Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 1

Lisa Danz

Beautiful story, great translation, helpful appendix, lovely illustrations

"The characters are smart and funny and have larger-than-life personalities. The main character, Xie Lian, is great at thinking outside the box and doesn't settle for thinking what other people expect him to think or doing what they expect him to do. The first time I read this novel, he kept surprising me with his creative ideas. He's also thoughtful and humble and makes a point of respecting others' boundaries; he'd be a very likable person to meet in real life. San Lang is also a delightful, charming, funny, and enigmatic character. His growing friendship with Xie Lian is as sweet and hilarious and loud as their characters are. The story is full of action, suspense, mystery, and humor. It's hard to stop reading. The characters' appearances are described in vivid (but highly-readable) detail. Even before looking at the illustrations, you can already see them in your mind's eye. But the illustrations! They're delightful! Sprinkled throughout the text, they bring out the feeling of the moment (sweet, curious, anxious, etc). The expressions of the characters strongly evoke their personalities and moods. The English translation flows naturally in idiomatic English. It's clean, consistent, and polished. (My Chinese isn't good enough to comment on the accuracy overall, but the few simple sentences I compared out of curiosity seemed right on.) The appendices at the end are useful for understanding key terms. One funny thing about them is that the pronunciation guide mentions that Chinese is a tonal language and that tones are key to pronouncing things correctly, but none of the pinyin has tone markings. (I guess it's pretty typical to write pinyin without tone markings in English text.) https://docs.google.com/document/d/19G05-ftJZWOt4-UQ18V9B8wGdjcZryrldiu4ir5xK7s/edit is a helpful pronunciation guide that includes tones and doesn't include any extra spoilery information about the characters. The Kindle edition is good quality. One quirk is that there are two tables of contents in the kindle edition, one kindle-style with links to the chapters, and the other stylized looking like a print version with an illustrated background and fancy font. When I use the kindle feature to "go to" the table of contents, it goes to the stylized one. The table of contents with links is immediately after the cover, so to navigate to it, you can "go to" the cover and then turn the page. The stylized table of contents provides extra context by explaining which webnovel chapters correspond to each book chapter. Many of the webnovel chapters have names like "xyz event 1", "xyz event 2", etc, and as far as I can tell, the book version simply groups together the chapters that have the same name ("xyz event"). I'm very much looking forward to reading the rest of the official translation as it comes out. ["

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December 16, 2021 Verified Purchase

LtTawnyMadison

A saga that transcends its genres in scope and depth

"This review is mainly for those who are unfamiliar with the Chinese fantasy (xianxia) or BL (danmei) genres as a whole, like me. If you stumbled across this book because it's bestselling, but think you'll probably pass because these genres aren't "your thing," I encourage you to reconsider. It is a saga that transcends its genres the further you read. It is HUGE in Asia and quickly gaining traction globally, and is widely considered to be the best of its genre, and there's a reason for that! The story, characters, setting, and visuals (in the adaptations) are all fantastic. SFF is my favorite genre, but second is classic literature, and this actually contains some elements of the latter, which most fantasy (at least Western fantasy) does not. Men can probably enjoy the story too because there is so much else going on and it's definitely fantasy, not primarily romance. I'm older than the typical audience for this and have read A LOT of books, and this has edged past my other favorite book, The Count of Monte Cristo--yes, I love adventure/drama epics! My only complaint with the book is with the writing style in the beginning, which I explain below. There is also an excellent and thorough Chinese and xianxia guide in the back. If you're new to the genre, be sure to read this guide, because it will be much clearer that way. THE STORY (no spoilers) When I read the entire novel (not just this book 1), I expected adventure, mystery, romance, and humor. And there is plenty of all of that. What I didn't expect was ethics, philosophy, and intense drama. And the entire story is not just "from one adventure to the next," as it seems at first, but is all shown to be closely related at the end, like zooming out from one part of a weaving to see the entire tapestry. This surprised and impressed me as well. Many literary devices are masterfully used throughout. The original web novel is five books, which will be 8 printed books. This printed Book 1 covers just the first half of the web novel's Book 1, and it stays pretty lighthearted. The novel starts out slowly and then steadily increases in speed. The adventurous parts are greatly enjoyable and a fun ride. The dramatic parts (which are mostly in the web novel's Books 2 and 4, describing Xie Lian's past) are extremely intense, to the point that many recommend it's better to take some breaks here and there while reading them. But like all good drama, it lends a great deal of depth that brings the whole story to a different level. (The 17+ label is because of these parts.) This is my favorite summary of the whole story, by a fan: "The story is about Xie Lian's journey, and how he learned to love himself again, through the effort of a man who never had loved himself." Xie Lian and Hua Cheng's relationship and romance is a very organic slow build, and it's not at either extreme of being the full focus or just jammed in awkwardly, but it is still at the very clear heart of the story. There have only been a few romances I've encountered that are built on something much deeper than normal, and this is one of them; it can be called epic without exaggeration, and most romance stories now seem shallow by comparison. It's hard to imagine this kind of relationship being able to occur outside of this fantasy setting, which is probably why it can go to such a different level. And even though I'm not (yet) a general "BL" fan, this relationship is now one of my favorites. It is sweet and healthy, with no toxic elements and very high mutual respect, and just highly endearing. (Though there is one aspect that would be creepy outside its narrative.) Some problematic tropes are inverted; for example the influence of 'sex pollen' is rejected, age boundaries are maintained, and magically-induced dubcon (just of kissing) is halted. It apparently doesn't follow the usual BL tropes which cater to a heterosexual audience, and is instead more realistic in its portrayal of a same-sex relationship, which is great if true. It also is not explicit (unlike the author MXTX's other two books) which seemed to actually fit very well with the story--even though it was apparently because its webnovel platform had gotten more strict with censorship, which is a shame. The supporting characters are given a lot of focus as well, with a lot of time spent on their stories, which Xie Lian ends up being quite involved/entangled in; they are actually what drives the present-day plot in addition to Xie Lian's own journey. These characters are nuanced; there is bad in the "good" ones and good in the "bad," as well as growth as the story progresses. And they are all really well fleshed out characters who have their own strong fanbases among readers. The book is gripping and moving, and as I got further in, I REALLY got pulled into the story and it was hard to focus on the rest of my life. This is apparently a common reaction to this saga. While reading, I didn't do anything but work and the most necessary chores and family activities. I don't do well without enough sleep but I still stayed up too late several times. And even while doing other things (like an all-day D&D session) my mind kept wandering back to the book. I felt like I was between worlds. And when I finished, I felt hollow and bereft, and at a loss of what to do next, wishing the story could just go on. (This also is apparently common.) None of that has happened to me with a book in a very long time. So I'm trying to fill the holes with related art, videos, fanfic, fan groups, etc, and will re-read this as each of the printed books is released, as well as MXTX's other two books, and more danmei in general. The extra chapters set after the book's end helped to ease the sting as well. THE WRITING/TRANSLATION I feel there are problems with the writing (or translation) style, mainly in about the first third of the novel. But stick it out because it gets better, and the story itself is worth it. In these early parts, the wording is very informal, and the phrasing is clunky and often stiff and simplistic. Sometimes it flows more naturally and is crisp, engaging and more appropriately formal, but this isn't consistent. According to some fans who have compared the original Chinese to this translation, the phrasing problems are in the translation, while the more informal dialogue matches the Chinese (but I've seen conflicting statements on this). It does improve as it goes on, however. In my first reading I thought that it might have just been my perception that changed the further I read; that I might have just gotten used to it, or was so engrossed in the story that I stopped noticing. But I'm re-reading it now and I can definitely say that the writing gets much better. There is also another possible factor on top of this, which is that in her postscript, the author describes some early struggles with this story, and that could also possibly account for some of the stilted feel at the beginning. The author has recently released her final version of this novel in Chinese (she's been working on it for years). This final version has some polishing and plot revisions (nothing significantly changing the storyline though) and 100,000 added words. What we now have published in English is not the final version, but publishers were told that this wasn't guaranteed to happen and they should go ahead with the version that they had been sent. THE ADAPTATIONS Note: This is updated periodically for the latest information. Like a lot of Westerners, I found this story through the donghua (animated series). Then I read the artistically stunning manhua (comic), and finally read the novel. I feel that the best order is the book first, and then the other two, because the book provides more detail that will increase the enjoyment of the manhua and donghua. However, some people have said that they preferred the other formats over the book (at least this first part of it), in part due to the writing style. The donghua is subbed on Netflix and excellently dubbed on Crunchyroll (which you can use for free for the first month). The manhua used to be on an official English webcomic platform but no longer is, so it can only be read either on the Chinese publisher's site (Bilibili), or a scanlation site. They both stick very closely to the book, but are not yet completed. The manhua and donghua lend exquisite visuals that greatly enhance the story. But the book's prologue made some things a lot more clear to me, particularly Xie Lian's past; though on the flip side, the donghua reveals things about Hua Cheng's past much earlier than the novel. In the book there are more details mainly in the interactions between the deuteragonists, revealing Xie Lian's inner thoughts about Hua Cheng, and some expressions/interactions between them that aren't as clear in the manhua and donghua. Conversely, some of the overt intimate gestures in the manhua and donghua aren't in the book, maybe since those formats don't show all the inner discourse, so those gestures compensate. And the donghua shows Hua Cheng's POV frequently, whereas the book is all from Xie Lian's POV. A live action TV series (C-drama) called Eternal Faith has finished filming but is not yet released. There is also a currently airing audio drama which is based on the final version of the novel (the other adaptations are based on the previous version). For more information about all the adaptations and the final version, visit this page: https://www.reddit.com/r/tianguancifu/wiki/faq/ There has been concern about heavy censorship of the adaptations due to China's strict censorship laws, but so far they haven't been. In fact as I said, they are MORE overtly romantic so far than in the book, though the upcoming live action show will most likely be heavily censored. And it's likely that any kissing will be censored in all adaptations (except the audio drama), although because the animation studio is Japanese, they may release some extra uncensored content for non-Chinese audiences, as they've done with some other danmei stories. I do wonder if some of the side stories will be cut out of the adaptations to shorten them, which is common with book adaptations. The manhua has cut some scenes, but the donghua has not, and in fact added some scenes to a backstory that were not in the book. PRINT/PRODUCTION QUALITY This is about as high quality as a paperback book can get. I usually get books on Kindle and wasn't sure if I'd want to keep the paperback, but I definitey am because it is gorgeous, as the customer videos show. While it is much higher quality than standard paperbacks, I do wish that it were more similar to the very elegant editions offered in some other languages, which are mostly hardback with more traditional and less cartoony cover art (though I do like the art on ours), a more formal title font, and even gold or silver foil. They also include extras such as prints, pins and bookmarks, and some have interior color art. (Look up the Vietnamese and Russian editions for a comparison.) Some also have box sets for every 2 books. I am hoping that we will get a special edition set more like these at some point. ["

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December 18, 2021 Verified Purchase

Sadie Woods

A Masterpiece

"MXTX is an absolute legend. There isn't a single novel she's written that can be described as anything less than a masterpiece! Even folks who don't tend to read BL should give her novels a shot- they are all great stories first before any other subset of a genre they can belong to! This is no fan service oriented at a female audience, this is a legitimate novel and should be judged to a higher standard than a quick read yaoi manga. A quick primer on danmei (and MXTX in particular) is that primary focus is on the storyline with the romance being a more distant priority. Its definitely an important part of the story, but if you will be disappointed if you come to this novel expecting anything explicit and find characters and plot events not directly relating to the main couple's relationship boring. I honestly thought I'd start my reviews with Scum Villain from this set. It was my first danmei and opened a whole new world to me. I still recommend it first for people wanting to give MXTX a try it's the most light hearted of the bunch and therefore a great entry into the deep world of danmei. HOB is in my opinion the best written of her novels though, despite the deserved good reputation GDC has (and its many adaptations). It just isn't for the faint of heart. I have no idea how a newbie can start with this one and wait for the next volume. This is an excellent story with amazing character development and it plays the long game with plot revelations. I truly think everyone should give it a read. Thst said, there are two story arcs (the flashback ones) that are what can only be described as pure pain. The agony is built upon itself in such a realistic way that it truly makes you as a reader believe in the logic of the world and empathize with Xie Lian even as you can see things fall apart before your eyes. I cannot in good conscience recommend a newbie for reading this story in anything but a binge session unless you can handle the cliffhanger wait of arcs 2 and 4. Please do read this story, even if you're a bit squeamish about angst (the payoff is worth it in the end, I promise!), but save yourself some anxiety and wait for the whole series to be translated first. Still willing to give it a shot here, fully aware of that warning? You won't be disappointed! What awaits you is an epic of gods, ghosts, redemption and yes, a beautiful love story of undying devotion. ["

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December 22, 2021 Verified Purchase