spinebenderreviews's reviews
697 reviews

This book is the first volume published of the officially licensed English translation of the webnovel Guardian (Zhen Hun), previously published in Chinese on jjwxc under the pseudonym Priest. It follows the employees of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), a subdepartment of the police which is tasked with investigating crimes related to the supernatural.

The first character we are introduced to is Guō Chángchéng, a intern who comes to the SIU via his family connections and has no idea what he's in for. Guō Chángchéng is the kind of person with a good soul but the worst luck. You can't help but feel for him when reading his POV, as he has negative confidence in himself, something that seems to have been instilled in him by his family who see him as a bit of an inept loser. In reality, he is an incredibly kind who tries his best, but somehow manages to make a hash of most things he tries.

From Guō Chángchéng we are introduced to Zhào Yúnlán, the director of the SIU, who is presented as a laidback playboy with little patience for Guō Chángchéng's cowardice and fumbling. He is also incredibly clever and able to intuit the truth of things. He is skilled at his job but can take things too far out of impatience and judgmentalism. After he encounters Shěn Wēi during the first case in the novel, he develops a flirtatious interest in the mysterious professor. Fate keeps pushing them together time and again and the mystery surrounding their relationship deepens until the big reveal that

Shěn Wēi is the Soul-Executing Emissary, a powerful figure whose work intersects with the SIU

.

I came to this book having already seen about half of the TV show based on it, and I wonder if that's why I struggled with it. It felt incredibly slow paced and the writing style was pretty sparing in a way that made it feel a little dry, though as I am reading a translation that may not be the case in the original text. The book suffers from not being a complete work in itself, as it's only a section of a larger complete work, rather than being book one in a trilogy. This makes the pacing feel off and the end doesn't feel like a satisfying place to leave things. The book is mostly set up instead of having its own story to tell. There's also quite a bit of racism towards nomadic peoples which I don't care for, but this does seem to be a trend in Priest's work, having seen Word Of Honour (Shān Hé Lìng) which adapts her novel Faraway Wanderers (Tiān Yá Kè).

All that said, I am interested enough to read the next volume. The writing style grew on me over time as, despite the translation being more tell than show, Priest's mastery of subtle and unexpected humour still came through, especially with Guō Chángchéng. I am also interested enough in the relationship between Shěn Wēi and Zhào Yúnlán to want to see the payoff for all the hints laid throughout this book as to their pasts.

I binged all 27 volumes of this series over the course of a week, so I am doing a collective review of the series rather than reviewing each individual volume. This was my first time reading the series - I'm incredibly late to the game - and it is very much worth all the hype and critical acclaim.

The story it tells is still relevant today. It was actually kind of unsettling to read at times due to that relevance. I know that the author interviewed Japanese veterans to get a handle on the story being told in regard to the Ishvalan war and it really shows.

It made for a realistic look at how the military as a collective - and on an individual level - work to dehumanise those they see as the enemy, paving the way for crimes against humanity to appear justified to both ordinary people and those directly involved. The way way those in power can manipulate public opinion to legitimise terrible injustices is also far too familiar, as is the way that that same public is seen as cannon fodder that can be sacrificed in exchange for power.

Sacrifice is a major theme of this series, and the different ways it is employed make for an interesting contrast; personal sacrifice versus sacrificing others to serve personal aims. Within alchemy's rule of equivalent exchange, personal sacrifice is always going to be more powerful, as the loss is more deeply felt by the giver and is therefore more valuable. Complementing this is the theme of kindness, something done for its own sake without a goal in mind. There are no limits to the kindness that can be given and no limits to how far that kindness can go in terms of inspiring others to do their own future kindnesses to pass on what they've received. Which leads to being able to form a supportive community based on how kindness naturally becomes a self-sustaining exchange between people, passed on from one person to the next. This series is full of very flawed people doing their best to try to move forward and make amends for their pasts. They struggle with the knowledge they gain in the course of the story that forces them interrogate their past from a newer, less ignorant perspective. But instead of looking away, they seek out further knowledge, endeavouring to keep learning and trying to do better. It is through the supportive communities they find that they are able to become better people and refine their ideas of what it means to be human. And it is both kindness and community that are vital in how the culmination of the series ultimately play out. 

Of course, it's not all dark themes and high stakes! There is a very well done blend of serious scenes and humour in the series. The characters are flawed yet endearing and there's someone for everyone to love. The character growth experienced over the course of the series is a joy to read and all the characters are complex and well formed. The plot arcs are satisfying and feed into the main plot in a cohesive way with no threads left dangling. And the art is full of personality and conveys so much, even without the text. My only note is that

I could do without the magical curing of disability at the end and the random fatphobia.

This is a really rewarding and enjoyable series to read and I'll be thinking about it for a long time.