I know I'm not the only one who's always on the hunt for my next read. If you're caught up on FIOTS, you know that we've been spending a lot of time on the River of Destiny. Why not take a trip to a world where destiny burns instead of flowing like a river?

I've been reading Destiny in Cinders, and I really like it. Here's a summary of the novel based on what I've read thus far:

In the world of Destiny in Cinders, catastrophe has befallen Grand Chen, forcing many of its citizens into refugee camps. Food is so scarce that many are resorting to cannibalism. An Jing, a young refugee with memories of a world of tall buildings and metal birds, has clung to life thus far, but his mother will soon die without medicine. When the opportunity arises to save her, he doesn’t hesitate, even if it means selling himself to complete strangers.

An Jing soon finds himself carted off to the mysterious Direlife Manor with numerous children purchased from across Grand Chen. The children are subjected to rigorous training, and those who fail to keep up mysteriously disappear. 

What is Direlife Manor, and why are they training so many children? What really happened to the missing children? Who is that mysterious voice speaking to him from inside the apothecary? And will An Jing ever see his family again? 

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If you read First Immortal of the Sword, you’ll find certain elements of Destiny in Cinders familiar. Both have an element of reincarnation, and both Su Yi and An Jing benefit from the knowledge and experience of their past selves. The settings are superficially similar; both take place in a world of cultivators, sects, and empires. Destiny plays an important role in both novels. 

Both novels have worlds that open up dramatically as the novel continues; there’s far more to the setting than initially meets the eye. There’s only so much I can say without spoiling things, but while both novels start out in a “fantasy historical China,” FIOTS expands its setting by moving within a vast universe and ascending to higher planes, while DIC goes deeper into its setting, revealing a dystopian world rife with corporate intrigue, a complicated past, and a separate system of cultivation long abandoned. 

Reincarnation is handled very differently. An Jing’s memories are of the modern, real-life world, while Su Yi’s are of his past life in the same world. An Jing is still a child, albeit one hardened by adversity, while Su Yi is an old monster in a young man’s body. The mechanism of An Jing’s reincarnation is not immediately obvious, while Su Yi’s past incarnation actively sought out the cycle of reincarnation and entered it deliberately to cultivate again from the very beginning. Reincarnation is central to First Immortal of the Sword, with many relationships extending across lifetimes. This is especially true later in the novel.

That said, the biggest difference between the two novels is arguably the tone. First Immortal of the Sword features an overpowered main character and ample face-slapping, while Destiny in Cinders is grittier with higher stakes. 

I’ve read a lot of Chinese fantasy novels, but despite having a familiar setting and many familiar tropes, Destiny in Cinders feels fresh. The world is harsh and dark without feeling edgy for edginess’s sake, the stakes are real, and the mysteries are genuinely intriguing. The cultivation system is different, too, with multiple distinctive approaches existing in parallel in the same world. Without spoiling anything, the world opens up a little less than a hundred chapters in, making it even more distinctive than it initially appears.

It’s smart and engaging, with a world that sucks you right in, then holds your attention. I've struggled to find time to read webnovels since starting my translation job, but I plan to find time for this one.