Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel), Vol. 2

  As you can surmise by its name, this is the second part of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's Heaven Official's Blessing series.  Calling it a sequel isn't quite accurate as this was originally published online as one massive web novel consisting of a lot of chapters.  When it was published in paperback it was split into eight separate installments.  This means that each book does not tell one cohesive story, at least in theory.  In practice I found that Volume 2 totally made sense as one book.  It didn't feel weird jumping in and it didn't end with me feeling awkward about leaving the story at that point.  The chapters presented in this volume fit together nicely and progress the overall plot very well.  We see what happens immediately following the events of Volume 1 while also learning more details about Xie Lian's past.  When reviewing Volume 1 I said that we didn't need to linger on his backstory too much, but the chapters spent looking at him before he first ascended are quite strong and certainly have a place within the book.  Along with strong translating and really good initial writing, everything about Heaven Official's Blessing Volume 2 is a really good time and I'm quite excited to pick up more volumes.