Tang Qi

4/10
The second half of this book was better than the first, mostly because I finally got accustomed to the style and the various gods, emperors, concubines, etc.; the story became more coherent. I found the style very off-putting, but I can’t say whether that’s due to the translator or the original author. Some of the word choices seemed too modern for this kind of Chinese fable/myth.

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This takes a little to get into, but once things start becoming clearer, it is a deep and rich romantic fantasy.

Dropping my review from 5 stars to 1 because this book was plagiarized. See: https://hamster428.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/plagiarism-allegations-against-tqgz/. Keeping the original review text below as it applies to the original story, Peach Blossom Debt by Da Feng Gua Guo.
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This was splendid, and perfectly captured the the feel, breadth, and scale of an actual story from Chinese mythology. This was a wildly ambitious story to tell, and Tang (and the show more translator, Toland) pulls it off spectacularly. Western readers may experience severe culture shock. This story is firmly rooted in Chinese mythology, particularly about the highly complex and hierarchical structure of the immortals and gods who live in Heaven. Tang dives right into the story with little to no introduction of the world, and those who are unfamiliar may have a steeper learning curve than others. The pacing is also different from most Western fantasies, and perfectly mimics the old Chinese folktales. The pace is slower and the plot development more circuitous. (But everything connects! Promise!)

I loved this a lot. I got sucked into the story and just didn't want to leave. I loved seeing Tang's interpretation of the Heavenly Kingdom, and how she weaves in different elements of classical mythology. I loved all the characters, particularly the two main ones, Bai Qian and Ye Hua, and Ali, who was a delight. The plot is also delightfully twisty.

This is a brilliant story. And the translation was gorgeous and lyrical. I really hope to see more by this author translated into the English. I would definitely read them.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. show less

5 stars based entirely on seeing 3L3WTMPB!
YeHua and BaiQian foreverrrrrr. LOL