⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House publishing group Ballantine, for the early ARC of this book. What an amazing debut fantasy book by Molly X Chang! Great character development. Loved all the characters. Learning the history of each character and what put them in the position they were in.
Highly recommend

So I wanted very badly to like this one…but unfortunately I don’t know about this….it was very repetitive, the author seemed to enjoy repeating herself a lot with someone of the thoughts the protagonist was having.

The romance also felt very icky and toxic, but in a way that was trying to romanticize it instead of attack it as a real issue, which I did not agree with.

This a no for me 😩

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House publishing group Ballantine, for the early ARC of this book. All reviews and thoughts are my own.
I thought this book was a beautiful historical fantasy. I loved the magic system in this book. The main character Ruying I grew to love the relationship with her and Antony Augustus as I thought it was daring and fun to the storyline . A very different take in a different world and timeline but also a lot of similarities to our history. The ending definitely calls for a second book and I can’t wait to read it and find out the rest of Ruying’s path and journey.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for the arc. This was one of my most anticipated books of 2024 and I am both happy and frustrated that I got an ARC. Now I have an extra year to wait for the next book :( but it was worth it. I really enjoyed the world building and the magic. Also, the ending made me really curious about what will happen in the next book. Honestly, I expected the main character to be a bit more morally gray, was not expecting someone naive, but it wasn't too bad. I feel like the way the relationship between Ruying and Anthony progressed was pretty obvious, and I also did not care much for it. However, the prose was really pretty and probably the best part about the novel.

Ruying lives in fear, like the rest of her people since the Romans invaded. The world building in this book was phenomenal - there was a lot of info dumping, but somehow it kind of worked and I didn't mind it. I really enjoyed reading this fantasy and it was beautifully written. It did feel like more happened in the first half that the second, and I felt a bit like it ended just as we were getting to the best bit. But overall, I loved it and can't wait for the sequel!

Thank you to the publisher for providing a review copy

I give this book a 5 out of 5 star rating. This book was amazing, and it’s currently going to be in my top 5 favorite books for 2023. At the very beginning of the book, the author has a little excerpt that talks about how she was talking to her grandfather about all of the things that he went through in his life, and she used all of his life experiences/stories that he told her, put a fantasical/magical twist on them and made this book out of all of that. I think that’s so incredible! I’ve never heard of anyone doing something like that, and that alone is a huge reason why you should read this book. Just to give a little bit of a background about this book; it is about a girl named Ruying, who is in the middle of an almost-war where she lives. There’s an epidemic of this drug called Opian and all of the people in her town are becoming addicted to it because it enhances their magical powers. Her sister is an Opian addict, her father died from an Opian addiction. So she decides to take matters into her own hands and team up with the other side, the Romans, in order to basically be a weapon for them, for what they say is going to “bring peace to both sides” and is going to make everything better. But will it? That’s what you have to find out on your own. I was also blown away because this is the author’s debut novel and it was amazing! As a person who loves fantasy and books about historical events, this was definitely one for me! I highly recommend this. As soon as it comes out you should go pick it up. I will be buying a physical copy of it because I want this in my collection forever, that’s how much I loved it. Thank you so much again for this opportunity, and everybody please go read this, you won’t be disappointed!

One of the best debut novels I have read in years. Chang's command over her prose and the story narrative is stellar. So beautifully written and so well paced, reading this novel was like peeling back an onion. Can't wait for the sequel!

Thank you to the publisher for this ARC

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This concept holds promise but the book itself needs a lot of work in the editing realm, and not just for finishing touches. I was often left confused with elements of the book not well explained, but then also left annoyed when other information was repeated ad nauseam.

The mix of magic and tech society is a neat twist, but other elements of the book felt jarring and didn’t make sense or add to the plot.

I found this a confusing read. I thought it was fantasy but then there were Romans with guns. Also heavy on the exposition. Honestly, I found it hard to get through. There are better books out there in this genre.

This is a review in Sept 2023 for an ARC. Because of that, I really want to stress that there is a good story in there but it needs a lot of editing which I really hope it gets.

Lets start with the good:

There are some really nice one-liners. I won't say the prose is always amazing but parts of it are quite lovely. The world is interesting too. I think the concept is there, it needs to be ironed out though.

Which leads me to some of the issues. I can get over the issues people have with the romance plot IF any of it was justified in the writing. But it's not. The second Antony shows up the writing takes a major turn for the worse. Nothing is explained or it's vaguely mentioned and then repeated over and over. There are so many examples of this. I think people are mostly bothered by the repetition for emphasis but the part that bothered me was just the straight up repetition of information. For example, "Character Name, who is So in So's grandfather..." then a page later "So in So, the grandchild of Character Name." It's just not good.

The dialog is painful at times. My copy asks not to have sections quoted so I won't but the dialog between the two princes when we first meet them both is awkward at best. Every conversation from then on out was a slog to read through.

Then there's the world building. I really want to stress, I think the concept of a future-tech society coming in and taking over a magic based society is interesting. What I don't understand were some of the choices. I know it's a common trope now to reference real societies/places that have no real connection in the book but Romans? Why? Romans with guns and cars??? It pulls you out of the reading or at least it does me every time I come across this trope. The world building also wasn't really fleshed out on the page. There are parts that left me confused. Like Antony saying that the Pengu are genetically superior species. So they aren't human? Then we have the constant reference to "Death" even in context where "death" would make more sense as if the god was always being mentioned. But that's a whole other aspect that fell flat. Tell us about the gods and magic. I wanted to know more.

Honestly I really hope that this book gets the edit it deserves. It's an interesting story but as it stands now, it needs a lot of work.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is a novel that is mostly an allegory about Western Colonialism/Imperialism. The setting is China in an alternate universe with magic. This version of China is being invaded by another, "science" based alternate universe where Rome never fell. The situation roughly parallels historical Western Colonialism/Imperialism and a great deal of the plot also relates to atrocities committed in Manchuria during World War II.

The magic system for this setting involves people called "Xianlings" who have specific magical gifts. The cost of the magical gift is that it will eventually shave years off the gifted person's life. The story follows Ruying, a young woman whose magical gift (or curse might be more accurate) is Death. She is coerced into becoming an assassin by a Roman prince in order to protect her family. She allows herself to be convinced that the prince has good intentions, but it is gradually revealed that she probably shouldn't have trusted him. (Which is not necessarily a spoiler, since there's a preface by the author about what some of the worldbuilding and backstory is based on. See:"atrocities committed in Manchuria during WWII.")

This book is bleak, and more than a little grimdark. The writer doesn't make Alternate Fantasy World China an absolutely ideal place, and doesn't make the Romans a faceless evil. (This can be an occasional problem with this type of story. The urge to drive home The Point with this kind of story can occasionally be overwhelming.) At the same time, you know which side is (very very very much) in the wrong. (It's the Romans by the way. They are objectively horrible people for various reasons that will become clear during the course of the story. See again: "atrocities.")

Ruying is a strong character motivated by a desire to protect her family, who is coerced into doing things that her family will condemn. Her desperate need to believe that she's doing ultimately the right thing was painful to witness. The ending is extremely open, with Ruying coming to the realization that she need to make amends for her actions. This may or may not mean we can expect a sequel. (If there is a sequel, I will definitely want to check it out.)

This review is based on a galley edition received via NetGalley.

This book was extremely hard to get through for me so I didn’t get far. I am not a fan of this prose. This writing style feels so stiff and it leaves much to be desired. I cannot get through this at all.

This book was so much better than originally anticipated and I had high expectations! Molly X. Chang did an amazing job showing fight between needing to survive and wanting to keep your morality still. This was an amazing book and even more surprising a debut!! Only rating 4 * because it did fall slow a tad in the middle of the book.

Oh, what a stunning book.

It captures the softness of life, of familial love, of yearning for peace on the backdrop of pure brutality in colonization and scientific advancements in the name of power. Magic and science mingle together in a way that is just so damn fascinating; the vastness of the world is gorgeously done and the secrets that linger throughout the entirety of it are magnificent.

This is everything I want in an epic fantasy - all kind of brilliant.

Well, this ended up being a difficult book to review. To state the obvious; with the cover of this book, and the description of what this story was, there was so much possibility and opportunity!

I think the best approach would be to list the positives and the frustrations, so here we go…

Positives:

The author’s note might be the thing that saves this book. I was so moved from her letter, that I immediately stopped and googled what she was talking about. That was such a tragic historical reference, and I immediately felt invested.

The opian crisis depicted scenes that so many of us could truly visualize. The focus of addiction, how it can destroy families and relationships, and how it’s not as simple as “just quitting” was well executed from the beginning.

You could understand the abuse and neglect that Ruying must have experienced from her father, and from others who feared her gift.

In real life, when it comes to war and heartbreaking situations, there’s a lot of “gray” scenarios. Not everyone is as brave as they think they would be, people do what they said they never would, and situations you never could have imagined, happen. This book definitely exists within that “gray” area.

The connection between the magic system and folklore beliefs was intriguing. I definitely loved learning about how magic is unique for everyone who possesses it, and how different it can be.


Frustrations:

There is no way you can forget who Antony Augustus is. I felt like you continued to read his full name, CONSTANTLY. Or you would be reminded that he was the second brother. And then at one point, it was supposed to be a surprise to Ruying that he had a third brother? When HE constantly said he was not like his brother(sssssss). I’m not sure how that was supposed to be a surprise or that he lied to Ruying.

The internal monologue... So much of it was repetitive. I understand the intent was to emphasize whatever Ruying was experiencing or feeling, but it was so excessive and so much of the pages went to repeating her thoughts instead of developing the world, the characters, or adding to the history, etc.

The Gods are mentioned, since so many gifts are connected to gods, but it’s pretty generalized, and as the reader, you’re assuming which gods might exist. I’m fine with leaving room for interpretation, but this could have been an area to dig into if it wasn’t wasted on repetitive dialogue.

I understand the ploy of using the Romans and this crossover universe situation, but I honestly couldn’t stand it, and it felt a little hokey. Also, because the Romans are coming from a dying Earth, assuming the Roman empire never fell and we’re in this futuristic timeline, all I could envision was The Happening by M. Night Shyamalan, and though they are nothing alike, I felt like this book was trying to achieve some unexpected twists, but everything was so obvious.

The love interest was pretty cringe...

I understand how her character could fall for her captive (I love Beauty and the Beast as much as anyone else does, so I’m not hating on the Stockholm syndrome scenario), but the execution was lacking. Instead, so much of this romance is built up in Ruying’s internal narrative and it was hard to find it appealing.

“You don’t understand. He’s different. He wants to help! He’s not like his brothers. He’s good. I know he is. He wants to help us and—” (Mind you, this quote actually comes before it’s “revealed” he has a second brother, so that’s also weird.)

I understand that you’re wanting Ruying to have doe eyes for Antony, but lines like above are so tiring. Books should be moving past this narrative, even if it is a YA book. ESPECIALLY if it’s a YA book. It just falls into this trend that women are helpless and naïve, and Ruying is NOT a child by this point. Plus, there’s so many other moments similar to this and for no reason because there’s no chemistry between them. Heck, Antony has done NOTHING show he deserves this defense from her.

And look, I’m usually a fan of enemies-to-lovers, or a Romeo/Juliet/I-can’t-fall-for-him-because-he’s-the-villain narrative, but that’s not what this was. From the moment he sees her, he’s mystified. And she can already tell that he’s “different” than the other Romans, so this isn’t even a true enemies-to-lovers situation.

Finally, I’m all for the morally gray MMC. In fact, I LOVE a morally gray character. There was nothing morally gray about Antony. Actually, there was nothing to Antony. Period. He wasn’t fascinating, his back story didn’t make you “feel” a certain way, and at the end of the day, I think many readers will struggle to connect with him.

I wanted to like this story, I truly did, but it wasn’t for me. I think there was so many missed possibilities and sitting through another book where I would see the same lines repeated multiple times is not something I want to do, so sadly, I won’t be moving forward with this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for granted my wish to get this ARC in exchange for an honest review

That was so SLOW like i have to gain some energy before diving into this book, again and again untill finish it. Well lets say, I am either to like this book or just to put this book at the corner of my room as a room's décor cause the cover is so pretty.

2.75 stars rounded up

This is based on very real events of World War II and the horrors that were acted upon the Manchurian people by the Japanese.

Another review that’s really just a random mashup of my thoughts:

I actually really liked Ruying’s character and felt that her choices were understandable given the circumstances. She felt very human whereas I feel like a lot of fantasy protagonists are a bit too good at making what should be hard decisions. Anthony was very interesting too, misguided as he was.

I couldn’t help but compare this to The Poppy War especially with the way opium and magic were represented. This has much more of a sci fi vibe to it with the Romans being from another world of science and technology and invading Ruying’s world that was blessed by magic but it still felt very similar in many ways. I’m not saying this is a ripoff necessarily but it kind of feels that way…

We spend around 90% of the book in Ruying’s head and it was just boring. I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. I ended up pushing through and the last 30% was more action filled but I’m not sure if it’s enough for me to continue with the series when it eventually comes out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing/Del Rey books for the arc in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review (still can’t believe I get to say that🥰)

Overall, this book has a lot of potential.

The thing that stood out most for me was the writing. Chang has a delicate way of weaving words together to create a vivid picture of the world her characters live in. I thought the prose was lyrical and intelligent, but in a way that felt authentic.

I also really enjoyed the relationship between Antony and Ruying. I loved their banter and how seamlessly the romance developed between them.

However, there are aspects of the book that took away from my enjoyment.

My big issue is that the world-building lacked a lot of depth. Many things were not explained properly or weren’t thoroughly explored until later in the book. The magic system was one area that I found incredibly lacking. A crucial aspect of this book is the main character’s death magic, but it isn't explained at all. I wish I knew more about the Gods and the different magics that the Xainlings possess.
Furthermore, I wish I knew more about the Roman Empire. The Romans weren’t fleshed out enough to make them a believable enemy. Their society wasn’t explained, their technology wasn’t explained, and their motivations weren’t explained. Nothing about the Romans felt developed and I couldn’t understand them as antagonists.

In addition, many of the characters were underdeveloped. Excluding Ruying and Meyia, most of the characters were flat and static. Antony, for example, felt more like a caricature rather than a complex character. His backstory was given to us in the form of an info dump and we were told about his actions rather than shown most of the time. And even outside Antony, many characters were presented this way. Consequently, I couldn’t form a meaningful attachment to anyone.

Finally, much of the book felt repetitive. I noticed that many details were often mentioned multiple times. While this isn’t inherently bad, it happened so frequently that it sort of felt like I was rereading the same paragraphs on different pages. This made the reading experience pretty dull and made the book feel very long and drawn out.

4.5 Stars!

It starts out a bit slow but it picks up pretty quickly and I really enjoyed the book! I enjoyed the change in Ruying. I really do not trust any of the colonizing Romans. They usually just want more and more and cant get enough. It is not Er-Lang’s fault that their world is dying . I hope we see how Antony really is. Can he really be trusted or is he really like his brothers?

Okay so Spoilers ahead since I want to remember the plot for the next book

Ruying must bargain for opian in order for her sister to continue to stay aware. She lives with Meiya, her twin sister addicted to opian, and her grandmother. One night, Ruying decides to steal from a Rome Prince. Later on, that same prince, Antony, decides to start a raid in order to keep Ruying as his assassin. They start to trust each other. Ruying has killed about 50 men for him. She finds out her next target is the Sihai emperor and this is when Ruying starts doubting Antony. The Phantom’s men come after them and Baihu is part of the Phantom’s men. When Antony is on death’s bed, Baihu shows Ruying what Antony is really doing in the labs and she sees Taohua pass away from the experiments. She confronts Antony and pretends to be on his side in order to help the Phantom with bringing war.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this arc.

The start was extremely exposition heavy, which I don’t enjoy. It’s easy enough to read, and it flows well. I stopped at the end of chapter 2 (5%). Easy three stars “liked it” for the target audience, four for the right readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.