Silvana's Reviews > He Who Drowned the World

3.5 stars. This is really a hard book for me to rate, there are parts of it I adore, but also there are parts that got me thinking, wait a sec, that's how the plot gonna go? That is why I refrained from rating it after reading it the first time. But then it became a BR in WBTM so I thought oh great now I have people to bounce ideas with. And so I reread this. I think the second time around, my first gut feeling of "okay, this is a three or three and half star one" proved to be correct. I still loved the parts that I fell in love with, and I still disliked the parts that annoyed me.

First of all, the characters. The book delves deep into its characters' minds - as well as the first one- so if you want something to be more fast paced and not spending too much time reading what people are thinking, maybe this is not a book for you. But, if you enjoy getting immersed, even in the thought process when a character experienced physical stimuli (no, not just sex) and how it affected their personalities, reaction to others, and sometimes even getting an expanded vision of self, then this is your book. I think for many of its POV characters, the author did a great job.

Secondly, plot and character choices. I won't get into much details but for a book that is basically a war of five combatants, you could expect battles, espionage, combat missions, as well as political maneuvers. The later took the lion's share. Which is my favorite part, I think. Wang Baoxiang has been a favorite of mine in this book because his chapter that focuses on palace intrigue are rather riveting. I think it is no wonder some readings became Team Baoxing when they read this book. Madam Zhang is another POV that I enjoyed reading; in palace cdrama you might find characters that look like her, but oftentimes they are painted as one-dimensional villain. Here, the depth of her characterization and remember, the thought process, are almost delicious to read. And then we have the main character, Zhu. I was okay with Zhu in the first book, but in the second book I grew kinda annoyed with her. I think she is one of the worst planner ever, but got lucky due to circumstances and support system. She and Ouyang (who I did like reading about in the first book) were kind of frustrating to me. As for the ending, I definitely wished for another one LOL
One more thing that I forgot to write earlier about is that the book might be better as a trilogy, or the third part (the last part) of the book could be longer, with proper build up and intrigues and more battles. The second part ended with more bang than the ending of the book itself.

Thirdly, the setting. I think it is fantastic effort to retell the founding of a dynasty especially since Chinese history is so vast and complex. I wish there are more books like this, or even translation of older ones, if you will. I can just imagine the sets, the landscape, the cities etc, visually I want this book to be made into an anime like Ooku or Blue Eyed Samurai. (Sorry, I don't have reference on palace/historical donghua). That would be awesome. So yeah, Shelley, if you have offers on adaptation, please do take it ^^

All in all, despite my rating for this part, this is REALLY good duology that I would recommend.