Chinese fantasy novels recommendations (are they on par with Western fantasy?)

[Xianxia]

True Martial World is very addictive. Lot of actions. One of the most popular Chinese fantasy series both inside China and overseas.


http://www.novelupdates.com/series/true-martial-world/

With the strongest experts from the 33 Skies, the Human Emperor and his opponent were embroiled in a final battle, ending with the Human Emperor destroying the Abyssal World. A godly artifact, the mysterious purple card that had previously sealed the Abyssal Demon King, disappeared into the space-time vortex and tunneled through infinite space-time.

In the vast wilderness, where martial arts was still slowly growing in its infancy, several peerless masters tried to find their path in the world of martial arts.

A young adult named Yi Yun from modern Earth had unwittingly stumbled into such a world and began that journey with a purple card of unknown origin.

It’s a magnificent yet unknown true martial art world. This is the story of a normal young adult turning into a legendary peerless expert.

Rating(4.3 / 5.0, 526 votes)
5 70% (368 votes)
4 11% (59 votes)
3 7% (38 votes)
2 4% (23 votes)
1 7% (38 votes)

[bookman156]

I don't read a lot of Chinese fantasy novels, but I had to read the Fengshen Yanyi 封神演義 as part of a research project. I really enjoyed it. Possibly the earliest mention in fiction of the concept of germ warfare, among many other things:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investiture_of_the_Gods

[Xianxia]

currently reading this but I skipped volume 1 because it's a long long prologue (18 chapters worth). I would recommend starting with Volume 2 when he was reborn into another world. From the author of Coiling Dragon and Desolate Era:


http://gravitytales.com/the-nine-cau...nc-chapter-19/

Emperor Zi Yu used 5 strikes of his axe to split mountains and unify everyone underneath the heavens. He partitioned the land into 9 areas, thus establishing the Nine Cauldrons which eventually became known as the 9 prefectures.

When Emperor Zi Yu died, disputes unceasingly arose

One thousand years later, a once in a generation genius, Celestial Emperor Qing Ling was born. Able to split a one hundred meter river, equipped with his peerless martial prowess, he finally united the land under the heavens. However, once Celestial Emperor Qing Ling died, chaos once again shrouded the land. Another one thousand years passed and no one was able to consolidate the nation.

From contemporary society, great Chinese Martial Artist Teng Qingshan, unexpectedly arrived into this world.

[Xianxia]

The most popular Chinese fantasy right now:

http://www.novelupdates.com/series/i...l-the-heavens/

Rating(4.4 / 5.0, 969 votes)
5 73% (710 votes)
4 11% (103 votes)
3 7% (65 votes)
2 3% (31 votes)
1 6% (60 votes)

[Xianxia]

This one is so damn funny and very addictive

http://www.novelupdates.com/series/i...y-a-superstar/

someone wrote this comment on chapter 33


Adriatik_Today 2:51 AM
I’m dead. This novel is god. The mc is better then Meng Hao in his humor. Issth level in a totally different genre is really shocking. Jesus [language - MODERATOR] christ I am so done. I love you for translating this. Seriously. I haven’t been this grateful while reading a novel in a long long time. The author is amazing, you are amazing. Thank you.

[Xianxia]

congrats to GravityTales for reaching this milestone

http://gravitytales.com/2016/06/24/250-million-views/
250 Million Views!


The best reads from GravityTales are

True Martial World
Martial World
I'm Really a Superstar
Demon's Diary
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality
The Nine Cauldrons (skip the volume 1 long prologue)

the others are not as good

[Xianxia]

Traffic Ranking for the top two sites

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wuxiaworld.com

Global Rank
Global rank icon 1,553

Rank in United States
United States Flag 1,086

Daily Unique Visitors
222,001
Daily Pageviews
3,637,029
Monthly Unique Visitors
2,159,763
Monthly Pageviews
104,897,556




http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/gravitytales.com

Global Rank
Global rank icon 3,853

Rank in United States
United States Flag 2,406

Daily Unique Visitors
95,289
Daily Pageviews
1,280,100
Monthly Unique Visitors
903,923
Monthly Pageviews
39,587,812








Against the Gods 9.5/10 (wuxiaworld translating)
Tales of Demons and Gods 9.5/10 (wuxiaworld translating)
I Shall Seal the Heavens 9.5/10 (wuxiaworld translating)
Douluo Dalu (Battle Continent) 9.5/10
The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor 9.5/10 ------ highly recommended for those who are interested in Virtual Reality gaming
Battle Through the Heavens 9/10
Way of Choice 9/10
Wu Dong Qian Kun 8.5/10
Coiling Dragon 8.5/10
The Desolate Era 8.5/10
The Great Ruler 8.5/10
Sealed Divine Throne 8.5/10
Martial God Asura 8/10
Mad God 8/10
Stellar Transformation 7.5/10
Peerless Martial God 7.5/10
Chaotic Sword God 7/10



More novels:

True Martial World 9.5/10
I'm Really a Superstar 9.5/10
Emperor's Domination 9.5/10
Martial World 9/10
Demon's Diary 9/10
Heavenly Jewel Change 9/10
Perfect World 9/10
The Empyrean Overlord 9/10
Transcending the Nine Heavens 9/10
Realms In The Firmament 9/10
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality 8.5/10
The Nine Cauldrons 8.5/10 (skip volume 1 long prologue)

[Xianxia]

A friend of mine told me that a successful American fantasy author has a very good Chinese "xianxia" fantasy book on sell on Amazon.

As a huge xianxia fan, I obviously went and take a look. After reading it, it's a damn good novel.


It is currently #1228 Paid in Kindle Store on August 7 after almost 2 months after it released

https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Crad.../dp/B01H1CYBS6

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,228 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#2 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Myths & Legends > Asian
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Myths & Legends > Asian
#23 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic

It was released on June 13 so I imagine it was much more popular back during the first week.

He did wrote this on his blog back on June 20:

In other news, Unsouled has surpassed all my predictions for how well it's selling. I mean, you guys are amazing. It's sold over 1200 copies in less than a week, and it's on track to sell more than three hundred copies today alone. This is a better launch response than any book I've written since House of Blades.

I looked at his books that have been published. They got good reviews. Anyone have read them? Are they any good?

House of Blades by Will Wight
The Crimson Vault
City of Light

Of Shadow & Sea
Of Darkness & Dawn

Of Sea & Shadown
Of Dawn & Darkness



Anyway, I'm very surprised that a successful English fantasy author is now writing xianxia fantasy. More books to read for me.

[Joseph J Bailey]

Thanks for all the wonderful recommendations!

My reading list grows ever longer...

[Xianxia]

Munpia.com is doing very well in South Korea right now with web novel.

Many authors are making a full time living from it.

The premise is very simple.

First 30 chapters are free.
Each chapter after that is about 100 Gold Coin (100 won or $0.10) to read.

1000 paying readers = $100 in revenue per chapter.
So an author really need about 2000 paying readers to write full time.


http://www.novelupdates.com/opublisher/munpia/

Many of their novels are being translated.

[ARM X Author]

Very informative thread! I haven't had much experience specifically with Chinese fantasy, but fantasy titles from East Asia in general have always been on par with Western fantasy from my experience. It's just that they don't get as much exposure.

[Xianxia]

Originally Posted by ARM X Author

Very informative thread! I haven't had much experience specifically with Chinese fantasy, but fantasy titles from East Asia in general have always been on par with Western fantasy from my experience. It's just that they don't get as much exposure.

They are now getting a lot of exposure thanks to fan translations. This community took off only in the last year or so.


The most popular fan translation site (Wuxiaworld) is getting a lot of readers

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wuxiaworld.com

Global Rank 1,615
Rank in United States 1,020

Daily Unique Visitors
255,766

Daily Pageviews
3,504,971

Monthly Unique Visitors
2,543,149

Monthly Pageviews
102,368,827

Why is it so popular?

1. The fan translation is free to read.

2. The stories are AMAZING and very ADDICTIVE. Just as good as Western fantasy. These stories have earned millions of USD in royalties for the Chinese authors.

[Dr. Drib]

One problem is the stories never end, unlike life.

[Xianxia]

This news was huge for the translation novel community

http://www.wuxiaworld.com/wuxiaworld...ement-wqidian/

Wuxiaworld Signs Licensing Agreement W/Qidian!

December 4, 2016 at 12:40 pm
Every so often, I hear people express worries about Wuxiaworld’s longevity. I’m extremely proud to announce that as of a few days ago, after months of negotiations, Wuxiaworld has concluded and signed an initial 10-year translation licensing and ebook/digital publishing agreement with Qidian, the Chinese website which most of our novels originate from! While the exact terms of the contract are under nondisclosure, what I can tell you is that the exclusive licensing agreement includes a total of 20 different titles that cover almost all of the Qidian novels we have on Wuxiaworld. We look forward to continued cooperation with Qidian and other websites, and once those details are ironed out, I’ll be sure to let you know here as well.

Look for more related announcements soon. Vive la Wuxiaworld!

Wuxiaworld paid "millions" for this 20 novels copyrights according to a person that work for Qidian. The novels will still be FREE to read on the website.

15 days ago, Wuxiaworld uses crowdfunding (Patreon) to raise money for copyrights and it is on track to raise about $300,000 a year.

It is at over $17,000 a month right now on Patreon ($204,000 a year).

Kinda amazing that crowdfunding is now enabling the free reading of some of the most popular epic Chinese fantasy for many years to come.

[SaranderBrander]

Wuxiaworld is an awesome site! There's such a purity in Chinese Fantasy that's sometimes a welcome break from how dark and gritty many recent Western Fantasy and Sci-Fi novels have been getting.

But at some point East and West are going to mix even more. I wonder what happens when someone writes a Chinese style Wuxia or Xianxia story that echoes George R. R. Martin's level of brutality?

Are there any Chinese novels already like this? Dark and focused on the worst of the dregs of society as well as the heroes and seekers? There's certainly some pretty nasty Japanese manga that Chinese authors have available to read. The Chinese government censorship bureau has a pretty negative effect on the publishing industry, but they can't control all the online serial novels.

What's the most horrific and brutal Chinese serial that Xianxia can recommend?