Tang Qi

PS: Wer gerne noch mehr in der Welt von Three Lives Three Worlds eintauchen möchte, dem lege ich das Sequel The Pillow Book wärmstens ans Herz! Donghua Dijun und FengJui sind mein absolutes Lieblingscouple.

When the revered godess Bai Qian finally meets her intendend husband Ye Hua, the future Sky Emperor, she considers herself lucky.

But why ist Ye Huas son "Dumpling" refering to her as "mother" and what is it about the mortal Su Su, Dumplings mother, who was loved so fiercely by Ye Hua?

A mortal woman with the name of Su Su enters the Sky Kingdom to be with her immortal husband, Pregnant with his child she is shunned and mistreated by the arrogant immortals. Her husband's devotion to her sparks jealousy and provokes dangerous schemes which lead to tragedy.

When the God of War depletes all his spiritual energy it is his most loyal disciple that sustains his body with blood from its own heart and decides to wait thousands of years until his master returns.

This is the first fantasy novel by a chinese author that I read and I only got aware of this book due to the series adaptation I watched on netflix. This unvoluntarily led me to compare both stories while reading. The book overall follows the plot of ther series (of course its just the other way around since the book was there before). What surprised me was the changed timeline. Wheareas the series has a chronological order the book starts somewhere in the middle and often explains past events merely in rear view which reduced the suspense for me a little bit since many enthralling scenes were passively told and not actively. Nethertheless I finished the book  quite fast and really liked it. Its a completely different setting compared to american fantasy novels and has a certain exotic appeal. The storys includes fragments of chinese mythology (at least I assume so since I am dreadfully ignorant of these). I really liked the idea of immortal gods as the protagonists. Bai Qian is a spirited goddess  who has been alive for 140.000 years and due to an old arrangement been promised to Ye Hua who is 90.000 years her junior. Bai Qian is woman who has not much insight in to her own feelings and especially when it comes to love is quite clueless. Her relationship with Ye Hua is sweet in its own way since she pities him for being shackled to an "old lady" like her. All the while she is completely oblivious to his genuine feelings for her. Another character I loved was Ye Huas son Ali who Bai Qian calls "Little Sticky Rice Dumpling" or in short Dumpling which is just hilarious ;-)

Upon seeing Bai Qian the first time he calls her mother and is utterly devoted to her. I loved the scenes with the three of them the most because they are sure to make you laugh. What disappointed me a bit was that there were few scenes in which the reader gets a chance to learn more about the Demon Realm or the Sky Clan. Since the entire story is told from Bai Qians point of view it lacks the insight in the other characters minds. The stories centers so much on Bai Qian and Ye Huas that the other players sometimes appear dreary which wasn't the case in the series adaptation.