In the
second volume, the reincarnated prince Jing Shao sets out to handle war campaigns
that almost cost him his life the first time round. And now the war has come years
earlier, so he can’t be sure it goes the way he remembers. But this time, he has
his gentleman wife, Mu Hanzhang, with him as a strategist, keeping their
marriage a secret from everyone.
From the
start, things go differently. Mu Hanzhang uncovers a large case of embezzlement
that had led to Jing Shao’s downfall in his first life. And Jing Shao is able
to recruit a warrior that almost singlehandedly turns some battles for him. The
war proceeds fast and the prince is victorious. But he can’t afford to give the
emperor a notion that he’ll use his success as an attempt to usurp the throne.
So it’s time to strategize with the knowledge he has from his first life. But Mu
Hanzhang is starting to become suspicious of his knowledge.
Jing Shao’s
generals are impressed with Mu Hanzhang, but they’re wondering why the prince
spends his nights at the strategist’s tent. There are some comedic moments as
the couple tries to keep their relationship secret and the generals try to
uncover things. There are plenty of bedroom moments for everyone to realise
what’s going on. There’s also a cute tiger cub Mu Hanzhang
adopts that adds to the sweetness, though they could treat him a bit better.
This was a
good volume. It’s fast-paced and well-written, and there’s plenty of action.
The battle scenes are especially good and not too drawn out. Jing Shao and Mu Hanzhang are very much in love, so the romance doesn’t bring tension
to the story. The volume ends at a tiny cliffhanger, but I doubt anything comes
of it either. Overall, despite all the wars, the stakes remain pretty low and
conflicts are handled fairly easily. A lovely low-angst read.
After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine vol. 2 by Liu Gou Hua
The second volume of the story of Jiang Suizhou, a modern-day history professor who has
transmigrated to past, continues where the first left off. As Prince of Jing, the
sickly brother of what he knows to be the last emperor of the current dynasty,
he uses his knowledge of what’s to come to change the outcome more favourable
for himself.
Jiang
Suizhou’s main aim is to try to prevent Huo Wujiu, the enemy general who’ll
eventually be victorious, from killing him, as he knows will happen. He’s a bit out of his depth with Huo Wujiu though, because the present reality doesn’t match the
history records. Huo Wujiu is his prisoner and his concubine, like a paper he
was grading before he transmigrated suggested, much to his anger.
Huo Wujiu is badly injured because of the
torture he’s been submitted to. Jiang Suizhou, together with his two advisors, both pretending to be his
concubines, have come up with a plan to find a doctor for him. Jiang Suizhou
will fall gravely ill—thanks to a poison—and when the imperial doctors are
unable to heal him, he can summon his own doctors.
The plan
works better than he could believe. The doctor is capable and in no time at
all, he can make Huo Wujiu’s legs work again. Not that they tell Jiang Suizhou.
And he tells Jiang Suizhou that his sickly constitution is because of poisoning
in his childhood and can be reversed.
The second
volume was full of court intrigue. Jiang Suizhou is busy trying to thwart the
schemes of the emperor’s uncle, the Grand Chancellor. He’s successful, but it
brings the chancellor’s wrath on him. Soon, his life is in danger. Luckily for
him, Huo Wujiu isn’t as helpless as he appears.
But the
best part of the second volume was the development of the relationship of Jiang
Suizhou and Huo Wujiu. It emerges during long hours when Jiang Suizhou sits by
Huo Wujiu’s bedside when he suffers from the effects of the healing process,
and blossoms in their scheming against the emperor. There’s still secrets
between them and many misunderstandings of each other’s intentions, but some sweet
moments too. And the ending brings clarity to one thing: Jiang Suizhou has
definitely caught feelings.
This
continues to be well-written and entertaining. There’s nothing unnecessary, no
fillers and no repetitions. The characters are well-formed and the plot is
interesting. The romance is slow-burn, but worth rooting for. I’ll definitely
read more.
Field Guide for the Formerly Villanous by Autumn K. England
Oaklin
Nettlewood is trying to rebuild their life after years in a brainwashing evil
cult that has left them without most of their memories and a fear of using
their magic ever again, in case it’s used for evil. They buy a small farm in a quiet village with a vague notion that they come from a farming family—and how
difficult can it be anyway.
It’s not an
easy start to a new life. Oaklin isn’t a sociable person to begin with and
their fear that people of the village will find out they’ve been in a hated cult
prevents them from even trying to make friends. But the people of the village
have different ideas. They pull them in, and despite themself, they find
warming up to their new friends. There’s even a special person they think might
be more than a friend—even though she’s a member of a church that used to hunt
evil cultists like them. But then inquisition arrives to the peaceful village
to hunt former cultists, plunging Oaklin back into despair.
At home on
the farm, things aren’t as simple as they hoped either. The ghost of the
previous owner still resides there, which turns out to be good, because she
knows everything there is to know about farming the place. The bad thing, for
Oaklin, is that farming the place requires magic, which they’ve sworn off for good.
But the no-nonsense granny is exactly what Oaklin needs to get over their trauma.
Field Guide for the Formerly Villanousis a
lovely, feel-good cozy fantasy. It’s a pleasant read, where all characters are
nice, good and extremely understanding, but not too twee. Oaklin’s trauma is
real and heartfelt, and it’s not glossed over or brushed away. They have to work
their way through it. Luckily, they have the ghost and their friends to help
them. Characters are mostly non-binary or gay, and it’s never questioned, so
the world—a rural pre-industrial society with magic—is diverse and accepting. The
ending is conclusive and good, but this appears to be the first book in a series,
so we’ll get to read more about Oaklin’s adventures as a farmer. Or maybe we get the stories of the side characters, like Ryn and Jules’s. I would read it.
I received
a free book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Radiant Star is part of the Imperial Radch series, but a stand-alone. While it’ll work
best if the reader knows the world and the previous events, it can—to an extent—be
read as a stand-alone too. It’s set during the timeline of the original
trilogy, but it’s only tangentially touched by those events.
Planet Aai is
drifting in space without a sun, completely encased in ice. But it’s inhabited, and the city of Ooioiaa is a thriving underneath the ice. The ecosystem
is delicate though, and the planet is heavily dependent on outside provisions.
The culture and society are delicate systems too, which the Radchaai discover a
bit too late after they conquer the planet.
Thirty
years after the arrival of the Radchaai, the planet finds itself cut off the
rest of the universe. Since there’s no communication and no way to travel in
and out of their space, they don’t know what’s happening or how long it’ll last,
and there are no provisions. The Radchaai governor realises that food will soon
become scarce and introduces the Radch food stable, a fast-growing algae, into the
ecosystem. At first, it works fine. And then the ecosystem collapses and the
governor has a famine at her hands.
The
governor has other problems too. The local religion that worships the Radiant
Star, waiting for its return, is fractured into sects that are constantly fighting,
and she has to share space with them. An introduction of the last saint—a practice
the governor is trying to end—pushes matters to a point, destabilising an
already fragile society.
Within this
framework of a city on a brink of collapsing, three people emerge. Speaking Savant
Keemat, who becomes convinced that they should be the last saint; Jonr, a neglected
son of a consoror system who was supposed to be shipped out of the planet
before the Radchaai arrived, but who has been stuck in a stasis pod for three decades, only to emerge to a changed world with no place in it; and Iono, whose
father is supposed to be the last saint, which pushes him into a personal
crisis and questionable choices. Other characters feature too, but these three
are the main stories. Everything is narrated by an all-knowing, unknown person
years after the events of the book.
The stories
are, in a way, about small personal goals that either work or fail. They don’t come
to a point simultaneously, and only Keemat gets the ending they wish and work
for. Iono, who isn’t a very likable character, gets what he has coming, but
also not. Jonr’s story is the one I had highest hopes for, but it ended up
being the most neglected one. It doesn’t really lead to anything but a status
quo for him, nor does it have any impact on the overall plot. We don’t even get
a last chapter or epilogue from his POV, nor do we learn what had happened to the consoror he’s in charge of.
The chaos that
the planet finds itself in comes to a surprisingly peaceful closure soon
enough. Nothing much changes on the planet in the end. The Imperial Radch has
changed, but that doesn’t really impact the story here. All the solutions to
the governor’s problems seem a bit like deus ex machina, as the narrator
divulges information as they see fit, the actual plot happening behind the
scenes. Most of the time, the plot was revealed backwards, after the fact.
This was
perhaps the simplest, most straightforward book in the series so far, and most
readable and easiest to follow. Ancillaries featured, but weren’t a POV
character, so there were no complicated scenes where the reader had to follow many
events at once. The plot was simple, about the consequences of meddling with the
ecosystem. The characters were mostly grey and a bit difficult to root for, except
for Jonr who deserved all the best. The problems solved fairly easily and I
kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the book ended.
This was an engaging
book, but it wasn’t mind-blowing like the previous ones have been. But
anything Leckie writes in this universe will interest me, and I’ll definitely
read more.
This is a
light novel with a time travel/transmigration plot. Mitaelshuroxa, an Elder
Dragon, has lost bitterly at the hands of the Blade Saint who has butchered her
entire people. When he goes for a killing blow, she activates a device that
allows her to jump back in time. She intends to kill him before he has a chance
to become so powerful even a magnificent Elder Dragon cannot defeat him.
She finds
herself on the grounds of a magic academy, in a realm with no
dragons, 17 years in the past, still badly hurt and trapped in human form, with
almost no mana to defend herself. She’s rescued by Karen, a Guardian (in
training) who offers her an asylum at the school. The only catch is, she has to
pretend to be a human named El—and wear a dog collar that restricts her power.
It’s almost too much to bear, but she doesn’t have to endure it long, because
the Blade Saint goes to the same school and a practice duel is conveniently set
between them, so she can kill him and leave. Things don’t go as planned though,
and instead, she finds herself fighting a stronger enemy with him.
This was a
good start to a series, fast-paced and humorous, with no romantic plot whatsoever so far. There are several POV characters,
each with their own mission and distinctive voice. El was grumpy and cranky, though she was only 15 in her own realm too, and powerful despite the restrictions. Karen was saved from being annoying by her sense of humour. Villains were truly bad, with their POV chapters too.
The first half had all the
annoyances of a light novel with details changing between one scene and the
next, and girls’ obsessing with the size of their boobs, but when the Blade
Saint, Ca’al finally showed up, the narrative changed gears. He had a good,
tragic backstory that was written like it belonged to a different book, and it
elevated the story from three stars to four. Fight scenes on the latter
half of the book were well-written too.
The volume
ends at a natural place with no cliffhangers. But the epilogue sets the stage
for the next book, revealing a new villain. I might read more (if there is more), but the first
volume formed a satisfying whole, so I can leave it at this too.
There are no translation notes, so this appears to be an English original. I don’t know if the author is western or Japanese, but they can write in the style of light novels well.
I received
a free copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
