A review by itsnotalakeitsanocean
Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.5

Shelley Parker-Chan wasn't kidding when she compared this book to The Untamed because it is essentially a less violent version of MDZS (the novels it was based on) but with M/F leads. Not that this is a bad thing, but if you've read any wuxia or xianxia novels, you'll probably be like me and feel this is treading over ground you've already been through. That said, a lot of the terminology was put simpler than in those novels (seeing as Chinese audiences are likely already familiar with such concepts) so if you found MDZS or any other similar novels a bit too unwieldy, I could see this book being beneficial to those kinds of people.

What I liked:
  • It bears repeating again but you can tell a lot of love was put into representing the Chinese culture, both for atmospheric purposes and so that it is sufficiently devastating when the Elantians come and destroy everything. The characters also got to criticise some aspects of their culture too, but in a respectful manner.
  • Although I feel like the romance between the two leads is a little rushed, it was nice that there wasn't any smut between them. I have nothing against smut, but it would have felt gratuitous and likely gone against any precepts of cultivation the characters were following if it was included.
  • On a similar but more grim topic (content warning for sexual assault/trafficking):
    I'm glad that the sexual assault that the patrons of the Teahouse went when being sold to the Elantians was off-screen but given enough gravitas that it felt enough of a threat to any of the workers. This isn't to say such things can be depicted but I don't think it would have been appropriate for this age demographic (and the bar is so low for avoiding things happening purely for shock value in books to get people to buy them these days and yet many books still fail to clear it)
  • The magic system is well thought-out. If you've read enough wuxia/xianxia it's nothing new or fresh, but it at least adheres to the conventions of these systems. It was interesting that the Elantians had metal as their main magical element, however, since it is also one of the classical elements in Chinese. Likely it was a magic they stole, but nothing has been confirmed about it as of this book.

What I didn't like:
  • A good chunk of the first half of the book felt like it dragged for too long with not much happening. I know a lot of it is supposed to be about Lan training herself, but it felt like there wasn't much else other than her training and getting into trouble. Granted this was because of them waiting for someone to cure Lan's arm, but contrast this with something like MDZS where most of the training is either off-screen or we see the characters go on little missions to show the progress of their cultivation and have opportunities for other things to happen.
  • Speaking of Lan, I don't normally get irritated by girl leads but she kept getting under my skin for being disrespectful or doing stupid stuff because she felt like it. I could understand if she developed this kind of attitude after leaving the teahouse at the start, but it didn't make sense to me how the proprietor of the place put up with her for so long just because she had a beautiful singing voice. Even in the School of White Pines, it felt like she got out of punishment too easily for no reason (especially the teacher that pulled a Lan Qiren on her and made her copy out thick books with thin pages as a punishment).

    Also while I'm glad her attitude and powers improved, I feel like there was no point where the change was visible. It just sort of happened. Her attitude was particularly egregious with her and Dilaya where she was instantly catty to the latter for no reason. At least the author didn't turn the story into a love triangle where Dilaya and Lan competed for Zen's affections. As for her powers improving, it's revealed it was the work of the Silver Dragon laying dormant in her. It was slightly foreshadowed so I'm not too mad, but it felt weird no one pointed out how prodigious Lan was at something she hadn't learned to do from a young age unlike most of the other pupils at the School. I also felt she got off way easier than Zen did with the Black Turtle when she commanded the Silver Dragon's power.
  • And then there's Zen. I know I put this series has strong character development but it barely applies to him, save for the second half of the book. For the most part of the story he's the world's most patient stoic guy and that's all he has going for him.
    This is definitely a trauma response to losing his people and having a demon bound inside of him so that he could slaughter the culprits in revenge, but even trauma victims are more than just their trauma. He felt like the perfect love interest for the reader to project onto and go "I can fix him!" through Lan over having any actual character.
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