Guardian
by Priest
Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels, Mystery, RomancePages: 341
Series: Guardian #2
Rating:
Synopsis:THE SLEEPING GOD STIRS
As snow quietly covers Dragon City in the final days of the lunar year, patients writhing in pain flock to the hospital. Baffled doctors call upon Zhao Yunlan and his team for help. As the case unfolds, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan discover that one of the Four Hallowed Artifacts, the Merit Brush, has appeared in the Mortal Realm. In the wrong hands, its power can be transformative.
While each step toward the artifact only pulls the pair deeper into a vortex of mysteries, Zhao Yunlan keeps stumbling upon a name: Kunlun. Who is Kunlun, and what is his connection to the Merit Brush? As Zhao Yunlan closes in on the answer, will he also uncover the truth behind Shen Wei's knowing gaze?
Book two of Priest’sĀ Guardian gives us some major developments, both showing us who Zhao Yunlan really is and how he originally met Shen Wei,Ā and getting into more detail on the bigger plot that’s bringing that to light. I must admit I probably need to skim the details again, but there’s a lot going on and a whole mythology here to figure out, but the way things are getting on is pretty intriguing.
We do get some more glimpses of the lives of the side characters Zhao Yunlan works with, and also of his family — his discussions with his parents about his sexuality and his relationship with Shen Wei are well done.
Aaaand we get some progression on the horrific pining, with Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan moving toward an openly romantic relationship, with lots more pining and chemistry off the charts. I can’t wait to see how they sort themselves out and properly commit to something, with Zhao Yunlan aware of the history between them. I hope they get a really happy ending, given the tragedy that seems to have befallen them in the past. Only one more book for everything to resolve, and I can’t quite see how it can all be wrapped up in that time!
I do still dislike the way Zhao Yunlan (and maybe others) consistently call Daqing “fatty” and stuff like that, though. Sure, he’s a cat yao, not a human, but he’s a speaking character. I know that culturally it can come across differently, but it doesn’t seem to be meant positively here, so that’s worth being aware of.
Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)
I’m really on the fence about picking up book 2. I didn’t love book 1 (something about the way the different plot arcs were structured didn’t work with me). I also had some issues with some of the language (fatty, but also some of the ways Zhao talked put me off, especially when talking about other gay men)
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I’d say if you were put off with volume one, it wouldn’t get better in the second (I haven’t read the third yet). The tone and language etc are pretty consistent across the two, as is the plot structure.
I actually can’t remember any other gay men in the first volume; my memory’s a state sometimes, heh. But Zhao Yunlan has a habit of being really abrasive even with people he feels affection for (like Daqing), so it also wouldn’t surprise me. It’s not a character trait I enjoy, so he’s definitely not a favourite; Shen Wei is much more interesting to me… (and though IIRC he’s the one who’s kinda old-fashioned and weird about being gay, I will say that makes a certain amount of sense, for good character reasons that I don’t think are revealed in book one).
I did peek at your blog and since you’re new to danmei in general, I would say that danmei as a whole is more like where a lot of yaoi was 10-20 years ago in terms of roles, with gong/shou in place of seme/uke dynamics, so you may not love the genre as a whole. Those dynamics crop up a lot and are often considered immutable, even by authors who write quite well-rounded characters.
(In case you were curious why I usually write “Zhao Yunlan” instead of just “Zhao”, my understanding is that in Chinese culture one wouldn’t usually just refer to someone by their surname like that. Using both names works, or something like “Director Zhao”, which the book uses a lot. When I first started reading danmei that took a lot of getting used to, but it does help to keep the names straight since there are lots of similar-sounding names!)