I finished the Guardian novel yesterday

... I really need to stop reading novel-length fiction during the school year. This is the second week in a row that I spent much of the weekdays neglecting things while I powered through. (And in a week when I was teaching moderation, too! And with a novel that was quite Buddhist in some places!)

Anyways,

- I really liked that author's multiple interpretations of what happened in The Beginning. Good myth-building and myth-reinterpretation. ( spoilers )

- I enjoyed a lot of the humor!

- I really liked the series of interlocking mysteries that carried the story forward. (the ghost mysteries, the items, the Ghost Face, and of course, "what happened 5000 years ago"). It actually kept me guessing, which is rare when I read stories.

- I really liked the 3 small ghost stories that were embedded in the story! I'll write a proper summary of them in a separate post.

- I generally liked the Shen Wei / Zhao Yunlan dynamic ( spoilers )

.... except for 2 points:

--- Shen Wei being a creep. ( spoilers )

--- Shen Wei being a scheming liar ( spoilers )

Anyway, I have some mental images from the book that I might draw, but if it's already in the tv show, or already drawn by superior Chinese fan artists, then maybe not.
- ice spiked on the tree
- the kiss after delivering the shoulder flame
- the giving of qi by the second item