Series: Heaven Official's Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu

Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 8

Posted November 11, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 8

Heaven Official's Blessing

by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 384
Series: Heaven Official's Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu #8
Rating: five-stars
Synopsis:

A BATTLE FOR FREEDOM, A LOVE FOR THE AGES

White No-Face’s mask is off, and the final conflict has begun. Deep in the ancient caverns and lava flows of Mount Tonglu, Xie Lian must face the one whose hatred has plagued him for centuries—but this time, he won’t have to do it alone. His beloved, Hua Cheng, has spent his long existence amassing the power to protect him, and now with their feelings for each other out in the open, they have all the more reason to fight for survival.

In this thrilling conclusion to Heaven Official’s Blessing, can Xie Lian and Hua Cheng triumph against an all-powerful foe?

Also included in this final volume are five bonus tales of romance, celebration, and adventure.

And here we are: I’ve run out of volumes of Heaven Official’s Blessing to read and review, unless the revised editions are made available in English. I’d be fascinated to see how much that adds to or changes the story, but I’m very satisfied with how it turns out as it is. Hua Cheng’s love for Xie Lian, and Xie Lian’s slow journey toward accepting it and returning the feeling is amazing — and it’s wrapped around and through a satisfying story about conflict between powerful beings, and the repeated testing of Xie Lian’s resolve to never change, to never be less than he is.

This volume has a few chapters left of the main story, and the rest is made up of extras. The conclusion is a heck of a thing, with some very heart-wrenching moments, and I find it very satisfyingly done.

The extras are a lot of fun, and include some very sweet moments. I must say that I do not understand how anyone can read these English language editions and think that Xie Lian remains a virgin once Hua Cheng returns. It’s blatantly obvious to anyone with an ounce of sense that the two of them are going at it on the regular, including on the altar in the Thousand Lights Temple. If you can’t even read into a thin veil of subtext, then it’s explicitly stated in the amnesia story: Xie Lian’s old method of cultivation is gone because he’s no longer a virgin.

I have no idea why people want to imagine that Xie Lian continues to be “chaste”. This is a man who has been through so much pain, sometimes unrelenting physical pain for years at a time due to his inability to die, and the most violating of situations (which it takes no effort at all to read as metaphorical rapes) — and folks are offended and weirded out if you suggest that ultimately he falls in love and allows Hua Cheng to show him that his body isn’t just a tool or a vessel for pain?

People can read the scene where an amnesiac Xie Lian dreams/remembers having sex with Hua Cheng, and Hua Cheng’s words to him during that memory (“don’t be afraid, Your Highness”), and refuse to understand what’s happening there?

Check yourselves and your homophobia and bizarre purity culture, folks.

I don’t want to end this review on that sour note, so I’ll just reiterate again: Heaven Official’s Blessing is a heck of a journey, a story about a very good (though not flawless) man who reaches great heights and falls, and struggles his way to redemption and then to freedom — with the help of someone who believes in him no matter what, and would do anything for him.

The one standing in infinite glory is you; the one fallen from grace is also you. What matters is ‘you’ and not the state of you. 

Rating: 5/5

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Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 7

Posted November 5, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 7

Heaven Official's Blessing

by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 404
Series: Heaven Official's Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu #7
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

LIFETIMES OF CRUELTY, CENTURIES OF DEVOTION

The Kiln is open, and White No-Face is back to his full power. The past eight hundred years have not blunted his hatred nor his obsession with Xie Lian — he aims to break Xie Lian down to nothing, even if all of humanity and the heavens themselves are collateral damage.

This time, however, Xie Lian will not face him alone. Together with Hua Cheng — powerful ghost king, stalwart protector, and devoted love — can Xie Lian finally reveal the face behind the mask and put an end to the nightmare forever?

It was perhaps a mistake to dash on and read book eight of Heaven Official’s Blessing before I wrote a review for book seven, but here we are, so I’ll do my best! And to be honest, I would recommend reading them that way too. Book seven is back in the “present” (after the flashback in book six), and it’s hurtling rapidly toward a final confrontation which takes up the first half of book eight (the latter half is extras). You won’t want to stop at the end of book seven, especially not given where it ends.

Book seven sees Xie Lian break out of the Kiln, reunite with Hua Cheng, return to the heavenly court, discover the big bad, play hide and seek with his captor around the heavenly court, and then essentially re-enact some Gundam series or other in an epic battle that takes him into Black Water’s domain. It’s full of action, and the end of the book isn’t really a natural break — it’s a cliffhanger moment, and it makes some sense to end a volume there, but as a reader it’s super annoying (and in terms of actual plot, there’s only half a book left).

This volume also sees Hua Cheng and Xie Lian comfortable in their feelings for each other (if not, in Xie Lian’s case, always happy with public displays of affection, or other people knowing about their relationship). More than ever, Hua Cheng’s total devotion is on show — and so is the answering strength his support wakens in Xie Lian. It’s lovely to read.

The story that’s been building over the previous six volumes is so satisfying at this point, with so many threads (which didn’t always tie together yet) coming together. I keep wondering when I’ll rate any given volume five stars, and it’s difficult to say: no volume alone makes me think “it’s perfect”; it’s the whole that gives me that feeling.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 6

Posted October 30, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 6

Heaven Official's Blessing

by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Romance
Pages: 403
Series: Heaven Official's Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu #6
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

BODY IN ABYSS, HEART IN PARADISE

White No-Face, Xie Lian’s greatest fear and most hated enemy, has arrived…or so it seems. While the ghost with the half-crying, half-smiling mask is somewhere nearby, the creature is elusive as always, taunting Xie Lian from just out of reach and promising the total destruction of everything he holds dear.

As Xie Lian confronts the trauma of his last encounter with the terrifying ghost, Hua Cheng will do anything in his power to protect him. But White No-Face’s identity and purpose are not the only mysteries to unravel, as Hua Cheng also has a history in the labyrinthine tunnels beneath Mount Tonglu. Will Xie Lian finally discover the full connection they share—and learn the true depths of Hua Cheng’s devotion?

The sixth volume of MXTX’s Heaven Official’s Blessing is certainly full of ups and downs. The first section, in the “present” of the narrative, answers a few mysteries and gives us a moment we’ve been waiting for since the first book: Xie Lian acknowledges Hua Cheng’s feelings for him, and indicates that he returns them. It’s a lovely, lovely scene…

And then we slip off into a flashback even darker and sadder than the first. It’s better-paced, in my opinion, but it’s an extremely rough read, as Xie Lian is manipulated and cast down by his people. He loses his way severely, and it doesn’t really help to know that he ends up being true to himself again — you still have to read about him going through it.

Reading it with an eye for metaphor, and remembering how important Xie Lian’s virginity is as a theme, it’s hard to avoid drawing parallels with the incidents on Beizi Hill in the first flashback, and reading the mass-stabbing as a literal and metaphorical violation, so it’s all a bit dark.

There’s important stuff in this volume, but the flashback is a really rough read. It’s hard to decide quite how to rate it — but the scene from the cover is so good it has to be a 4/5, even with all the misery of the flashback.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 5

Posted October 3, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 5

Heaven Official's Blessing

by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Romance
Pages: 465
Series: Heaven Official's Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu #5
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

LAST GHOST STANDING, FIRST LOVE BLOSSOMS

Ghosts are converging on the cursed Mount Tonglu for a massive battle royale, the sole survivor of which may become a Ghost King, a being of unimaginable power. Xie Lian is sent to secretly infiltrate and try to prevent this--by destroying any ghosts strong enough to stand a chance. His heavenly powers are weakened near the cursed mountain, but he has one trump card on his side--Hua Cheng, who has survived Mount Tonglu before. As they struggle against murderous ghosts and the mountain's strange defenses, Hua Cheng's knowledge of the area may prove invaluable. But can they even begin to unravel the cursed peak's secrets?

There are parts of the fifth volume of Heaven Official’s Blessing that just cry out for the soundtrack to be “Yakety Sax”. It’s amazing that I get along with MXTX’s books so well, given that isn’t an uncommon element, but somehow it just fits (at least, now that I’m used to it).

It’s hard to review each volume separately, to be honest; because they were designed to follow continuously from each other, and I’ve started reading volume six. So many little things are starting to add up, and there’s the whole mystery of Wuyong and why there are so many similarities between the story of its prince and that of Xie Lian.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned the internal art yet, but I do love it — and especially the image of Hua Cheng as a puppetmaster, looking tiny and evil while Xie Lian just smiles.

Of course, there are quite a lot of coincidences here, with certain other characters showing up, and I’m also crying out to know what happened to Shi Qingxuan. I trust that that plotline hasn’t been dropped entirely, but I want to know what’s happened now! So, as ever, I’m impatient to read on, and I don’t suggest you read volume five without volume six to hand.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 4

Posted September 20, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 4

Heaven Official's Blessing

by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 419
Series: Heaven Official's Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu #4
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

FATES ALIGNED, BODIES INTERTWINED

The Reverend of Empty Words, a monster that feeds off the fears of the fortunate, is hunting Xie Lian’s friend, the Wind Master Shi Qingxuan. Knowing that his abysmal luck inoculates him from the creature’s power, Xie Lian doesn’t hesitate to throw himself into harm’s way—to Hua Cheng’s horror and panic. But another one of the Four Calamities may be closer than anyone knows, and even a ghost as powerful as Hua Cheng can lose control under the right circumstances. With his inhibitions gone, will desire overtake him?

Volume four of Heaven Official’s Blessing certainly goes places! It continues the story opened in the previous volume, digging into what’s going on with Shi Qingxuan and the Reverend of Empty Words, but it also begins a plotline involving Mount Tonglu, and another involving Ling Wen. There are some pretty epic reveals… and it also seems like Xie Lian is beginning to realise that he has feelings for Hua Cheng, as well.

There’s no flashback in this volume, and it really helps with the pacing — along with the fact that Xie Lian never seems to stop. Sure, there are some lovely domestic scenes with Hua Cheng, but there’s also a lot of plot going on. It isn’t like The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, where it’s basically all about Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe — there’s a lot more sidequesting going on, which gives the characters time to breathe and develop, and also shows us a lot more of the world and how things work.

To be clear, I love SVSSS! Different things suit different books. It’s also not to say that the events don’t drive Xie Lian and Hua Cheng’s relationship, because there are absolutely developments there the whole time. It just feels like it’s driven more by other stories, in which Xie Lian and Hua Cheng play a part and which contribute to their story.

I’m excited for the stuff on Mount Tonglu, next!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 3

Posted September 8, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 3

Heaven Official's Blessing

by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 476
Series: Heaven Official's Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu #3
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

SOMETHING TO FIGHT FOR, SOMEONE TO LIVE FOR

Gods should never meddle in the affairs of mortals, but Xie Lian is not one to follow the rules when lives are at risk. He spits in the face of heaven and its laws and descends in a fury to save his country from drought and civil war. Yet this golden child gets a harsh dose of reality when he discovers just how little one individual—even a god—can do to save a crumbling nation. As the people reject and betray him, one young soldier stands by Xie Lian—a boy with a face wrapped in bandages and a fierce loyalty in his heart. In this chaotic past, can an unshakable bond grow from the ashes of unimaginable destruction?

Volume three of Heaven Official’s Blessing is very up-and-down. The first part is the conclusion of the second arc, which is an extended flashback filling in details of events we pretty much knew about already. Much as I liked seeing Xie Lian in an earlier stage of his life, that quickly palled. While I know the significance of seeing Honghong-er and the unnamed little soldier, and it was important to see Xie Lian fallible and foolhardy, and you gotta appreciate the rudimentary epidemiology (at least, you do if you’re me)… it feels like it all just took too long.

That said, the third arc hits the ground running and had me quickly grabbing volume four to continue the story. It feels like so much happens in the “present” arc, including a lot of delightful moments like the lanterns for Xie Lian and his utter freakout about the underwater “kiss”; the second arc really suffers in comparison to that as well, because the third arc is just one thing after the other, adventure leading into adventure… and of course, it also features more Hua Cheng. The second arc is predictable because it’s covering details we already know, and Hua Cheng isn’t present — at least, not in the way we know him by now.

In some ways, I feel like there was a similar problem in The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System. The character whose mind we most wanted to understand was Luo Binghe, but the narrative sticks close to Shen Qingqiu, who doesn’t understand what’s going on. Xie Lian is a different flavour of oblivious, but he’s still oblivious, and I really want to know what Hua Cheng is thinking.

Not that that relationship is the be-all and end-all — there’s also a fascinating story going on with other characters, which I’m excited to dig into. As ever, the cut-off happens mid-arc, so have volume four at the ready.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 2

Posted August 30, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 2

Heaven Official's Blessing

by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 438
Series: Heaven Official's Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu #2
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

THE TOUCH OF A HAND, A ROLL OF THE DICE

Xie Lian has confirmed that the bewitching youth San Lang is actually Hua Cheng, one of the Four Calamities and a supreme ghost despised by all heavenly officials. Still, he has trouble matching the terror of his companion’s reputation with the charming, clever, and protective young man he’s come to know.

When a distress signal leads Xie Lian into Ghost City, a bustling metropolis containing all the horrors and delights of the dead, he sees Hua Cheng in his element—and his true form—for the first time. But despite their chemistry and care for one another, there are missions to fulfill and secrets to uncover, and Xie Lian’s centuries of troubled history are never far behind.

The second volume of Heaven Official’s Blessing finishes up with arc 1 and begins arc 2: I can see why some readers complain that the volumes are split in weird places, but I think it’d end up with ridiculously chunky volumes and then really skinny ones if it was split by arcs or something, and I bet you people wouldn’t like that either. Still, I agree it feels weird that it’s basically one continuous story, and you can’t stop and feel satisfied at the end of a volume; that’s kind of unavoidable, given it was a webnovel first.

As with the first volume, I’m sure that there are critiques of the translation, but it’s pretty internally consistent and it’s definitely readable, and not significantly better/worse than the translation of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, for example. I believe the translators are different, but something of the underlying style does seem to come through — though at times I could do without it (stop yelling, Qi Rong).

The end of arc 1 gives us a visit to Hua Cheng’s domain, followed by some answers about Xie Lian’s past in the form of confronting Qi Rong, his cousin, with Hua Cheng figuring out what happened during an infamous and bloody event, and manipulating matters so that Xie Lian can no longer claim all the blame for himself. There are some really nice character/relationship moments there, and then act 2 begins, which seems to be all a long flashback to Xie Lian’s life before godhood (going into his first ascension afterwards, in book 3).

All in all I’m really enjoying it. There’s a lot more detail and complexity than in SVSSS, which makes sense since there are eight books in total. I fear how MXTX is going to torture Xie Lian and Hua Chung… but I’m all-in.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 1

Posted August 22, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 1

Heaven Official's Blessing

by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 417
Series: Heaven Official's Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu #1
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

A GOD FALLEN, A GHOST RISEN

Born the crown prince of a prosperous kingdom, Xie Lian was renowned for his beauty, strength, and purity. His years of dedicated study and noble deeds allowed him to ascend to godhood. But those who rise may also fall, and fall he does–cast from the heavens and banished to the world below.

Eight hundred years after his mortal life, Xie Lian has ascended to godhood for the third time, angering most of the gods in the process. To repay his debts, he is sent to the Mortal Realm to hunt down violent ghosts and troublemaking spirits who prey on the living. Along his travels, he meets the fascinating and brilliant San Lang, a young man with whom he feels an instant connection. Yet San Lang is clearly more than he appears… What mysteries lie behind that carefree smile?

As a lover of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, it was only a matter of time before I tried something else by MXTX. Heaven Official’s Blessing was what my hand met first when I reached to the shelves, and I was very quickly engrossed — so here I go, setting out on an eight-book journey. Though… I don’t think the books are divided in any particular thought-out way, because it feels like the first chapter of the next book follows immediately from the last. Which makes sense, since it was originally a webnovel, but could get frustrating if you were hoping for some resolution at the end of the volume.

I can’t comment on the translation quality, as I don’t speak the original language at all. What I will say is that translation is always an interpretation, and often requires some localisation, and that’s very tricky to get right and please everyone. I found the translation readable, though the unfamiliar names and traditions sometimes keep me on my toes trying to keep up. (I’ve been recommended the first season of the donghua, to help me get up to speed.)

The illustrations are cute, and I do enjoy the growing dynamic between Xie Lian and San Lang/Hua Cheng. Very excited for him to see Hua Cheng’s face. And Xie Lian seems like such a sweetheart — though I wonder if he’s going to be as clueless as Shen Qingqiu about his feelings. I have some suspicions about other characters, but maybe I’m jumping at shadows.

All in all, eager to continue!

Rating: 4/5

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