one line notes on priest novels

[pengwern]

Just remembered why Lie Huo Jiao Chou/Inferno Quenching Sorrow/(translation link) was one of the most breathtaking webnovels I had the infinite fortune to read last year, and I should...do a liveblog this time, now that I don't have to wait for updates.
(By Priest who did Guardian and Sha Po Lang, which I think are the two books western fandom is more familiar with? I've rampaged through most of her other works too, and enjoyed them!)

• No Public Harm, No Pollution was the contemporary wuxia I didn't know I needed (actually I didn't need that much millennial angst about jobs, housing, relationships in this cold world, ties to the past like ball and chain, debts both financial and moral, ...and so on at 3AM which is why I stopped for several months, but the payoff was worth it.) I'd rec it if the translation wasn't abandoned, but after Lie Huo I think it's probably the best of her works.
• Mo Du/Silent Reading is the detective/serial killers one with flashbacks I didn't want to skip unlike MXTX
• Can Ci Pin/Imperfections is the space opera I read while the Ruin/future housing pav was ongoing (and sideways explaining the random red wine cabinets they seem to require against the chilly ipod color palette (??)
• the executive dysfunction one was surprisingly.......arrow to the knee/mood, despite a bit I disagreed with about the medication, but for a webnovel I was very satisfied.
• The historical steampunk Sha Po Lang felt unevenly paced, but which also....increased its resemblance to a chronicle of a real war. Campaigns that drag on, internal reversals, the times when everything seems to happen and crush your brave protags, the random people and threads that wander in and out...I'm glad I didn't have to follow it through updates, though.
• Guardian was an enjoyable urban fantasy, but it's not the best place to start with her works or with webnovels in general.
• Shan He Biao Li, which I'd localize to King of Infinite Space, was the random adventure thriller story, with lots of timey-spacey shenanigans, and a made up ethnic group which I....don't know enough to side-eye.
• Liu Yao/The Revitalization of Fuyao Sect is one of those webnovels that does the unexpected thing of allowing bad things to happen to protagonists. Not just the appealing ones like getting one's heart's blood drained, but actual setbacks! Incredible. Webnovels are a genre where 'Sue' as in Mary Sue is a valid trope descriptor so......(Also I remember the little shimei getting named Water Puddle by her loving shixiongs. Realism is so hard to find.............)
• Qi Ye and Faraway Wanderers are her very early works, and tbh they show the age by being generic wuxia fics.

I'm very fond of priest's jokes and her voice, and her ability for landing solid, stunning finales is undeniable! Her flaws might be....pacing? This is hard, especially with translations. Also her plots get rather convoluted at times, which is fine for repeat reads but not most webnovels where people tear through the archives.
I'd recommend Lie Huo over her other more translated works because now that I'm looking at the lengths, they do seem to be trilogy sized when traditionally published. It's also easier imo to follow than Guardian with all the kitchen sink underworld mythology references. But of course Lie Huo doesn't yet have a delicious show with chicken-swords and idiots burning out the back of their sweaters with flaming hot wings and beauties reviving from sealed tombs yet.