Thousand Autumns: Qian Qiu

Thousand Autumns is a Chinese historical wuxian (martial arts) novel. I think this is important to note as many who read danmei will have certain expectations (mostly created by MDZS & TGCF... I know I did). My knowledge of martial arts is minimal, my knowledge of Chinese history worse. The majority of this novel revolves around politics and the various religious sects, and their power struggles. I find it challenging to review the world building as I do not know fact from fiction. In spite of my ignorance I was able to follow the gist of the story and mostly treated it like an open-worldRPG with 'hack-n-slash' playthrough. What truly made the book enjoyable though, was the relationship between Shen Qiao and Yan Wushi. They can be accurately described as complete opposites. SQ is kind, gentle-natured and humble, YW is inconsiderate, brutal and arrogant. Morally SQ is lawful good. YW has been described as evil, but I found him more chaotic neutral... he does whatever the hell he wants and its funny af! Their character growth and relationship dynamic is full of twists and turns, but be aware this is a slow burn and only matures in the final volume. One has to read the extras in order to find closure. As the reader is no doubt aware, Chinese censorship laws are brutal, resulting in authors using metaphors and euphemism to describe anything that could get them into trouble. Personally I enjoy this as it gives solemnity to intimate, private moments. A note on translation: I read the official translation of volumes 1-3, but as the official of 4 has not yet been published I completed the novel using fan translations. In hindsight I wish that I'd only read the fan translations. Even with their typos I enjoyed the extra notes explaining Chinese word play and puns that YW used. (He truly does resort to dad jokes! 😂). The novel is full of poetic language and metaphors, the official translation felt a little dry without them. I also realise that this is personal preference as many felt the Seven Seas official translation was better. I don't think this will be everyone's cup of tea, the story can be a bit clunky at times. My braincells were strained by the politics heavy theme and trying to remember who was who. Chinese names are a challenge in themselves. Yan Wushi is an entertaining bastard though and for me, at least, it was worth the binge-read. I found this a sophisticated read, 8/10 for occasionally making me feel uneducated cretin.