mom" compliment in a joking manner (I mean, it wasn't really intended as a joke but I kind of used the tone to keep it light) after I rambled about the novel's events to mother dearest and then she also accepted it in the same tone, so win for us I guess!

[lee_bella]

Finished Zhichu's (稚楚) I Only Like Your Made-up Persona (我只喜欢你的人设[娱乐圈]), a pretty realistic(?) love story between an actor and an artist, who is the actor's fan. Xia Xiqing is probably one of the most complicated characters I've seen in a while; I could write a thousand-word essay on him. Anyway, this novel takes place after BE Crazy Demon Survival System, and the main couple from that book shows up as supporting characters here.

[geraineon]

If you ever end up writing an essay about Xia Xiqing, do feel free to share. I love reading essays going deep into a character.

[llonkrebboj]

I'm only slowly progressing on my Nirvana in Fire reread bc of a thing I picked up on impulse 😆 no more spoons for anything else for now.

/asked for a change of scenery at work and now i've upended my comfort zone and need to learn many new things xD it's exciting but also eating up my brain's hobby processing space.

[geraineon]

brain hobby space will come back!

how far into the nif reread are you?

[ehyde]

I finished HMS Surprise and was planning to pick up a cnovel after that ... but ... I came home from the library with The Mauritius Command so we shall see. Stephen Maturin is so very blorbo-shaped.

I debated whether I wanted to share these here but I finally decided whatever, it's fine: last month I finished up binding a couple of books for a cnovel bookbinding exchange! I was working ahead of schedule, so I haven't received mine yet, but I can share the ones I made. The Imperial Uncle, which I made into two smaller volumes with a bamboo-strip spine, and How Dare You?! which has a three-tier cutout cover to represent the multiple layers of transmigration. I had a lot of fun making both of these!

[lee_bella]

Your bookbindings are very lovely. The Imperial Uncle in particular looks very classy with the bamboo strip spine. Love it!

[geraineon]

I've seen them earlier, but commenting yet again to say that these are beautiful!