Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 1

It's confusing in the beginning, specially if you're not familiar with Chinese stories, the names might be confuse at first, but then you get used to it. The plot is grate and the story it self is very compelling and refreshing. Recomend.

Desde que ví esta historia en su adaptación animada, quise tener estos libros y leer esta clase de historias danmei, definitivamente es una historia muy preciosa, las ilustraciones son muy hermosas, y el primer encuentro entre ambos protagonistas es todo lo que está bien, espero tener este año toda la historia completa, ya que es una historia muy bella y que una historia con personajes lgbt+ puede estar muy bien construida en cuanto la complejidad de la trama y el desarrollo de los personajes sin tener nada forzado, algo que he admirado de varios autores japoneses y en este caso de la autora china, que donde quiera que esté le doy las gracias totales por escribir esta maravillosa historia llena de fantasía, aventura y buena representación

I bought this book for my friend's birthday and I'm pleasantly surprised, not only did the book arrive far, far earlier than I was told, but everything was good quality! The book's design is simply stunning and had great amount of beautiful details. The book was very durable too! Overall it was so pretty so I was tempted to buy another for myself, I'll decide in the future. ☺️

Me encanta, necesito los otros

The book came late but is so pretty that the waiting was worth it. Waiting for the second one

Llego muy bien protegido . Sin incidencias

El libro físico vino bien empaquetado, y tardó poco en llegar, siendo muy puntual en el día previsto.En sí la historia engancha muchísimo, y está todo perfectamente escrito y narrado. A pesar de que ya conocía lo que pasaba en este primer libro debido a que vi antes el donghua, me he visto envuelto en la historia y los personajes están maravillosamente escritos. Además, la forma en la que está escrita la novela hace que sea muy llevadera y divertida, y que no se haga muy pedante por el hecho de estar en inglés siendo hispanohablante. También, las ilustraciones y la edición del libro hacen que ya no solo lo escrito sea maravilloso, sino que también lo sea el arte que lo ilustra. Estoy acabando el segundo volumen, y acabo de comprarme el tercero para no esperar a seguir la historia porque estoy enganchadísimo.En resumen, me ha encantado, está todo muy pulido y se disfruta cada párrafo. Gracias MXTX por esta maravilla. Cuando acabe con TGCF definitivamente leeré más de sus novelas.

L'animé étant magnifique, certains pourraient être rebutés par la version papier. Quelle erreur ! Le roman est une pépite, tout comme MDZ (précédent roman de l'auteure que je recommande également vivement, récemment traduit en français sous le titre Le Grand maître de cultivation démoniaque). Tout comme MDZ, les personnages, les liens entre eux sont complexes et tellement bien travaillés qu'on a l'impression de sentir l'emprunte de leur aura. Je ne suis pas très fan des romances en général mais ici l'histoire d'amour est si bien mêlée à l'histoire épique, tragique du héros qu'on se laisse entrainer avec plaisir. Il faut continuer à lire les prochains tomes, certains passages (pour ne pas dire beaucoup) feront hurler votre petit coeur...

There's honestly no need for me to review the story, it's amazing and you'll be hooked by the prologue. But quality-wise, the book itself is beautiful, mine came with no scratches or tears, and overall I'm very satisfied. I've read other reviews saying their copy came in damaged, but there was no problem with mine, so maybe the issue has been resolved.My only complaint is that I had preordered this item was back in October, and it was still late by one month. This is probably an issue with the distributer, but I would take the shipping date with a grain of salt.

El libro es precioso. Sabía que valía la pena comprarlo.Las ilustraciones dentro del libro son muy bonitas, y el glosario del final es genial. Si te quedas con dudas o te olvidas de quién es quién, puedes consultarlo. Vienen los nombres de los lugares, los nombres de los personajes, el significado de los colores, etc.

Creo que no hace falta ni reseña viendo las imágenes e ilustraciones de esta maravillosa novela de Mo Xiang tong Xiu. Ha llegado antes de lo previsto y está en perfecto estado, estaba un poco preocupada por eso. Estoy muy feliz, es una novela muy hermosa, espero que pronto la podamos leer en Español.

Compré el libro en preventa el 8 de diciembre y salió a la venta el día 14, pero estuve unos días sin información disponible del pedido por lo que estaba un poco ansiosa. Al ser un envío internacional y al ver que muchas personas que lo pidieron antes que yo ya lo estaban recibiendo pensé que iba a estar esperando un poco más. Contacté con el vendedor y me dijeron que no tenían información porque dependían del proveedor, pero por lo visto lo solucionaron rapido. Ayer me llegó la notificación de que habían enviado el pedido y me dieron como fecha aproximada el 27 de diciembre, pero lo recibí hoy día 18. Me ha sorprendido muy gratamente que fuera tan rápido y que no haya tenido que esperar tanto para tenerlo en casa, así que muchas gracias por ser tan eficientes con la entrega. También tenía un poco de miedo de que llegara estropeado porque en otras reseñas había leido que a algunas personas les había llegado el libro con las esquinas estropeadas o la tapa doblada, porque claro a veces ocurren esas cosas durante el transporte. Pero está en perfecto estado, todo está bien. Tengo muchas ganas de leerlo, ya que lo compré después de ver el donghua y leer el manhua. Amo esta historia, estoy super obsesionada con los personajes, el arte oficial y la relación que tienen. Una vez que entras en el mundo de MXTX te enganchas de tal forma que no puedes dejar de buscar más contenido y querer más. Esta autora es increíble y los personajes e historias que crea también. En fin, super recomendable! A los que sean de España y sepan inglés les animo a comprar el libro porque no sabemos si van a licenciar las novelas aquí o si tendremos la edición edición en español pronto (espero que sí por fa).Un saludo y gracias!

This review is mainly for those who are unfamiliar with the Chinese fantasy (xianxia) or BL (danmei) genres as a whole, like me. If you stumbled across this book because it's bestselling, but think you'll probably pass because these genres aren't "your thing," I encourage you to reconsider. It is a saga that transcends its genres the further you read. It is HUGE in Asia and quickly gaining traction globally, and is widely considered to be the best of its genre, and there's a reason for that! The story, characters, setting, and visuals (in the adaptations) are all fantastic.SFF is my favorite genre, but second is classic literature, and this actually contains some elements of the latter, which most fantasy (at least Western fantasy) does not. Men can probably enjoy the story too because there is so much else going on and it's definitely fantasy, not primarily romance. I'm older than the typical audience for this and have read A LOT of books, and this has edged past my other favorite book, The Count of Monte Cristo--yes, I love adventure/drama epics! My only complaint with the book is with the writing style in the beginning, which I explain below.There is also an excellent and thorough Chinese and xianxia guide in the back. If you're new to the genre, be sure to read this guide, because it will be much clearer that way.THE STORY (no spoilers)When I read the entire novel (not just this book 1), I expected adventure, mystery, romance, and humor. And there is plenty of all of that. What I didn't expect was ethics, philosophy, and intense drama. And the entire story is not just "from one adventure to the next," as it seems at first, but is all shown to be closely related at the end, like zooming out from one part of a weaving to see the entire tapestry. This surprised and impressed me as well. Many literary devices are masterfully used throughout.The original web novel is five books, which will be 8 printed books. This printed Book 1 covers just the first half of the web novel's Book 1, and it stays pretty lighthearted. The novel starts out slowly and then steadily increases in speed. The adventurous parts are greatly enjoyable and a fun ride. The dramatic parts (which are mostly in the web novel's Books 2 and 4, describing Xie Lian's past) are extremely intense, to the point that many recommend it's better to take some breaks here and there while reading them. But like all good drama, it lends a great deal of depth that brings the whole story to a different level. (The 17+ label is because of these parts.)This is my favorite summary of the whole story, by a fan: "The story is about Xie Lian's journey, and how he learned to love himself again, through the effort of a man who never had loved himself." Xie Lian and Hua Cheng's relationship and romance is a very organic slow build, and it's not at either extreme of being the full focus or just jammed in awkwardly, but it is still at the very clear heart of the story. There have only been a few romances I've encountered that are built on something much deeper than normal, and this is one of them; it can be called epic without exaggeration, and most romance stories now seem shallow by comparison. It's hard to imagine this kind of relationship being able to occur outside of this fantasy setting, which is probably why it can go to such a different level. And even though I'm not (yet) a general "BL" fan, this relationship is now one of my favorites.It is sweet and healthy, with no toxic elements and very high mutual respect, and just highly endearing. (Though there is one aspect that would be creepy outside its narrative.) Some problematic tropes are inverted; for example the influence of 'sex pollen' is rejected, age boundaries are maintained, and magically-induced dubcon (just of kissing) is halted. It apparently doesn't follow the usual BL tropes which cater to a heterosexual audience, and is instead more realistic in its portrayal of a same-sex relationship, which is great if true. It also is not explicit (unlike the author MXTX's other two books) which seemed to actually fit very well with the story--even though it was apparently because its webnovel platform had gotten more strict with censorship, which is a shame.The supporting characters are given a lot of focus as well, with a lot of time spent on their stories, which Xie Lian ends up being quite involved/entangled in; they are actually what drives the present-day plot in addition to Xie Lian's own journey. These characters are nuanced; there is bad in the "good" ones and good in the "bad," as well as growth as the story progresses. And they are all really well fleshed out characters who have their own strong fanbases among readers.The book is gripping and moving, and as I got further in, I REALLY got pulled into the story and it was hard to focus on the rest of my life. This is apparently a common reaction to this saga. While reading, I didn't do anything but work and the most necessary chores and family activities. I don't do well without enough sleep but I still stayed up too late several times. And even while doing other things (like an all-day D&D session) my mind kept wandering back to the book. I felt like I was between worlds. And when I finished, I felt hollow and bereft, and at a loss of what to do next, wishing the story could just go on. (This also is apparently common.) None of that has happened to me with a book in a very long time. So I'm trying to fill the holes with related art, videos, fanfic, fan groups, etc, and will re-read this as each of the printed books is released, as well as MXTX's other two books, and more danmei in general. The extra chapters set after the book's end helped to ease the sting as well.THE WRITING/TRANSLATIONI feel there are problems with the writing (or translation) style, mainly in about the first third of the novel. But stick it out because it gets better, and the story itself is worth it. In these early parts, the wording is very informal, and the phrasing is clunky and often stiff and simplistic. Sometimes it flows more naturally and is crisp, engaging and more appropriately formal, but this isn't consistent. According to some fans who have compared the original Chinese to this translation, the phrasing problems are in the translation, while the more informal dialogue matches the Chinese (but I've seen conflicting statements on this).It does improve as it goes on, however. In my first reading I thought that it might have just been my perception that changed the further I read; that I might have just gotten used to it, or was so engrossed in the story that I stopped noticing. But I'm re-reading it now and I can definitely say that the writing gets much better. There is also another possible factor on top of this, which is that in her postscript, the author describes some early struggles with this story, and that could also possibly account for some of the stilted feel at the beginning.The author has recently released her final version of this novel in Chinese (she's been working on it for years). This final version has some polishing and plot revisions (nothing significantly changing the storyline though) and 100,000 added words. What we now have published in English is not the final version, but publishers were told that this wasn't guaranteed to happen and they should go ahead with the version that they had been sent.THE ADAPTATIONSNote: This is updated periodically for the latest information.Like a lot of Westerners, I found this story through the donghua (animated series). Then I read the artistically stunning manhua (comic), and finally read the novel. I feel that the best order is the book first, and then the other two, because the book provides more detail that will increase the enjoyment of the manhua and donghua. However, some people have said that they preferred the other formats over the book (at least this first part of it), in part due to the writing style. The donghua is subbed on Netflix and excellently dubbed on Crunchyroll (which you can use for free for the first month). The manhua used to be on an official English webcomic platform but no longer is, so it can only be read either on the Chinese publisher's site (Bilibili), or a scanlation site. They both stick very closely to the book, but are not yet completed.The manhua and donghua lend exquisite visuals that greatly enhance the story. But the book's prologue made some things a lot more clear to me, particularly Xie Lian's past; though on the flip side, the donghua reveals things about Hua Cheng's past much earlier than the novel. In the book there are more details mainly in the interactions between the deuteragonists, revealing Xie Lian's inner thoughts about Hua Cheng, and some expressions/interactions between them that aren't as clear in the manhua and donghua. Conversely, some of the overt intimate gestures in the manhua and donghua aren't in the book, maybe since those formats don't show all the inner discourse, so those gestures compensate. And the donghua shows Hua Cheng's POV frequently, whereas the book is all from Xie Lian's POV.A live action TV series (C-drama) called Eternal Faith has finished filming but is not yet released. There is also a currently airing audio drama which is based on the final version of the novel (the other adaptations are based on the previous version).For more information about all the adaptations and the final version, visit this page: https://www.reddit.com/r/tianguancifu/wiki/faq/There has been concern about heavy censorship of the adaptations due to China's strict censorship laws, but so far they haven't been. In fact as I said, they are MORE overtly romantic so far than in the book, though the upcoming live action show will most likely be heavily censored. And it's likely that any kissing will be censored in all adaptations (except the audio drama), although because the animation studio is Japanese, they may release some extra uncensored content for non-Chinese audiences, as they've done with some other danmei stories. I do wonder if some of the side stories will be cut out of the adaptations to shorten them, which is common with book adaptations. The manhua has cut some scenes, but the donghua has not, and in fact added some scenes to a backstory that were not in the book.PRINT/PRODUCTION QUALITYThis is about as high quality as a paperback book can get. I usually get books on Kindle and wasn't sure if I'd want to keep the paperback, but I definitey am because it is gorgeous, as the customer videos show. While it is much higher quality than standard paperbacks, I do wish that it were more similar to the very elegant editions offered in some other languages, which are mostly hardback with more traditional and less cartoony cover art (though I do like the art on ours), a more formal title font, and even gold or silver foil. They also include extras such as prints, pins and bookmarks, and some have interior color art. (Look up the Vietnamese and Russian editions for a comparison.) Some also have box sets for every 2 books. I am hoping that we will get a special edition set more like these at some point.