[Series Overview] The Celestial Kingdom - Sue Lynn Tan

I started this series on: January 5, 2025
I finished this series on: January 7, 2025 (main series)
Cover editions here updated on: May 1, 2024
Written content here updated on: February 8, 2024

Disclaimer, one you'd see on multiple posts As I struggled to decide which book series to cover overviews for, it dawned to me that I'd never get started at this rate. It became clear to me that, it's rather unlikely for me to use this blog as my "main" reviewing spot since I have Goodreads for that, and chances of someone miraculously stumbling across this blog out of the countless ones out there, is just rather slim, therefore, I'd put up links to my GR reviews (in English,) and this post would be in Chinese for people who are curious about the series but either aren't comfortable with or just don't prefer reading in English. Please also note that, sometimes I don't have time to write actual reviews, HOWEVER, I do always put down thoughts when I document my reading status updates, so for GR desktop users, remember to scroll down if it appears to contain little, it'd be under the quotes I liked from that book (when applicable lol;) for mobile app users, remember to switch to "Reading Activity," which would not be the default as "Review" is.

Goodreads Choice Award：第一入圍Fantasy和Debut Novel！

恭喜這部成為我網誌重新啟用後，第二部「沒看」卻還發網誌的作品😂 還促使我發出另一篇原本累積在草稿的網誌😝 原先是真的有打算看；同世界觀的新書2024年2月上市，當時就規劃同年要把這部解決、甚至約好了buddy-read對象，我連這篇網誌下面封面都整理完、文字都寫好了，結果在作最後確認的時候注意到，作者的官網上面除了第2.5集，真的還有一本第3本，為了這件事情還和網友討論了一下，和小編鬼打牆了一番，但最後證明真的還會有一本，便確定了明（2025）年才會看xDDDDD。後來覺得不發白不發，等實際看了，網誌發佈的年份會再做調整囉！

The actual review is, as usual, WIP, but like I said above, getting the post out there first.

GR stats (linking default edition)	Editions I'm privy to
[Read My Review!]
[Read My Review!]

Author:

Disclaimer, one you'd see on multiple posts The following section, basically a gallery of editions around the world with different book cover art, is largely inspired by treatments of fellow blogger Amethyst, who unfortunately hasn't done those types of blog posts for a while. Please DO NOT mistaken the following to be all existing editions; I'm only including completed sets with matching designs. All clickable images are linked to respective editions on GR; people, shelving correct editions ain't that hard. Highly recommend accurate shelving. =D

以下涵蓋6款，記得看全文以觀賞喔 >:3
另外，其實還有另一套獨特封面的版本（伊朗），
但是作者官網上授權的語言並沒有列出，所以就先不放了。

British English | 英式英文

由現居英國的台灣裔繪師Jason Chuang繪製^{[繪師官網]}，封面就真的感覺得出來不是打YA市場（有種優雅感？），但我真的沒想到會是台灣人w 喔然後，題外話，作者是馬來西亞出生，但這系列卻沒有在馬來西亞賣？🙄️ 所以擺放順序我有糾結一下，以市場大小來說美國還是比較大，但作者的介紹寫有去英國（和法國）唸書，後現居香港，所以就優先放英國的啦～

American English | 美式英文

由中国裔繪師Kuri Huang繪製^{[繪師作品集]}，很美www 繪師構圖range頗廣，近期雖然接了不少亞洲風的作品，但其實我沒有認出來是同一位負責的（還認成別人😅）很厲害👍

繁體中文 （台灣） | Traditional Chinese (Taiwan)

封面與眾不同👍 這種最棒，不像某些國家愛自己出又幾乎跟原版一模一樣，到底用意在哪xDDD 由台灣繪師麻繩繪製^{[繪師Facebook][繪師Instagram]}，可參考看看無標題文字之原圖^{[繪師Instagram文一][二]}。真要挑骨頭大概可以說會因為風格被誤認為是輕小說或中国網路小說？但也不一定是扣分啦，吸引不同閱讀群眾也不錯～

2024 Year End Recap

(If you have a short reading attention span, feel free to just skip to the actual ranking, which you'd have to click into the blog post to view >:3)

This particular blog post is to first document what was actually published in 2024.

Note: Notice two font sizes below? The regular size matching this sentence and paragraphs above, are my makeup work for before. The smaller size (like this) are the ones that are posted extremely closed to, if not in fact on the exact published date. Those, should there actually be casual viewers of my blog, are hard to miss, since the Blog Archive function reflects them quite well, and the backdated ones are what easily gone unnoticed, hence the emphasis.

1. [Series Overview] The Book of Tea - Judy I. Lin
2. [Series Overview] The Drowning Empire - Andrea Stewart
3. [Series Overview] The Stolen Heir duology - Holly Black
4. [Series Overview] The Queen of the Tearling trilogy - Erika Johansen
5. [Series Overview] The Celestial Kingdom - Sue Lynn Tan ☜ NOW MOVED TO 2025!!!
6. [Series Overview] Shadow Bruja - J.C. Cervantes
7. [Series Overview] Threads That Bind duology - Kika Hatzopoulou
8. [Adaptation Observations] ゴーストハント (Ghost Hunt)
9. [Source Material vs. Adaptation] フェルマーの料理 TBS series Season 1
10. [Series Overview] The Study Chronicles: Valek's Adventures - Maria V. Snyder
11. [Series Overview] The Midnight Hour trilogy - Benjamin Read & Laura Trinder
12. [Series Overview] The Licanius Trilogy - James Islington
13. [Series Overview] The Books of Ambha - Tasha Suri
14. [Post Index] 宅宅逛展展 / sightseeing / window shopping
15. 2024 Year End Recap ☜ THIS POST!!!

Technically this post wasn't exactly posted within the timeframe, but close enough to be counted as published on time, so I'm counting it, lmao. That said, as this is the one post per year you'd get more of my personal life, I'll still share the gist of my year:

• True to my words (?), 2024 really is relatively smooth (but busy). I admit, I was rather unhappy and grumpy from mid-February to the end of June, and was truly fearing the fiasco of 2022 would reappear, but luckily it didn't, and thanks to all my friends IRL and from the Net, I kept my sanity. Another year went by, I'm content.
• So why o why am I reading so little and also writing so little? Simple: I became way more active IRL, as documented HERE. You can see how much more 2024's activities are comparing to previous years. Originally the plan was to gradually post all items individually, but unfortunately, technical difficulties occurred (translation: Facebook sucks) so it didn't happen in 2024. I still hope to do it in the future though.

Okay, if it wasn't obvious, I was as previously predicted, busier in 2024 due to RL responsibilities; I do hope that next year my reading and blog posts wouldn't be so unevenly distributed, fingers crossed.

Anyways, as of 2024/12/31, according to the Blog Archive function, I have 8 posts published in 2024 (not counting this one), and 1 of them WILL be has been readjusted to be counted for 2025. That one particular post that was more than 90% done back in 2021? I finally published it, and will continue to update it. I really hope I can fully finished it by the end of the first quarter of 2025 though! That, along with a couple of other non-Series-Overview posts. Wish me luck! lol

2024 Reading Challenge

Sammm has read 32 books toward her goal of 35 books.

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32 of 35 (91%)

view books

It's because of 2024's unusual circumstances that resulted in the first part being larger than usual. I hope people are patient enough to reach this part, lmao. On Goodreads, there's the My Year in Books function they provided that give some statistics, [check out mine for 2024!] (My GR profile is set for GR Users only, so this one, you'd have to login in order to view.) There's also the Goodreads Year in Review, [read mine!] (no GR account required.)

So what's different here is that I'm going to rank what I've read, but limited to series that concluded or standalones, extras, and compilations published in this year and the year before. You may notice, 2024 is like 2022, I fear there'd be no point of making a ranking list had I not included the two-year duration from the start. And, ladies and gents, drum roll....!

[Series Overview] The Books of Ambha - Tasha Suri

I started this series on: December 25, 2024
I finished this series on: December 28, 2024
Cover editions here updated on: December 25, 2024
Written content here updated on: December 28, 2024

Disclaimer, one you'd see on multiple posts As I struggled to decide which book series to cover overviews for, it dawned to me that I'd never get started at this rate. It became clear to me that, it's rather unlikely for me to use this blog as my "main" reviewing spot since I have Goodreads for that, and chances of someone miraculously stumbling across this blog out of the countless ones out there, is just rather slim, therefore, I'd put up links to my GR reviews (in English,) and this post would be in Chinese for people who are curious about the series but either aren't comfortable with or just don't prefer reading in English. Please also note that, sometimes I don't have time to write actual reviews, HOWEVER, I do always put down thoughts when I document my reading status updates, so for GR desktop users, remember to scroll down if it appears to contain little, it'd be under the quotes I liked from that book (when applicable lol;) for mobile app users, remember to switch to "Reading Activity," which would not be the default as "Review" is.

The actual review is, as usual, WIP, but like I said above, getting the post out there first.

GR stats (linking default edition)	Editions I'm privy to
[Read My Review!]
[Read My Review!]

Author:
Series:

Disclaimer, one you'd see on multiple posts The following section, basically a gallery of editions around the world with different book cover art, is largely inspired by treatments of fellow blogger Amethyst, who unfortunately hasn't done those types of blog posts for a while. Please DO NOT mistaken the following to be all existing editions; I'm only including completed sets with matching designs. All clickable images are linked to respective editions on GR; people, shelving correct editions ain't that hard. Highly recommend accurate shelving. =D

British English | 英式英文


italiano | Italian | 義大利文


polski | Polish | 波蘭文

[Series Overview] The Licanius Trilogy - James Islington

I started this series on: December 3, 2024
I finished this series on: December 17, 2024 (main series)
Cover editions here updated on: December 3, 2024
Written content here updated on: December 8, 2024

Disclaimer, one you'd see on multiple posts As I struggled to decide which book series to cover overviews for, it dawned to me that I'd never get started at this rate. It became clear to me that, it's rather unlikely for me to use this blog as my "main" reviewing spot since I have Goodreads for that, and chances of someone miraculously stumbling across this blog out of the countless ones out there, is just rather slim, therefore, I'd put up links to my GR reviews (in English,) and this post would be in Chinese for people who are curious about the series but either aren't comfortable with or just don't prefer reading in English. Please also note that, sometimes I don't have time to write actual reviews, HOWEVER, I do always put down thoughts when I document my reading status updates, so for GR desktop users, remember to scroll down if it appears to contain little, it'd be under the quotes I liked from that book (when applicable lol;) for mobile app users, remember to switch to "Reading Activity," which would not be the default as "Review" is.

我是真的有點驚訝這系列沒有半集入圍Goodreads Choice Award... @@ 作者其實有先自己出版第一集，後來才又商業化出版，所以第一集的情況：感覺自己出版的那個沒入圍，商業出版的那個也因為其實出過了不能算當年度所以不能入圍（這是合理的解釋啦！），第二和三集，我個人是懷疑，頁數偏多所以不夠多人及時看及時評價，所以不夠到GR雷達上。

我的想法啦：整個系列的評比數量至今（2024年）確實低於同類型同質量但可能不同觀眾群的作品，所以我才覺得頁數應該是讓大多數人卻步的原因xDDD（我自己都拖了五年才終於開始看xP）但是單論平均分數的話，它還是很不錯的喔！可以挑戰看看！

The actual review is, as usual, WIP, but like I said above, getting the post out there first.

GR stats (linking default edition)	Editions I'm privy to
[Read My Review!]
[Read My Review!]
[Read My Review!]

Author:
Series: Unofficial:

Disclaimer, one you'd see on multiple posts The following section, basically a gallery of editions around the world with different book cover art, is largely inspired by treatments of fellow blogger Amethyst, who unfortunately hasn't done those types of blog posts for a while. Please DO NOT mistaken the following to be all existing editions; I'm only including completed sets with matching designs. All clickable images are linked to respective editions on GR; people, shelving correct editions ain't that hard. Highly recommend accurate shelving. =D

English | 英文

在這邊道歉，作者是澳洲人，應該是有澳版的，但我真的真的分辨不出來😭 上方到底是哪一種英文版本，因為出版社全部一樣，我放棄辨識了🤦🏻‍♀️ 如果有人知道怎麼分辨，來解惑超感激！封面由Dominick Saponaro^{[繪師官網]}繪製。

čeština | Czech | 捷克文


Deutsch | German | 德文


español | Spanish | 西班牙文 （有聲書）

西班牙文... 我完全找不到紙本實體的出版資訊🤔。這個有聲書版本封面跟英文封面類似但不一樣，不過還是很好奇為什麼沒有紙本... 如果其實有，歡迎告知喔～