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larryhammerIt's Wednesday, isn't it. Which means I could be doing a Reading Wednesday post -- and "if we can we must." Thing is, it's not a long post, for all I've been reading steadily. One thing shortening it is that while I've been reading from the Yuletide 2017 collection, I'm saving recs for another post; another thing is that I'm in the middle of two very long works, as Chinese web novels tend to be:
The first is continuing with Way of Choices by Mao Ni -- am up to chapter 403 (almost one-third in), where I'am being disappointed at breaking away from the climax of a tense, multistage confrontation for a couple chapters of exploring the political consequences of earlier events. It's the sort of cliffhanging that CAN be done well, but the greater world has to be at least as interesting as the battle. (Okay, so what's being shown is the stakes, but I'm still frustrated.) Not frustrated enough to give up the book, though.
The second is World of Cultivation by Fan Xiang -- another xuanhaun fantasy with a fun pun in the setup: Zuo Mo is a disgruntled young disciple who wants to get ahead by becoming the best danged farmer in the outer sect, but keeps getting sidetracked by spirit cultivation matters. (Being mysteriously possessed doesn’t help with the distractions.) Slow-building story, ramified world, and interesting characters make this a compelling read. That the translation is on track to finish around the time I catch up doesn’t hurt. Am up to chapter 333 (over one-third in). (Personal amusement: the lowest-level, most common method of long-distance communication is written on animated paper cranes.) Fair warning: this foregrounds women far less well than Way of Choices.
(And disclosing re-reading done for Yuletide, late last year: the second half of the Odyssey in Lang's prose translation, the Wife of Bath's introduction and the intro to her tale, and a couple dozen stories from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio in both Minford's and Giles's translations.)
---L.
Subject quote from Discount Armageddon, Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire).
The first is continuing with Way of Choices by Mao Ni -- am up to chapter 403 (almost one-third in), where I'am being disappointed at breaking away from the climax of a tense, multistage confrontation for a couple chapters of exploring the political consequences of earlier events. It's the sort of cliffhanging that CAN be done well, but the greater world has to be at least as interesting as the battle. (Okay, so what's being shown is the stakes, but I'm still frustrated.) Not frustrated enough to give up the book, though.
The second is World of Cultivation by Fan Xiang -- another xuanhaun fantasy with a fun pun in the setup: Zuo Mo is a disgruntled young disciple who wants to get ahead by becoming the best danged farmer in the outer sect, but keeps getting sidetracked by spirit cultivation matters. (Being mysteriously possessed doesn’t help with the distractions.) Slow-building story, ramified world, and interesting characters make this a compelling read. That the translation is on track to finish around the time I catch up doesn’t hurt. Am up to chapter 333 (over one-third in). (Personal amusement: the lowest-level, most common method of long-distance communication is written on animated paper cranes.) Fair warning: this foregrounds women far less well than Way of Choices.
(And disclosing re-reading done for Yuletide, late last year: the second half of the Odyssey in Lang's prose translation, the Wife of Bath's introduction and the intro to her tale, and a couple dozen stories from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio in both Minford's and Giles's translations.)
---L.
Subject quote from Discount Armageddon, Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire).