Fangs of the Black Tiger

This is the sequel to the book which made me take a KU subscription again because I just had a great impulse to read it. And after the first one ended in a cliffhanger, I thought I would read this one immediately but my mood turned me towards other books. But I finally got to it and it was as fun as I expected.

The writing as I said before is very easy to breeze through and while it took me a few days to finish, I raced through the pages whenever I had it open. And it has so much of the common tropes found in wuxia dramas that I love the familiarity and it's easy to get lost in these pages. While there were many action sequences and quite a few subplots going on, there were also equal moments of contemplation and reflection, thinking of joy and sorrow and everything in between. I think the author did a good job balancing all the elements.

This book had a very interesting character arc for Li Ming - from someone who is only full of guilt and regret and unable to open up his heart for anyone, to someone who is ready to accept that there are things more important than keeping his master's word - he has come a long way. While I thought his interactions with Han Mama and others in Hebi'an were cool, this book was definitely about his relationship with Tao Jun - how much their lives are still intertwined even if they don't always get to be together and how their brotherhood is ultimately stronger than any vows they might have made to their master.

Shu Yan on the other hand is on a journey of her own - from being a captive to getting to be a part of a rebel army. She finds she still has the capacity to care and is also yearning for family, the place where she can finally belong and people whom she can call her own, but she is thrust in the middle of a decades long brewing rebellion as well as equally old personal grudge and before this whole story ends, she is gonna have to make some very tough choices. I could totally sympathize with her situation but also wanted her to be more smart and not get driven away by her emotions.

To sum it up, this was as fun as any entertaining wuxia as well as palace dramas with all its found family vibes, sworn brotherhoods and long held grudges, incompetent emperor being challenged by strong rebel forces as well as bandits, and poor people suffering in between. It's so easy to like these characters and feel their emotions and want them to be safe, and that's why I'm excited to see how it'll all end in the finale.