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.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
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