Heroes die. Cowards live.

That is the motto that Yang Ruying lives by. She lives in the aftermath of invasion: less than one generation ago, her world was colonized by foreigners from another world who came bearing weapons and drugs. The magic of her people was not enough to stop them, so even though she possesses the magic of Death, she keeps her head down. Until the day comes when she is forced to use her powers to aid one of those despised foreign princes, and she will have to decide if someday running will no longer be an option.

I was instantly curious about this book once I saw that it was about a xianxia-inspired Chinese fantasy world being colonized by a scientifically-advanced one, and doubly so when I saw that the central dynamic was going to be between Ruying and Anton. We've had our fair share of "colonizer romance" in YA fantasy over the years, but Chang does something a little different here in pairing Ruying, who's really not a hero, with Anton, who's not quite a prince on a white horse. Most stories like this make the choice easy, with a driven, righteous heroine who devotes her all to the rebellion and a sympathetic love interest, a prince who is wholly unlike the rest of his evil, colonizing family. Here, our heroine runs from that call to action, and our prince participates in his family's crimes. For a story about us vs. them, Chang seems to delight in swishing around in that gray zone, which I very much appreciate.

Ruying spends this book justifying her choices over and over again, warring with her own anger at the subjugation of her people with the fear of what will happen if she revolts. It is actually quite refreshing to watch a heroine make the "wrong" choices for once, because in this world, there are truly no right choices. Bow and pray for mercy, or rebel and risk annihilation?

My main gripes came from the abundance of telling in this story. So much is just told to us outright and repeated countless times, as though Chang was afraid that we'd forget every fifty pages that Ruying's grandmother is really smart, or that her father gambled away all their money, or that Anton is so beautiful. More showing, with characters' actions and behaviors, would've really elevated the writing and added nuance to a cast that felt a little underdeveloped. I also would've liked more magic and advanced technology to really breathe life into the world.

I definitely looking forward to the rest of the series! This one left off at a solid cliffhanger, and I'm settling in for some high angst.

First, the cover is absolutely gorgeous and the title drew me in. I was really excited to be accepted to review this ARC, but when I finally read it, i had a hard time getting through this book. A lot of info dumping that caused me to be really confused. For example, when meeting Baihu for the first time, there was some info dumping about who he was and then they were talking, and then in the middle of that, shes talking about their childhood for a bit but then they're still in a middle of a conversation? And then more about him and how he's a traitor or whatever. It just felt all over the place. I thought I could get past it until we meet Taohua and it happens again. I know there's a lot of world building to be done but I don't think this style of world building is for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

"To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" by Molly X. Chang is an enthralling literary masterpiece that seamlessly blends mythology, mystery, and the complexities of human nature. Chang's exquisite prose effortlessly transports readers into a mesmerizing world where gods and mortals collide, weaving a tale of intrigue and power struggles. The characters are vividly portrayed, each with their own unique depth and motivations, making it impossible not to become emotionally invested in their fates. Chang's intricate storytelling keeps readers on the edge of their seats, unveiling secrets and surprises with every turn of the page. The richly detailed world-building and the author's ability to evoke a wide range of emotions make this novel a must-read for anyone seeking an immersive and thought-provoking literary experience. "To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" is a triumph, leaving readers longing for more from this talented storyteller.

to start off, let's talk about the aspects that i liked in this book.

the author's writing style was amazing and captivating. it got me hooked into this book. There were Chinese sayings and phrases used which I really liked because I'm Chinese myself, so it felt good to be reading something "familiar".

this book got my attention because of it's cover, i briefly saw the synopsis, but i was still going into the book a little blind, ensure of what to expect except that it was young adult fantasy.

however. the romance in this book was a huge subplot which i didn't particularly enjoy, simply because of the initial relationship, where the prince oppressed Er-Lang. every time the two of them had any scenes together (which was most of the time, really), i felt a little uneasy and uncomfortable.

as for the characters, i thought that Ruying was going to be a powerful girl that has magic, who would eventually save her country. as it turns out, despite having criticised Baihu for being a traitor etc, she does the exact same thing, but worse, for her enemy. it was almost as if she didn't have a mind of her own, doing whatever Antony wanted her to do. she strongly opposed joining the rebels of the country that were fighting for their own freedom against the oppressors but was okay with killing people for a man who had promised her to bring peace to both worlds. she goes against her own beliefs and morals this entire book. at so many points of time, i wanted Ruying to just kill Antony and save her world.

in addition to that, i simply felt no connection with the characters at all, which made it difficult to read sometimes

i might still read the second book of this series when it comes out because I want to really see Ruying to grow, harness her power and become actually morally grey by becoming a hero for her country, not a toy for the oppressor.

thank you netgalley for this arc !

This Book is definitely for the fans of the Red Queen series. The inspiration of magic vs science is very unexpected and brings such a unique perspective. Which helps brings out one of the best descriptions and though process of Morally Grey character, I have ever seen.

The only major two problems, I had with this book is one being, the book “categorized” as romance. There was no romance in this book. Her romantic feelings did not make sense and were basically just her trying to figure out her moral values. My other problem was at first I didn’t realize it was part of a series, but there was so much world building and background information that it was hard to attach to characters and the plot.

I wanted to love this but I think it was a little too YA for me. Also I’m not really interested in colonizer romances :\ I do think that other people will love this book it just wasn’t for me.

Couldn’t finish this one. The prose is fairly good, honestly, but the world building was just too confusing and strange. The magic system did the grab me, and I something about Romans with guns and airplanes really made this hard to read. Definitely not for anyone with a minor in Classical Studies (aka me).

Things I loved: the worldbuilding. Though perhaps it was a bit confusing at times. I didn't even realize the Romans were meant to be from the future and Er-Lang was meant to represent ancient/medieval China until portals were mentioned somewhere halfway through the book. However, the concept has so much potential. The idea of time travelling Romans, magic vs science, and the main character a morally grey woman blessed by the god of death? One of the most intriguing synopses I've read in a while.

I was excited to read the book mainly because of the cover. It's absolutely gorgeous, and I must say, the writing quality matches exactly what I thought the book would be. The ethereal, poetic prose is the highlight of this book, and the sole reason I pushed through, which speaks to the author's talent, because Ruying never had anything of substance to say in the entire 300 pages.

What I did not like: the romance and the characters. If I had a dime for every time a fantasy book was ruined because the fmc fell in love with literal Hitler, I would have three dimes. which isn't a lot, but it's odd that there's that many that I can name off the top of my head. Is there perhaps a market for this of which I am not aware?

This would have been such a good book without the romance, and if Ruying's character actually followed through with what was promised in the introduction. Ruying is meant to be this cruel, morally gray character, but she balks at the idea of any murder her colonizer lover doesn't sanction, and even that she can't particularly do well. She spends at least a complete three chapters criticizing Baihe for being a traitor, yet falls to her knees at the sight of a white man's green eyes. She refuses to join her country's rebels because they've committed the horrible crime of actually "fighting' for their freedom—Ruying is apparently antiviolence—yet she's perfectly fine not only helping previously mentioned white man kill her people, but also helping him evade rebel capture. Multiple times throughout the book, she is given the chance to fight for the rebels, but she claims they're somehow more evil and bloodthirsty than the Romans. This isn't a case of her being misinformed; even in the beginning of the book, she can perfectly well list out every murder, kidnap, and genocide the Romans have committed. Her entire moral ideology is just based on the fact that she loves Antony. She has the chance to kill him, or at least escape, multiple times, and still she stays because she loves him. This genocidaire. She loves him. I'm sorry, I simply don't understand this plot in the least.

The ending does somewhat salvage things, perhaps. I may still read the sequel because the new Ruying seems like what I wanted from her, though I can definitely feel an Antony redemption arc on the way.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an early copy.

Holy **** this book…it was just absolutely stunning. The prose, the characters, I just couldn’t get enough. My only complaint would be the character growth, it felt like Ruyang kept spiraling around and around the same issues, until near the end; I wish it had been more of a gradual growth in her. But still, just an absolutely phenomenal book. I can’t wait to read the next one! This is a must read!

Where do I begin? Maybe by saying that I will be preordering this book ASAP.

What I loved:
A deeply complex and believable FMC
One of the best “Villains” I’ve read in a long time
Forbidden Romance
Lush World Building

Molly X. Chang truly has a knack for character writing. Each character, even those we didn’t spend much time with on the page, felt fully realized in a way that you don’t always see. The worlds she creates are filled to the brim with history and legends, but it’s told in such a way that it never feels like an info dump.

To Gaze Upon Wicked gods follows Ruying, a young woman with the magic of Death- to kill be pulling a person’s energy from their body.

The setting is Er-Lang, a once peaceful country full of those who can use magic and those who can’t, now torn apart and reduced to misery by the Romans- a people of science who descended from the skies.

We follow Ruying as she forms an alliance with Antony- one of several Roman princes- in an effort to protect her family and protect her country from the cruelties of the Romans.

It touches on oppression and colonialism in an easy-to-digest manner, while still showing the horrors of it. It discusses greed and and pitfalls of technology and climate change all while creating a fantasy story that keeps you turning the page.

I cannot wait to buy this book, and to read the rest of the series. This is sure to be one of my all-time favorites!

As per guidelines, this review will be posted on release day.

I had high hopes for this one, but unfortunately the first chapter made it clear this book was not for me. The info dumps are heavy handed, completely forego characterization, and read like a history textbook about the world. There is no sense of character woven into the exposition, which sets expectations low for the rest of the book. The prose is nice, but as a reader, I need a strong character with in-the-moment micro-goals to filter the world in order to make it memorable. Otherwise my eyes glaze over.

Admittedly, I've been rather cutthroat about DNFs in recent years. I just don't have the time to give more of a chance to books I likely won't finish. Readers who have more patience for a "drumroll" may find enjoyment in this book.

*An advanced digital copy was received from the publisher*
I was so eager to get my hands on this book because the premise of a heroine with the power to control death, set in a Chinese-fantasy world? Who could say no?
I am happy to confirm that I was so pleased by this book. I truly enjoyed every moment and couldn't put it down! I am a huge fan of books written by Asian-American authors, and Molly X. Chang has made me a fan. Now to get into the book.

It's science fiction meets fantasy meets steampunk set in another world. The 'Romans' descended upon a new world from a rift in the sky, and introduced this world to their technologies. However, with these new foreign invaders comes a time of political instability. The main character (Ruying) juggles the responsibilities of taking care of her opioid addicted sister, and hiding her hidden blessed powers. These dangerous powers give her the ability to pull the life (also know as qi) out of mortal bodies. The only cost? Parts of her own existence. But when she catches the attention of one of the Roman princes, her life turns upside down. She is thrust into the role as personal assassin to the prince, to kill political enemies of Rome all in favor of preventing a war against her people. The Roman prince (Antony) wants to protect her people, but also secure his reign as emperor. This puts Ruying face to face with many moral challenges as his assassin. She constantly asks herself 'Can she trust this prince to have the best interest of everyone at heart? And are her assassinations really for the greater good?'

Characters:
Ruying is a very complex character who has a lot of reason behind what she does. Being able to see her moral decisions really flushes out her a lot more. It was also interesting to see her get more comfortable with her powers over time. With her getting more comfortable with her powers, she shows a lot of growth in the way she starts thinking about life and death. Reading in her point of view really allows the reader to theorize along with her.
Antony is a very mysterious character. His personality changes from page to page, but at times it feels that we might be seeing the "real" Antony. His motives aren't entirely flushed out yet, and he seems to be a dark player in this big game.
Their interactions in this book look very differently from chapter to chapter. Compared to his brother, Antony's motives are more secretive, but he still shows some kindness to Ruying when they interact.

Setting:
This story has so much history and depth to it. The author also put many Chinese proverbs into the book that relate a lot to the story. As the story is a Chinese fantasy story, the proverbs really give the words a very poetic feel to it. This story also gives an important perspective of what colonization could look like from the eyes of colonized people.

The book has a huge magic vs. science aspect that is showed frequently in different parts of the story. The people of science see themselves as far superior to the people of magic, and constantly tear down the Ruying's people because of it. But the fact that Rome is not a "fantasy" world raises the question, how did they even get to Ruying's world? I hope these questions that arose will be answered in the next book.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It has very real characters that we can connect to, and it's set in a fantastical world filled with a rich history. It even has a touch of romance in it, too. The premise initially intrigued me, and I was pleasantly surprised to read such an enthralling book from a new Asian-American author.

This book wasn't really for me, but I appreciate what it is and that others may really enjoy it! Thank you netgalley for the copy!

I really enjoyed reading this book. I found it to be an entertaining and intriguing read. This story begins with the Romans having conquered the main character, Ruying’s, homeland. She becomes an assassin for her enemy in order to keep herself and her family safe. I love the premise and overall of this story, but I did find a few things that I had a hard time with. I wish that some of the relationships with Ruying were built up a little more. There was some inkling of a romance, but since I was having a harder time understanding some of the relationships, the romance fell a little flat for me. I feel that book one has built up some of those relationships, and I hope that book two develops those more. The middle was a little slow, but once you get to the end of the story you will be dying for more!

This book has arguably one of the most beautiful covers I've seen, and along with the synopsis, I really thought this was going to be one of the next big books. Unfortunately for me, the execution fell flat.

Ruying is a girl blessed with Death magic where she can rip qi from people, killing them. Her twin sister, Meiya, was blessed to do the opposite in giving life. However, we really only see Ruying in action while she struggles to keep her sister, who is struggling with an opian addiction, alive. A lot of the premise is how much Ruying is willing to sacrifice to keep her family alive, but even then I feel like there weren't a whole lot of meaningful interactions with her sister and grandmother. Enter in the opposing Roman prince Antony who holds Ruying's family against her in exchange of killing people for him, most of which occurs off page. I would have loved to seen the training that Ruying put into an attempt at becoming a cold blooded assassin when later in the story it's thrown at her that people around her knew it was her all along, aside from her retaining her humanity and being far from cold blooded. Ruying battles internally with herself each time she has to kill, all while it's *literally* slowly killing her from the inside out.

I did not understand Antony and Ruling's relationship much at all. There was obvious Stockholm syndrome going on, but other than that most of the development seemingly occurred off page. I would have loved to have seen more development in Ruying's existing and new relationships. A lot of the interactions really fell flat, and a majority of conversations felt repetitive (ex. character tells Ruying why she shouldn't trust Antony -> "but he's a good guy and plans to bring peace!" -> gives multiple reasons as to why she shouldn't trust him -> "but he's good!!1!!!!11!1!! his jade green eyes!!!!"). Antony was king of gaslight, gatekeep, and ultimately not girl bossing. He says he loves her, but then will threaten her family's lives at every chance he can get to get Ruying to do his bidding. King of toxicity. Ruying was very frustrating in these scenes. The characters that were described as being morally gray were not morally gray... they were just plain old awful.

Things that worked for me were the magic system and the overall idea of the book. I enjoy whenever there's a give and take to the magic, where every use of it comes at a cost, and in the case of those who are able to wield magic in the world of Pengu it comes at the cost of their life force. I felt like the premise of the book was extremely interesting, especially with the crossover of modern Rome to an older civilization of Er-Lang. However, the world building other than this was not explained much. It was pretty confusing at some points.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

When I first laid eyes on the captivating cover of this book, I couldn't resist its allure, and I took the plunge into its pages with a sense of adventure.

However, it pains me to admit that my journey through this literary landscape was not without its bumps. I've always been averse to sentences that begin with "but" because they often usher in a dose of negativity. In this case, I must pull off the band-aid and acknowledge that the world-building in this book left something to be desired. The narrative raises questions about Western Colonialism within the confines of a dystopian setting where helicopters buzz through the skies, creating a fusion of historical elements. It left me somewhat perplexed, imagining a world where the Roman Empire never crumbled and instead extended its dominion to China. My struggle extended to grasping the intricate magical system within the story, despite my best efforts to focus. It's possible that the disconnect I felt with the characters, their predicaments, and the overall execution contributed to my difficulty in fully immersing myself in this imaginative realm. Alternatively, it could have been my mood at the time, which might not have been conducive to delving into an apocalyptic war narrative.

Furthermore, I found the love story, which seemed to draw inspiration from "Beauty and the Beast," to be unconvincing and out of place. I failed to connect with, or root for, Ruying and Anthony in their intricate and complicated relationship.

The storytelling also suffered from moments of dragging and repetition, further compounding my struggles to maintain focus.

I suspect that my initial reading of this book might have been ill-timed or influenced by my mood, as I believe there is potential beneath the surface. I commend the author for her innovative concept and unique approach. Perhaps a second reading in the future will yield a different perspective and prompt me to reconsider my rating.

I extend my sincere thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine/Del Rey for generously providing me with a digital review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts. Despite my current reservations, I look forward to revisiting this book at a later time with fresh eyes and a more receptive mindset.

With a cover as beautiful as this one and a very intriguing summary, naturally my expectations for this book were pretty high. Unfortunately, it did not deliver. It’s difficult to enjoy a book when you don’t like the main character and read through writing that was very repetitive. I really wish I had better things to say about this book but I just could not get through it at all. It definitely had a lot of potential but just didn’t translate onto the page.

tl;dr
A complicated set of lead characters set against a science vs. magic backdrop. Feels like a lot of pins being set up to be knocked over in future installments.

Thoughts
First off, be aware the genre is science fantasy. A giant portal opened up and people with missiles and smart phones came out of it. Calling it straight fantasy is going to set up some wildly wrong expectations. The "science vs. magic" thing has never been of interest to me, but I really like checking out debut novels, and the cover was too good to ignore. The verdict? Still to come! A lot of this book is scene-setting for future installments, which promise to swing a lot harder, so I feel like I can't accurately decide how I feel until I see how it ends. But for now, let's break down what we do have. Ruying is, by her own admission, a coward, and her navigation of an impossible situation is probably the most realistic incarnation I've read in a while. Her sister is more the "hero" type, and in another book in another world, she probably would be the fearless protagonist. I liked the choice to focus on a very un-heroic MC and the choices one has to make in a space where there are no correct moves - only moves of varying levels of wrongness. I also enjoyed the multiple plot threads running at the same time with various political bents.

The romance is where this series is going to be the most divisive. Falling in love with one's captor is a tale as old as time, and in this case it feels ill-advised. Antony pragmatically presents himself as the least of many evils, and he's probably right. That doesn't mean dating has to be on the table, and despite the fact that a chapter from his POV indicates his feelings are genuine, I'm still not a fan. That being said, the ending is a major turning point that promises some big moves in future installments. I shall have to wait patiently until then.

Calling this book an epic fantasy is hitting the nail right on the head. From the magical world building to addressing colonialism I could barely put it down. It was an eye opening insight into the thought processes of colonized peoples and a fascinating look into the possibilities of magic.

This was one of my anticipated reads and I was drawn in by that beautiful cover. Sadly I had to rate it 2 stars, 1 star is for the cover because I love it. I found this book to be repetitive and drawn out. I did not care for any of the characters, I found the main character a little bit annoying. I so badly wish that this read was better, but I was ultimately let down by the execution of this book.