Case File Compendium Vol. 4 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Case File Compendium vol 4 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou

Volume four did something I thought could never happen: reduced the hostilities between He Yu and Xie Qingcheng. Not easily and completely, but it’s a step in the right direction if one wants a happy ending for the men.

The volume continues from where the previous left, with the men about to drown inside an airtight chamber. Since they think this is their last moment, Xie Qingcheng tells the younger man his greatest secret. It’s nothing I had imagined. And then they’re saved at the last moment. Now that they’re alive, the truth completely changes how He Yu sees him. The same isn’t true for Xie Qingcheng.

They agree to stay apart. Easy for Xie Qingcheng, but impossible for He Yu. Even when Xie Xue falls ill, clearly because of the illegal drug He Yu’s been affected with, Xie Qingcheng doesn’t contact He Yu. But He Yu finds about it anyway and decides to investigate. Eventually, he has Xie Qingcheng roped into it too.

But the shady organisation is constantly one step ahead of them. Every time He Yu thinks he’s about to have a breakthrough, the clue is removed, usually with violence. Until he stumbles onto one that even the masterminds haven’t come to think of. It sends the men to a remote village, which turns out to be the home village of many players they’ve come across so far. It can’t be a coincidence.

As they investigate, they find a crime that has nothing to do with them or the case, but which the perp wants to keep secret anyway. It puts the men in mortal peril once again. The volume ends with a cliffhanger, with Xie Qingcheng on his last breath.

This was the best volume so far. Focus was on the men and their relationship, with only brief glimpses of other players, which weren’t terribly important. He Yu is mostly sane, and while he still wants to force Xie Qingcheng to have sex with him, he manages to stop himself. He’s found a new truth about his relationship with Xie Qingcheng and he has no idea what to do with it. For his part, Xie Qingcheng is starting to see He Yu in new light. Not enough to forgive him yet, but maybe he doesn’t hate him as much anymore. I’m eagerly waiting to find out how that turns out.

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett

In the third Emily Wilde book, it has come time for Emily and Wendell to claim back his kingdom in the faerie. The book picks up right where the previous ended, with the same journal entry, as the pair go through the door to faerie. They prepare for the worst, but everything goes well.

Too well, it turns out. Because the former queen has put a curse on the land which kills the nature, and it’s spreading. Emily must head back to the human realm and search for suitable fairytales to find out what kind of curse it is and how it’s broken. She even has surprise help from Professor Rose and her niece Ariadne.

And they find the solution. Problem is, someone has to die for it. Back to research it is. And it turns out, you can cheat death and change the story. But the fairytales don’t like it. At all. To stop things from becoming even worse, Emily has to get help from someone who might want her dead to rescue someone who definitely does.

This was another great story. Stakes were high and academic research was on point. Emily had less trouble in faerie than she feared, but she was happy for a chance to stay in the human realm too. Wendell was as attentive of her as ever, even more so now that his magic is properly back. (Endless journals for Emily.) The ending was good, if this was the last book, but as it sent the pair on yet another research expedition, there’s room for more books of their adventures too. I’d definitely read them.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison

The Orb of Cairado wasn’t on my reading list for this month, solely because I didn’t know it existed. It came out at the end of January and I’d completely managed to miss all mentions of it beforehand whilst waiting for The Tomb of Dragons to be published in March. It’s book 1.1 in The Chronicles of Osreth series, aka The Goblin Emperor world, a novella that takes place at the same time as the first book.

The explosion of airship Wisdom of Choharo that kills the emperor at the beginning of The Goblin Emperor also kills its captain Mara Lilana, the best friend since their childhood of Ulcetha Zhorvena. His widow finds a random map in an envelope addressed to Ulcetha, who after a brief bemusement realises it’s the first clue of a mystery.

Ulcetha is a former historian second class at the University of Cairado, but he was accused of stealing a priceless artefact and was thrown out of academia. Mara’s clues lead him to where the artefact had been hiding all these years, which only leads to another puzzle: how did Mara know it’s there when he’s not an academic nor knows anyone in academia.

Ulcetha also faces the dilemma of returning the artefact so that he’s not accused of stealing it again. The historian first class he contacts is very helpful though. The artefact is a map to The Orb of Cairado, a relic of great importance, and together they travel to unearth it and a treasure buried with it. As a reward, Ulcetha gets his academic position back.

But the original mystery won’t leave him alone. Who stole the artefact in the first place? Because it could only have been one of his fellow historians. Finding the answer changes his life forever.

This was an amazing novella in a sense that events that could’ve easily filled a full-length book took place during nine chapters and about a hundred pages, effortlessly and without rushing. It has a satisfying three act structure, and nothing was lacking, information or descriptions. The mystery was perhaps easily solved, once Ulcetha put his mind to it, and key witnesses didn’t waste anyone’s time by denying knowledge, but even that came across as the way it should be. And while the thief was easy to guess, I for one didn’t foresee the answer to how Mara had known about it.

Ulcetha was like all the main characters in this series, an underdog trodden by life, but kind, resilient, and just (even if he worked as a forger). In a world of elves and goblins, it would’ve been nice to know which one he was (or I missed the clues), but in the end it was more important to know that he wasn’t an aristocrat like the other historians, the reason they so willingly believed he was the thief. The ending sets him on a new path. Maybe we encounter him later again. I would like that.

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Emily Wilde's Map of th Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands is the second book in Fawcett’s delightful alt-history series set in 1910s academia. Emily Wilde is a researcher in dryadology that studies fairies and other mythological beings that aren’t mere folktales in this universe. She’s a resourceful, no-nonsense woman in her early thirties, and the books are narrated as her journal entries.

In the first book, she conducted field studies in Norway with her colleague and academic rival Wendell Bambleby, but it turned out he’s not a human but an exiled king of a fairyland. He’s joined academia because he’s searching for the door to his dominion. The two became romantically involved and he even asked for her to marry him. She didn’t give him an answer.

In this second book, the pair sets out to search for the door. Emily has become convinced that a researcher who disappeared in the Austrian Alps fifty years earlier had found a nexus that is a door to several places simultaneously, Wendell’s kingdom included. All they have to do is trace her footsteps.

Joining them is their head of department, Professor Rose, who doesn’t trust her research methods, and Emily’s niece and assistant, Ariadne, who is a bit afraid of her and a lot afraid of Wendell, after learning who he truly is.

They find themselves in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere surrounded by borderlands to fairy and with people who are at least partially fay themselves. Finding the door isn’t easy though, even if the villagers can pinpoint the exact place where the researcher disappeared, and have seen her wandering around for decades, lost in the fairylands. Making things even more difficult are the hostile or mischievous fairies attacking or hindering them, and the assassins sent by Wendell’s step-mother who has usurped his throne.

The biggest problem is, however, that Wendell has been poisoned by the assassins. They try everything to cure him, but in the end the only solution is for Emily to travel to his kingdom for a special cure. It’s never wise for a human to go to fairy, and less so when the place is ruled by the person who wants them both dead.

This was another great book. I like Emily’s dry academic tone with which she records everything, with footnotes, and her unwavering belief in herself. Wendell is funny with his fastidious ways, and his devotion to Emily is heartwarming. Professor Rose was a good addition, if annoying at times, and Ariadne was nice, even if she didn’t really rise from the background.

The story flowed smoothly, helped by Emily’s habit of recording only the pertinent. That lowered the tension during the action scenes though, as she left a lot unsaid, but it made the overall feel of the book cozier. And she finally gave her answer to Wendell’s proposal too. Onwards to the next book.

January reading recap

As a new thing this year, I decided to start summarising what I’ve read each month. I read a lot of manga that I only review on Goodreads, some of them review copies, and I’d like to give them a wider audience.

In January, I read and reviewed 24 books, 22 of which were mangas/manhwas. Well, Dawn of the Dragon vols. 1-2 I’d read as a webtoon on Lezhin last year, but they have entries on Goodreads now, so I added them there.

Eight of my reads were review copies for NetGalley and Edelweiss, plus I started but didn’t finish one review copy that I didn’t like. Only one review copy was a novel, Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao, an interesting but not entirely satisfying read. 

The rest were mangas/manhwas. My favourite was I'm Here, Beside You, Vol. 1 by Tea Natsuno, a second chance high school romance where the main character finds himself back in his high school body. Hell Is Dark with No Flowers, Vol. 1 by Ruka Todo was also interesting, a paranormal manga of a young man who can see criminals as monsters, so he ends up working for an envoy from hell who punishes the monsters. Men of the Harem, Vol. 1 by Yeongbin is, despite its name, a court intrigue fantasy.

Of the reads that weren’t review copies, my favourite novel was, unexpectedly, Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture, Vol. 5 by Mikage Sawamura. It’s a comfort read series that hasn’t failed me yet. I also started, but didn’t finish yet Remnants of Filth vol 5 and Ballad of Sword and Wine vol 3. Those I will read and review here eventually.

A favourite manhua was Sanctify by Godstation about an exorcist trying to solve two massacres that have happened decades apart. It was advertised as a romance, but it’s definitely not that. You can read my Goodreads reviews here: vol. 1, 2, and 3. 

On the lighter end of manga spectrum were My Kitten is a Picky Eater Vol. 2 by Migiri Miki, and Otaku Vampire’s Love Bite, Vol. 2 by Julietta Suzuki. Both fun and cute. Mobsters in Love by Chiyoko Origami finished with vol. 3. It was a good ending. And vol. 2 manhua of Dinghai Fusheng Records by Fei Tian Ye Xiang came out last month too.

Mostly though, I’ve been binge reading Solo Leveling by Chugong & Dubu, of which I read vols. 4-8. I’ve been reading it on Tappytoon, but reviewing volume at the time on Goodreads. You can read my reviews at: 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.  I’ve also started other similar manhuas there, but those haven’t progressed to reviewing state yet, on top of which I’ve continued reading Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint by singNsong and all the ongoing series on Lezhin.

All in all, a fun reading month, even if I didn’t read or finish all the review copies of novels I was supposed to. I have three novels and several mangas waiting to be reviewed in February. Hopefully I’ll do better this month.