Guardian the novel
3 Jul 2020 20:34![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
extrapenguinI read it today and yesterday, all 106 chapters, and ... idk. I guess I'm suffering from hype backlash?
I got into the Guardian (TV) fandom back in the autumn of 2018, when the prevailing mood was that the drama sucked and was the worst and the novel was much better. I disagreed with the criticism leveled at the drama, and didn't really think much about the novel, save that the translation available then was unreadable for me.
Fastforward to now. I decided to read through the novel, since an edited version was available, if only for the sake of the character discussion posts and a novel dramatis personae. It was engaging, and the edited translation readable; it's just that it ... well. I keep thinking about the late 2018/early 2019 criticisms of the drama, and can't help finding them even more unfair since they're comparing the drama to this.
All of my favorite scenes from the drama are drama-original. The novel is quite honestly terrible at foreshadowing (I went in spoiled for a number of things but saw not even any only-foreshadowing-in-retrospect stuff) and the vast majority of scenes were at the wrong level of internality to actually stir up any emotions. (Some of this might be the translation, but then again, one of the author's subsequent works is much better in both respects despite having a worse translation.) My end verdict is that it's a solidly executed Junior Gets Educated By Senior, Forms Attachment, Tops Senior BL novel with a cool yet underexplored twist on traditional Chinese mythology. Shen Wei especially felt like I'd read 15 iterations of him already back in my early 2018 binge of translated cnovels. This is fine if you're into those tropes, but I guess I was at least subconsciously expecting something more transcendent after all that comparison bullshit and hype.
I got into the Guardian (TV) fandom back in the autumn of 2018, when the prevailing mood was that the drama sucked and was the worst and the novel was much better. I disagreed with the criticism leveled at the drama, and didn't really think much about the novel, save that the translation available then was unreadable for me.
Fastforward to now. I decided to read through the novel, since an edited version was available, if only for the sake of the character discussion posts and a novel dramatis personae. It was engaging, and the edited translation readable; it's just that it ... well. I keep thinking about the late 2018/early 2019 criticisms of the drama, and can't help finding them even more unfair since they're comparing the drama to this.
All of my favorite scenes from the drama are drama-original. The novel is quite honestly terrible at foreshadowing (I went in spoiled for a number of things but saw not even any only-foreshadowing-in-retrospect stuff) and the vast majority of scenes were at the wrong level of internality to actually stir up any emotions. (Some of this might be the translation, but then again, one of the author's subsequent works is much better in both respects despite having a worse translation.) My end verdict is that it's a solidly executed Junior Gets Educated By Senior, Forms Attachment, Tops Senior BL novel with a cool yet underexplored twist on traditional Chinese mythology. Shen Wei especially felt like I'd read 15 iterations of him already back in my early 2018 binge of translated cnovels. This is fine if you're into those tropes, but I guess I was at least subconsciously expecting something more transcendent after all that comparison bullshit and hype.