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This epic fantasy series based on Chinese mythology is one of the year's best fantasies.” — Buzzfeed
Why is the worldbuilding still so shoddy? Why does the immortal realm feel so tiny? How do the powers even work? Why is everyone able to just summon a cloud and travel wherever they want? Why do they conveniently forget this fact whenever it could be useful? What is the mortal realm? Is it only ancient China? Her debut, Daughter of the Moon Goddess, will be published by Harper Voyager in January 2022, with a sequel to come. It is an enchanting fantasy of love and family, immortals and magic – inspired by the beloved Chinese legend of Chang’e flying to the moon upon taking the elixir of immortality. I always envisioned the story as a duology, with Daughter of the Moon Goddess and Heart of the Sun Warrior, inspired by different elements of the core mythology.This story was great! I enjoyed the read and audiobook. Love is more complicated in this book as well as family. I loved the twists at the beginning and at the end. I enjoyed the men fighting for love. There's more actions and adventures in this story I believe. The ending was good but I was hoping the new Celestial King would also get a happy ending.
The author should've let him actually die in Book 1 if his character was going to be nerfed this hard in the name of a ship - and this is coming from someone who was rooting for Wenzhi! Just as, "A life without love was a night without stars" a world without books is a dream without words. On a positive note, I did really enjoy a step into a more grey, ambiguous morality from the noblebright foundation that the first book laid out. The world building and Sue Lynn Tan’s ability to make Chinese mythology real and tangible is very much admired.The writing in this book is just as lyrical and beautiful as the first, but it’s definitely more fluff than plot in this book. However, some of the dialogue didn’t flow and felt very unrealistic/unrelatable. There were numerous duplicate/repetitive moments and sentences where it made you feel like you were re-reading by accident. There were huge chunks from DOTMG repeated throughout this book. As a result, I felt absolutely no emotions from the characters, and everything felt like it didn’t have any actual weight to the story. My biggest disappointment with the writing is how such dynamic characters as Liwei (Emperor of the Celestial Kingdom), Wenzhi (King of the Mind Magic Kingdom), and her father (Infamous Slayers of the 9 Sun Birds) are depicted as useless, dumb man-children who exist solely for Xingyin’s protection and bidding. DOTMG had some instances where Xingyin was aggravating, but it was in stride with her character development for the most part. In HOTSW, Xingyin was down-right disgustingly aggravating, selfish, self-involved, immature, arrogant, and stupid. She pushed me to the point of not caring about this story on multiple parts. Throughout the book, every character, including Xingyin, points this out, but she arrogantly ignores them all. She’s always placing herself in the middle of every situation because she’s selfish and only cares about the one problem that’s in front of her. Problems arise because she doesn’t care about anyone or anything else during that time, and she has no foresight to see how this decision may impact quite literally anything else. Book one had her learn how to work with a team and depending on someone doesn’t make her weak. In book two, she forgot all of that.
Xingyin is always forced to defend the Emperor and fight on his side because "the Emperor is bad, but (insert villain) is worse". So now at the end of the story he is able to have a nice retirement and run free. I can't explain how problematic this portrayal is and I am slightly concerned regarding the author's political beliefs in real life. I’m not sure how to rate this book. It’s interesting. The magic is unique, but the dialogue, characters and romance are terrible.Heart of the Sun Warrior – set my heart ablaze . . . The Celestial Kingdom duology is phenomenal. It has unique characters, intricate storytelling, strong worldbuilding, and a beautiful romance to boot. I am sad to close the book on Xingyin’s story, but I will look to the future and be ready to read anything Sue Lynn Tan writes.” — The Quill to Live
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