Review:
I actually did well this time - immediately after finishing this, I sat down with pen and paper and tried to write down what happened. And even then it was hard, because this stuff was complicated and I don't know nearly enough about Chinese culture.
Anyway, this is the final volume of Guardian, and everything comes to a head. Technically, Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei are a happy couple, but under the surface all is not well. The dead and the living aren't meant to be together, and just being around Shen Wei is gradually killing Zhao Yunlan. The Great Seal is about to break, and when it does, all life will be exterminated. Zhao Yunlan refuses to stop searching for some way to make everything work out and keep Shen Wei by his side.
There was a lot going on in this volume. Lin Jing got sent to investigate a life-stealing case (or something) that resulted in mass disappearances, and Guo Changcheng and Chu Shuzhi and other SID employees ended up having to try to help. Guo Changcheng foolishly agreed to help a ghost with a kidnapping case. Ghost Face, Shen Wei's twin, raged at the difference in the way things turned out for him vs. Shen Wei. More mythological knots were untangled. Some Netherworld big shots tried to convince Zhao Yunlan that he needed to die in order to save everyone.
I don't know how to lay it all out in a way that makes sense, partly because it didn't always make sense to me. Like, the level of scheming and planning that certain characters supposedly did in this was mind-boggling, and the fact that everything somehow worked out was more than a little tough to believe.
As overwhelmingly complicated as the plot and overall mythology was, I loved the characters in this. Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei's devotion to each other made my heart squeeze. Poor, lonely Shen Wei. Guo Changcheng was a delight, and getting to see him have some competent moments was great, especially when combined with Chu Shuzhi's reaction to him (stormy Corpse King pulled along in the wake of Guo Changcheng's sunshiney earnestness).
While the shortness of this series was nice in that I've actually managed to finish it (yay!), it didn't give some of the series' more interesting minor characters enough page-time. The massive revelation about Guo Changcheng was just sort of dropped there, not hardly dug into at all. Zhu Hong deserved better - she had so much potential, and even Zhao Yunlan admitted that he should have given her more experience with dangerous stuff and not protected her so much. While the bonus stories were really nice and scratched a few itches (the story about one of Zhao Yunlan's past lives was lovely and sad), I could have used a lot more.
Still, this was an enjoyable series, and I could see myself rereading it if I didn't have a mountain of unread books to get through.
Extras:
A couple full-color illustrations, black-and-white illustrations throughout, and an appendix with character and name guide and a glossary.
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