Novel Stuff

Erm if you don't read mush online Chinese novels you can just ignore this post. Or if you do, but you read mainstream ones you can also ignore... Coz this post is going to be about novels I've read recently, which is not mainstream nor has it to do with CEOs... Since I've nothing else better to blog about anyway.

For some reason, although I choose books to read quite randomly, (It's sometimes recommended by my e-book app, or on less popular online forums. But mostly, I simply load e-books that are on offer and thus can be downloaded without having to purchase it. Although I can earn app credits simply by logging in every day, I mostly only pay for books I've read half way and like it. I don't purchase new e-books coz who knows, I might hate it and waste my credits.) this recurring theme kept popping up recently: reincarnation.

I dunno if it's my problem or what, but this is the third book with this reincarnation thing that I've read in this hols... Maybe it's because if you filter out CEOs, royalty, schools for rich kids... All that's left are slightly weird, un-mainstream ones, and reincarnation is not mainstream, I guess? And also, reincarnation books usually feature ghosts, deities and demons. Well it's reincarnation whaddaya expect? Also, reincarnation is usually paired with love stories, in a tragedy style, often with no endings or open endings, or they only get together after a long time. The good endings are usually that the characters remain inseparated even after being reincarnated.

So I shall now talk about those novels... scrolling through my book list (Yes I actually have a Word doc dedicated to links of books I've read. Useful when Nat/Pat asks for links/recommendations.) I realized that I've in fact read a total of 5 books on this not mainstream topic. I shall not give links coz either I've linked them before or it's too weird I don't want you to see it.

My current fav of all: 墨烬斋. I can't even give a description, it's just too complex. Almost as complex as Inception. I haven't really understand the whole book. But basically it's all about reincarnation and crossing dimensions. Fantasy with a satirical touch that makes you laugh occasionally. All the characters have live in them instead of falling flat. It's not romance, more of rediscovering yourself and reconnecting with your (dark) past.

2nd: 潼光. A love story about deities and demons. Contains a lot of conspiracies. Chim. But then again, all reincarnation stories are chim (too deep to truly understand). I really liked the book coz it remained suspenseful without being torturous. And also, keep in mind that whenever reincarnation is paired up with deities, the emperor that rules heaven is always the bad guy. But then, that shouldn't be surprising since even human emperors are bad anyway.

3. 奈何 I believed I mentioned this book many times recently. It's a tragedy disguised as a comedy! It's only ranked third coz it's less complex. I loved all the characters. But my fav one committed suicide. And also I liked this book coz the plot was loose. As in, the main plot isn't obvious. A romance actually, but there are lots of other stuff. But the ending is kinda confusing. If you stopped at the main book she ends up with guy A. But in the epilogue she ends up with guy B after three reincarnations together with A ._. The emperor thing applies even though this book has more ghosts than deities.

4. 三生三世，十里桃花. Classic deity romance. I finds it kinda boring but somehow it's really famous. The rule applies as well. Emperors are bad, trust me, but weirdly, not their sons/daughters.

5. I won't even bother to tell you the name of this book. The ending is too lame. I'm kinda upset that it ended so abruptly and in-elegantly, after following the progress so quite some time. But the author has nice style. But still the plot sucks. In the ending... guy A & guy B turns out to be the reincarnations of same deity, whose soul was somehow split by the emperor as a punishment... Again, the golden rule applies. And that deity reincarnate after A & B all die... The female character says that she wants A & B back, and the deity actually does as she says by splitting his soul again coz he loves her =.= but then she still cannot decide whether she wants to get together with A or B.Such a bad case of split personalities, huh. My fav supporting character, C, ends up totally ignored. The author didn't even bother to mention him again. D, also a character I like, turns out to be a spy and is killed. I don't get why the author made it that way, it doesn't actually helps the plot, maybe she just wanna get rid of him. Worst ending ever.

And somehow, complex storylines never stop at romance or country politics, they usually include family secrets. Dark ones too. Why is that so, I wonder? Is it because every family has a skeleton in the closet? Or simply because the secret people finds most shocking is never about UFOs or terrorists, but about their own families? Hmm.