Media Round Up: Swooshy History

[forestofglory]

Here's some thoughts on things I've been reading and watching recently.

Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China
by Francesca Bray— This was so interesting! This book was divided into three seconds one on house, one on weaving and one on human reproduction, and it talks about how all of these intersected with women’s lives in late Imperial China.

The Liar’s Dice by Jeannie Lin— A novella in The Lotus Palace series featuring cross dressing and mystery! Very fun!

Star Trek: Prodigy episodes 1-2 —R and I watched the first two episodes of this and neither of us cared enough about it to want to watch any more.

Beryl and Sapphire episodes 7-23— This show is still very chaotic with each episode being a widely different story, but I’ve gotten used to it and now the chaos is fun. And sometimes we come back to the same storyline which makes things feel less bitty. These episodes have been cute and charming. One featured an actual love confession between two men!

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan— I was excited to read this YA novel based on Chinese mythology but it was a bit disappointing. I liked the reworking of Chinese mythology but I never clicked with the main character, and there was a fair amount of tedious YA love triangle nonsense and I never found either guy very interesting.

Servant Mage by Kate Elliott— I enjoyed this fantasy novella, the worldbuilding was interesting and fun. However this book was trying to pull out some surprises that I didn’t find very surprising, and could see the places the author was trying to leave blank so that the information that filled those spaces would be surprising, which just felt like not very stealthy sleight of hand trick.

Jun Jiu Ling episodes 1-7— I’ve been enjoying this historical chinese drama about a woman doctor (and secret princess) who is investigating the death of her father. There are a bunch of women who have complicated relationships with each other! I really love the grandmother! The fight scenes are a little too fast to be super swooshy, but still pretty fun. And there are some other bits that have lots of swoosh.

The Hidden Moon by Jeannie Lin— Another Lotus Place novel, this one is a direct sequel to Liar's Dice featuring the same couple. This one felt like the author had leveled up in research between writing this and the last one! It had some really nice texture. I also really liked the female lead here!

Comments

[oracne]

Thanks for the Jeannie Lin updates! I am behind on her stuff and it's great to see some commentary to help me pick my next one.

[forestofglory]

There's one more after The Hidden Moon that just came out! I have been trying not to read them all at once

[vintagewitch]

Oh no! Thanks for the head's up re: Daughters of the Moon Goddess. I saw that one at a bookstore recently and it definitely intrigued me. But sometimes the YA nonsense just gets to be too much for me.

[forestofglory]

I wanted to like it! Sadly the cool worldbuiling stuff could not make up for me not really caring about the characters

[cinnamonandpancakes]

I felt similarly to your thoughts on Daughter of the Moon Goddess when I read Six White Cranes by Elizabeth Lim, the world building was great and swan lake is a classic for a reason but the YA-isms were so tiring xD (I mention this because I've seen them recommended together a few times and so they have become linked in my head)

[forestofglory]

There seems to be a lot recent YA books written by authors form the Chinese diaspora and inspired by Chinese myths and legends. Which is great, but I struggle with the YA-ness of it all.

A while ago I stopped reading YA books with dead mom's which means I mostly stopped reading YA, which is probably for the best because I find a lot of YA troupes frustrating. The mom in Daughter of the Moon Goddess is alive but even though she's supposed to be a major motivating factor for the MC we rarely hear about her and the mother-daughter relationship is thinly drawn.

[cinnamonandpancakes]

Yeah, I think the YA-ness is what makes me so iffy about Iron Widow, even though I really loved parts. I love that publishers have realised there's a market for this, but I wish they would publish some swooshy adult fiction from Chinese diaspora too!

It's unfortunate to hear that the relationship wasn't utilised more, that sounds like it could have been a really good subplot :C

edit: also I realised it was six crimson cranes, not six white cranes xD

[rhysiana]

I'm so glad you're still enjoying the Jeannie Lin series!

I've really gotten to the point where I don't feel particularly bad about saying things written for a YA audience do not resonate with me anymore. I'm old(ish). My TBR list is long enough just with books about firmly adult characters now. It's okay.

[forestofglory]

There's a recent crop of Asian inspired YA in English that a lot of people I know are excited about. So I wanted to try one of them.

Right now I don't actually have huge backlog of pro published fiction to read, though I have lots of fic and non-fiction I want to get to.

[suncani]

Re daughter of the moon goddess, bah! A friend had recced it to me knowing I don't like love triangles and am a bit leery of YA more generally so somewhat disappointed to hear that. Was it worth reading at all?

Liar's Dice sounds interesting so I'm gonna go look up more about that. Edit: Do I need to read the series its set in or does it work as a standalone?

[forestofglory]

I did like Daughter of the Moon Goddess enough to finish it! The mom wasn't dead -- just sidelined and rarely thought about. And the setting was a lot of fun.

The series Liar's Dice is part of is romance series where each novel focuses on one couple so you could definitely start there!