Daughter of the Moon Goddess (The Celestial Kingdom, #1) in /r/Fantasy Discussion Group

Feb 01, 2023 Ashley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: class-gender-race, half-starsies, political-plots-and-maneuverings, speculative, folklore-and-mythology, shop-on-your-own-shelves-2023, fantasy, romantical, espionage, treasure-and-adventure

I need to write this review now or I will never come back to it (see below). But I will keep it short! I liked this book a lot, but not as much as I wanted to. The story was great, the world was imaginative , and I liked the characters (though the way the worldbuilding was introduced could have been much clearer; I was well into the book before I felt like I understood where the characters were and what their world looked like). I especially liked the way the book was structured around the vario ...more

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Nov 13, 2021 Siavahda marked it as dnf · review of another edition

Shelves: first-person-pov, adventure, poc-secondary-characters, advanced-reading-copy, bipoc-author, myths-and-fairytales, poc-protagonists

Sigh. I guess I’m being a special snowflake again, because every other review I’ve seen for Daughter of the Moon Goddess is glowing, and I…just can’t see what everyone else is seeing. (Honestly, some of the other early reviews have made me question whether we read the same book.)

This is supposed to be Adult, but it reads like YA, and not especially good YA, either: generic, meh YA. Everything was disappointingly simplistic; the prose, the worldbuilding, the ridiculously convenient way that thing Sigh. I guess I’m being a special snowflake again, because every other review I’ve seen for Daughter of the Moon Goddess is glowing, and I…just can’t see what everyone else is seeing. (Honestly, some of the other early reviews have made me question whether we read the same book.)

This is supposed to be Adult, but it reads like YA, and not especially good YA, either: generic, meh YA. Everything was disappointingly simplistic; the prose, the worldbuilding, the ridiculously convenient way that things fall into place for the heroine. Of course she ends up as the crown prince’s companion through virtually no effort; of course he chooses her as said companion, and manipulates the challenges on her behalf, based on an impression she made during a five-minute conversation. Of course he is kind and good despite his parents being unmitigatedly terrible (how??? where did he get all his virtues, who did he learn them from??? insert shrug here). Of course Xingyin is immediately so good with a bow the imperial soldiers watch her train – because her dad is a legendary archer, I guess, and that’s definitely genetic.

Even the magic system is oddly simple, mostly coming down to affinities for Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. I was surprised, and disappointed, that Tan chose to base her magic system on the classical Greek elements rather than the Chinese ones (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal), although in fairness she does add an additional two elements, Life and Mind. But the whole thing of, people who live by the sea are best with Water, by forests are best with Earth… That’s just simplistic and dull again. And the literal demonization of those with Mind powers was so obvious it had me eye-rolling at the page. It’s so in-your-face that it’s like a big flag waving ‘this will be plot-relevant shortly!!!’

And good gods, does anyone really need that many info-dumps? Info-dumps that repeat previous info-dumps?

These are all things that I can live with if they’re balanced by really beautiful prose, or lush, unique worldbuilding, or interesting and unusual characters. But I didn’t find any of that here. Despite drawing from Chinese mythology, Daughter of the Moon Goddess felt incredibly generic to me. I DNF-ed it at 22%, and it’s completely possible that it gets much better later, but I felt absolutely no desire to keep reading and find out. ...more

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May 24, 2022 Sarah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, r-fantasy-bingo-2022

Kinda struggling to rate this but I’m just gonna land on a 3 because I didn’t really love it that much even though there were some things I did like.

Started out strong with the world building, I liked Xingyin and Liwei :) Never cared about the captain because he had no personality, no flavor, so it was kind of a relief (view spoiler) (Honestly Liwei was pretty bland too but at least we got to s ...more

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Apr 01, 2022 Kin rated it it was amazing

Absolutely lovely!! My favorite book I’ve read all year so far. I was completely drawn in by the imagery and flavor of the world. The pace was perfect, just enough worldbuilding but never too much description bogging the plot down. I loved the protagonist. This is a wonderful book if you’re looking for something with a mythological bent and a love story.

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