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peerless_princess_mingi's review
5.0
I love politics I love cute couples this was perfect for me. The writing was weird at first but it’s actually not hard to get used to. I just loved it ok I’m going to read the second one now
alt_air's review
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
queenslovebooks's review
4.0
“One look at you interfered with the rest of my life. What could I do?”
Just wrapped up Golden Terrace, Vol. 1, and I'm absolutely buzzing! Set against the majestic backdrop of the Great Zhou Empire during the Yuantai Era, this novel takes you deep into a world of political intrigue with a surprising twist of romance.
What unfolds is a beautifully complex dance of rivalry and companionship. As layers of political games and personal revelations build, so does the bond between Fu Shen and his unexpected companion. Their evolving relationship amid the tumultuous court life is a captivating blend of tension and tentative alliances.
This book is special for me because it’s the first non-Seven Seas Entertainment Danmei in my collection. I’ve got to say, the cover design is absolutely stunning—I’m in love with it! But, it’s bugging me that I can’t keep it flat; it keeps curling like it’s about to take flight. On the bright side, it actually smells like a real book, which makes me so happy, especially since my 7S books tend to smell more like magazines.
The writing is just spectacular, drawing you into each scene with lush descriptions and a narrative that flows effortlessly. It's one of those books where the setting and characters are so vivid, you feel part of the empire's sprawling intrigues.
Curious about blending deep historical settings with intricate personal stories? Let me know if you have favorites to recommend!
Just wrapped up Golden Terrace, Vol. 1, and I'm absolutely buzzing! Set against the majestic backdrop of the Great Zhou Empire during the Yuantai Era, this novel takes you deep into a world of political intrigue with a surprising twist of romance.
What unfolds is a beautifully complex dance of rivalry and companionship. As layers of political games and personal revelations build, so does the bond between Fu Shen and his unexpected companion. Their evolving relationship amid the tumultuous court life is a captivating blend of tension and tentative alliances.
This book is special for me because it’s the first non-Seven Seas Entertainment Danmei in my collection. I’ve got to say, the cover design is absolutely stunning—I’m in love with it! But, it’s bugging me that I can’t keep it flat; it keeps curling like it’s about to take flight. On the bright side, it actually smells like a real book, which makes me so happy, especially since my 7S books tend to smell more like magazines.
The writing is just spectacular, drawing you into each scene with lush descriptions and a narrative that flows effortlessly. It's one of those books where the setting and characters are so vivid, you feel part of the empire's sprawling intrigues.
Curious about blending deep historical settings with intricate personal stories? Let me know if you have favorites to recommend!
cammaleahh's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
leonidskies's review
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I've read this book before, and this was a re-read - when I originally read Golden Terrace, it was a pdf of a fan translation I downloaded from a carrd, and I fell in love.
This translation is a wonderfully put together piece (by the person who fan-translated of one of my other favourite danmei novels, mo du!), thoughtful and comprehensive, a beautiful rendering of an incredible novel.
I LOVE this book. I love the two main characters and the complexity of the political world they operate in. Their dynamic is so, so good - they make me laugh and cry (just a little, and mostly from the sheer force of good emotions). Knowing where the book was going didn't at all spoil it for me, because the joy pouring out of the pages still captivated me all over again. I'm so, so looking forward to digging in to the second volume.
This translation is a wonderfully put together piece (by the person who fan-translated of one of my other favourite danmei novels, mo du!), thoughtful and comprehensive, a beautiful rendering of an incredible novel.
I LOVE this book. I love the two main characters and the complexity of the political world they operate in. Their dynamic is so, so good - they make me laugh and cry (just a little, and mostly from the sheer force of good emotions). Knowing where the book was going didn't at all spoil it for me, because the joy pouring out of the pages still captivated me all over again. I'm so, so looking forward to digging in to the second volume.
black_red's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
impishideas's review
2.0
For god's sake, I just want to enjoy a danmei! Just one! I'm trying so hard here, and I haven't even finished this one, but I need to get my thoughts out there somewhere. This will likely be edited once I finish the book, or decide to DNF it.
I've read MXTX. I've read MeatbunDoesntEatMeat, and sort of like her despite thinking 2ha is a mess. I've tried Priest. I feel like I've tried everything the danmei subreddit swears up and down is a 'literary masterpiece' and even some ones that they don't, like Cerulean Planet, or The Beauty's Blade, or Danglars' other projects like Peach Blossom Debt. And every single one of them (barring Peach Blossom Debt, which was at least a great romantic comedy when it wasn't about kissing children) reads like a fantasy doorstopper from fifteen years ago.
The most tepid stories of an archtypal and underdeveloped setting, filled with plot cul-de-sacs, characters that exist to be evil hate-sinks, naked power fantasy, etc. Romance presented by-the-trope, with zero nuance to the dynamic (2ha gets a pass here). Regressive as hell politics that nobody ever seems to mention or care about (hello there, Priest). The editing quality of Golden Terrace is about level with self-published kindle works, a high bar to clear for physical danmei releases, and the books themselves are poorly constructed even for paperbacks. They are priced at a premium, and even split into multiple volumes, compared to the brick-like works of Eddings, Jordan or Goodkind that came before them. I imagine that's rather good for someone's pocket, but probably not the author, or the customer for that matter.
Make no mistake, the physical release of Golden Terrace feels like it's about to disintegrate in my hand whenever I pick it up, but the blisteringly cheap bookbinding job isn't really why I'm here, I'm just offering a warning against buying the thing like I did, because the book feels baaaad to hold.
No, mostly I'm shocked at how boring this court intrigue is so far, at maybe a quarter of the way through the first volume.
Nobody feels very... characterized, in the early chapters of Golden Terrace. The narrative will explain why someone does a thing, or bust out some incredibly clunky poetry about ice and fire to 'show' their feelings in the driest and least humanizing way possible, and I'm left looking at the words that come out of their mouth, or the way others respond to them, and it's all so flat and unmotivated. They just react to the people around them, rather than having seemingly any thoughts or motivations of their own, much less acting on those motives. An example of this would be the scene where the emperor breaks the news of the arranged marriage to Yan Xiaohan, and throughout it I'm struggling to believe Yan Xiaohan could be an inspector of anything, with how painfully slow he is on the uptake. The emperor has to talk him through every step of his 'veiled meaning', like Yan Xiaohan is an absolute moron who's never spent a day in court in his life! A literal James Bond villain, which the emperor absolutely feels like btw, would eat half of this cast alive with their powerful wit and ability to read basic facial expressions.
Oh, yes, our seasoned, middle-aged politician protagonists in this political story wear their hearts on their sleeves. It's... kind of embarrassing, because the author doesn't seem aware of it. They blindly trust people they barely know, even known gossips in one particularly infuriating case, with sensitive information that might very well get them killed or deposed. In the middle of a situation where they're both possibly about to be killed off by the emperor himself, if they hadn't had their room-reading ability surgically removed at birth.
Look, I know the situation is significantly more complicated than it appears at first, but that doesn't change the fact that barely anyone in this book seems competent at acting, or social engineering, or restraining their emotions, or anything relating to politics at all, and that makes it a really hard sell as a book that's 'more about the intrigue than the romance', personally. It's like watching an entire cast of Ned Starks trying to scheme their way off of the chopping block, and even that oversells the concept by at least implying something fun or chaotic might result. No, thus far, mostly just intensely embarrassing.
The romance is, at over a hundred pages into an 800 page book, some really generic Warm And Fuzzy Feeling hurt/comfort stuff, with nothing to hook me into their dynamic. They instantly care about one another in an extremely generic way, despite my vain hope for some interesting 'sleeping with the enemy' type stuff. One of them is sick and the other one cares for them, but neither of them have any interesting thoughts on said situation that the author bothered to describe, nor anything funny or charming to say to one another. They can expend pages upon pages on how Fu Shen is unconscious because he stupidly knelt in the rain for two hours, but the book fails utterly at putting me in his head as to why he's doing this, because it needs to reveal two chapters later that he was secretly a mega-brain who knew stuff the audience didn't. Because the audience is deliberately kept at a distance from the characters at all times, unless the narrative wants to tell me directly what to think, which it does. A lot.
All in all, so far, this is shaping up to be a very mid book. Better than some of the danmei I've read, and passably translated for the field, but the prose still feels juvenile and reliant on telling me what to feel, and the worldbuilding is barebones when present at all. People pop into and out of the plot without leaving even a ripple of 'oh, that character was charming' to mark their passage. It's getting dangerously close to being in I don't care about any of these people territory, because nobody has motivations I've actually been given enough to care about beyond the emperor's vague plotting, but I hold out hope. If you're specifically a fan of WAFF hurt/comfort, you might find the opening of this book just barely passable for how slowly it plods along.
God, I just really don't want another danmei to disappoint me. C'mon, please.
I've read MXTX. I've read MeatbunDoesntEatMeat, and sort of like her despite thinking 2ha is a mess. I've tried Priest. I feel like I've tried everything the danmei subreddit swears up and down is a 'literary masterpiece' and even some ones that they don't, like Cerulean Planet, or The Beauty's Blade, or Danglars' other projects like Peach Blossom Debt. And every single one of them (barring Peach Blossom Debt, which was at least a great romantic comedy when it wasn't about kissing children) reads like a fantasy doorstopper from fifteen years ago.
The most tepid stories of an archtypal and underdeveloped setting, filled with plot cul-de-sacs, characters that exist to be evil hate-sinks, naked power fantasy, etc. Romance presented by-the-trope, with zero nuance to the dynamic (2ha gets a pass here). Regressive as hell politics that nobody ever seems to mention or care about (hello there, Priest). The editing quality of Golden Terrace is about level with self-published kindle works, a high bar to clear for physical danmei releases, and the books themselves are poorly constructed even for paperbacks. They are priced at a premium, and even split into multiple volumes, compared to the brick-like works of Eddings, Jordan or Goodkind that came before them. I imagine that's rather good for someone's pocket, but probably not the author, or the customer for that matter.
Make no mistake, the physical release of Golden Terrace feels like it's about to disintegrate in my hand whenever I pick it up, but the blisteringly cheap bookbinding job isn't really why I'm here, I'm just offering a warning against buying the thing like I did, because the book feels baaaad to hold.
No, mostly I'm shocked at how boring this court intrigue is so far, at maybe a quarter of the way through the first volume.
Nobody feels very... characterized, in the early chapters of Golden Terrace. The narrative will explain why someone does a thing, or bust out some incredibly clunky poetry about ice and fire to 'show' their feelings in the driest and least humanizing way possible, and I'm left looking at the words that come out of their mouth, or the way others respond to them, and it's all so flat and unmotivated. They just react to the people around them, rather than having seemingly any thoughts or motivations of their own, much less acting on those motives. An example of this would be the scene where the emperor breaks the news of the arranged marriage to Yan Xiaohan, and throughout it I'm struggling to believe Yan Xiaohan could be an inspector of anything, with how painfully slow he is on the uptake. The emperor has to talk him through every step of his 'veiled meaning', like Yan Xiaohan is an absolute moron who's never spent a day in court in his life! A literal James Bond villain, which the emperor absolutely feels like btw, would eat half of this cast alive with their powerful wit and ability to read basic facial expressions.
Oh, yes, our seasoned, middle-aged politician protagonists in this political story wear their hearts on their sleeves. It's... kind of embarrassing, because the author doesn't seem aware of it. They blindly trust people they barely know, even known gossips in one particularly infuriating case, with sensitive information that might very well get them killed or deposed. In the middle of a situation where they're both possibly about to be killed off by the emperor himself, if they hadn't had their room-reading ability surgically removed at birth.
Look, I know the situation is significantly more complicated than it appears at first, but that doesn't change the fact that barely anyone in this book seems competent at acting, or social engineering, or restraining their emotions, or anything relating to politics at all, and that makes it a really hard sell as a book that's 'more about the intrigue than the romance', personally. It's like watching an entire cast of Ned Starks trying to scheme their way off of the chopping block, and even that oversells the concept by at least implying something fun or chaotic might result. No, thus far, mostly just intensely embarrassing.
The romance is, at over a hundred pages into an 800 page book, some really generic Warm And Fuzzy Feeling hurt/comfort stuff, with nothing to hook me into their dynamic. They instantly care about one another in an extremely generic way, despite my vain hope for some interesting 'sleeping with the enemy' type stuff. One of them is sick and the other one cares for them, but neither of them have any interesting thoughts on said situation that the author bothered to describe, nor anything funny or charming to say to one another. They can expend pages upon pages on how Fu Shen is unconscious because he stupidly knelt in the rain for two hours, but the book fails utterly at putting me in his head as to why he's doing this, because it needs to reveal two chapters later that he was secretly a mega-brain who knew stuff the audience didn't. Because the audience is deliberately kept at a distance from the characters at all times, unless the narrative wants to tell me directly what to think, which it does. A lot.
All in all, so far, this is shaping up to be a very mid book. Better than some of the danmei I've read, and passably translated for the field, but the prose still feels juvenile and reliant on telling me what to feel, and the worldbuilding is barebones when present at all. People pop into and out of the plot without leaving even a ripple of 'oh, that character was charming' to mark their passage. It's getting dangerously close to being in I don't care about any of these people territory, because nobody has motivations I've actually been given enough to care about beyond the emperor's vague plotting, but I hold out hope. If you're specifically a fan of WAFF hurt/comfort, you might find the opening of this book just barely passable for how slowly it plods along.
God, I just really don't want another danmei to disappoint me. C'mon, please.
rosearchive's review
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
tmint's review
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
ercamcll's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25