A Tenipuri community

I appear to have read a bunch of danmei lately.

Legend of Exorcism vol. 1 by Fei Tian Ye Xiang
A bit meh about this. Nothing wrong with it, it's just not my cup of tea. It appears to be going in the direction of found family, so this might be a good fit for people who like that trope. It's not particularly a draw for me, which might explain my lukewarm reaction. Still, I'll probably read the next volume, too.

Ballad of Sword and Wine vol. 4 by Tang Jiu Qing
There are two ongoing danmei series where I always read the latest English release as soon as I can. This is one of them. I like military and court intrigue, and this one delivers.

Peerless vol. 4 by Meng Xi Shi
And this is the other series I always want to read ASAP. Also a plot-driven one with plenty of political intrigue, though this one is more focused on the mystery aspect -- figuring out what's going on with all these rebellious plots -- whereas Ballad of Sword and Wine has the main characters themselves right in the middle of all the plotting and rebelling.

How to Survive as Villain vol. 2 by Yi Yi Yi Yi
This novel has about as much dramatic tension as a worn-out rubber band. This is a transmigration novel that leans quite heavily into a kind of absurd humour which, you probably guessed it, is not my thing. By the end of vol. 1 I thought it was moving towards more serious direction. You know, "character transmigrates into a novel, treats is as a bit of a game, eventually realises that these people are real, things get more serious". Well, it didn't happen. Within a few chapters, vol. 2 was back to the silliness. Pleasant enough reading when you just want to hang your brain out to dry and relax, though. And luckily only three volumes long.

In addition to all the danmei, I also finished this:

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan
This is the second part of the Radiant Emperor duology, the first one being She Who Became the Sun. I have conflicted feelings about this. On the one hand, Parker-Chan created some very interesting characters in the first part of the series. On the other hand, I think having so many major characters and trying to follow them all and tie them to the plot is also its weakness, which became clear in this second part of the series. There isn't space to devote enough time to them (except maybe Zhu Chongba, who I unfortunately find the least interesting), so they are rather two-dimensional. It's tragic character after tragic character after tragic character, which becomes a bit repetitive.

Also, to me the most interesting relationships and the ones with the most interpersonal tension were the ones that revolved around Esen-Temur. (Warning: major spoilers for She Who Became the Sun follow.) Highlight for spoilers! *And then Esen-Temur died in the first book. To me, it was the most emotionally satisfying moment in the whole book. I thought the build-up and the resolution to the story-arc was really well written. But without Esen-Temur, much of the interpersonal conflict that drove Ouyang and Wang Baoxiang lost its dynamism and became stagnant. They felt the after-effects, to be sure, and it was those after-effects that drove them in this second book. I just don't think they were enough to carry these characters.*

There were good parts in this book too, sure -- I really liked the story arc with Wang Baoxiang and the Third Prince -- but IMO they weren't quite enough. YMMV.

With books like these, I often keep thinking about the things they didn't do well, and that is reflected here as well. That gives a distorted view of the books. Makes it seem like I think less of them than I do. And yet the reason I keep thinking about the weaknesses is because books like these are interesting enough to hold my attention. Mediocrity doesn't do that.

So, let me state this: even though it didn't quite live up to its potential, I thought this was an interesting book and a good debut series. I look forward to seeing what Parker-Chan does next.

Crossposted to booknook.

Title: Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control
Authors: Matthew Fellion and Katherine Inglis
Genre: non-fiction

As a consequence of realising that hey, interlibrary loans exist and are actually pretty cheap, I've been reading a book called Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control by Matthew Fellion and Katherine Inglis.

The book is a survey of the history of censorship of literature mainly in the UK and the US, presented through case studies of individual censored works, though many of the chapters discuss censorship of similar books more broadly. The oldest case is the censorship of the early English translations of the Bible; the newest the censorship of Chicanx literature in Arizona in the 2010s.

The book takes a broad view of censorship. It doesn't just deal with censorship by the state, but also other forms of censorship, such as self-censorship and the chilling effect that censorship exerts on the literary landscape as a whole.

I'm not going to talk about it in any great detail. It's really well-written -- very accessible to a lay reader, without feeling like it's been dumbed-down -- so go read it if the topic interests you.

( Some thoughts on censorship of literature based on this book )

I'll Have What He's Having by Adib Khorram
M/M romance. DNF'd in chapter 7. No complaints about the plot, the setting, the characters, etc. The reason for the DNF was the amateurish writing. It's got infodumping, characterisation with a capital C, cringy sex. I felt like I was reading Khorram's daydream about what a cool life would be like. And the frustrating thing is that I think all of these issues were solvable with the help of a good editor. As it is, it's not worth bothering with.

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer
This, on the other hand, is extremely worth bothering with, because it's fantastic. Sci-fi mystery/thriller, with a smattering of M/M romance. I recommend not spoiling yourself for the plot twist beforehand, though from experience I can say that even if you do get spoiled, it's still worth reading.

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
The second book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series, and just as good as the first. Mystery with thoughtful depictions of power, responsibility, and the danger of good intentions.

The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
DNF'd at 16%. This isn't so much an anti-rec as it is a warning, because I think The Game of Kings really requires you to have a better grasp of British history -- especially the Anglo-Scottish Wars -- than I do. It assumes you have a lot of background knowledge about the people and the events, and if you don't, it's often dull reading. It might have got more interesting later on, but there are too many books I really want to read for me to bother finding out.

Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
As far as I can remember, the only work by a Russian author that I'd ever read before this was a short story by Anton Chekhov, which we had to read at school. The reason I picked Kreuzer Sonata up was because I was going to see a ballet based on it soon after, and I'm glad I did. It deals with domestic violence, and yet it's a surprisingly easy read. Anyway, I've now read both a short story and a novella by a famous Russian author. What's next, a whole novel?

(The ballet was good, too, though I think the choreographer had mostly missed the point of the novella.)