Grandmaster of demonic cultivation review.
Because I need to get these thoughts out of my head.
Yesterday I finished the whole series of 5 books. To me this was the first Danmei story I read. I first encountered the animated adaptation years ago and thought it was neat. And when I saw that a new hardcover release with gorgeous art was being sold I jumped at the chance to read them.
This is my own opinion! If you have a different opinion, that is fine. We're all allowed to love what we love.
To me these books are not as amazing as people made them out to be. The story is being lauded as one of the best Danmei out there. But to me, not as much.
The premise itself is really cool and I can appreciate the backdrop of a different culture and their spiritual systems.
The writing is the first thing that threw me off. Which I kind of expected. The original Chinese script was probably hard to translate into English without certain aspects getting lost in translation. And once I got into the groove, I managed. It took me the longest time to wrap my head around the names and honorifics, but again, that was to be expected.
Wei Wuxian is a neat dude, but also a fucking asshole. He is always out to piss people off just for the fun of it. But he is also not completely self centered. He is okay.
Lan Wangji is my favorite and I like that he has flaws even though he is being described as perfect by everyone around him.
Everyone else is just so bloody frustrating and being willfully stupid. And I think I understand that it's supposed to showcase that people preaching they are pure and righteous and have a lot of wisdom succumb to prejudice and preconceptions of rank and virtue. But by God, volume 4 really had me fuming about the willfull stupidity of all these powerful men. And I am sorry, but the writing is not good! Volume 4 specifically was such a rough read because the composition of words was so terrible.
Also, the last volume gave me a right fright when Wei Wuxian tries to get a kinky session going whilst happily crying out "rape". As an avid anime watcher and manga reader I am not new to the tropes of purity and how actively trying to get away from sex is apparently really fucking hot or whatever. But by God! No!
In conclusion, I think I might be too old for this story. Do I regret reading it? No. It was something new. There were a few moments I really enjoyed. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji finally admitting their feelings for each other was lovely. The whole storybeat about Wei Wuxian freeing the remaining Wen clan was really nice. And Wei Wuxian frustrating high ranked cultivators and being smarter than them is always a blast.
But all in all I feel like this was a self published first story that was in dire need of more editing.
