The Hegemon of Western Chu

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Xiang Yu (232-202 BCE), the hegemon of the state of Western Chu, is captured by his long-time enemy, Liu Bang (256 – 195 BCE, the future founder of the Han dynasty), after their final decisive battle at Gaixia (202 BCE).

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西楚霸王
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Anilinli
Anilinli rated it
May 30, 2021
Status: c11
It is so unfortunate that Fei Tan will not continue with this novel, I have loved it. I won't give up hope for a sequel, smut scenes are so hot
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jupalla
jupalla rated it
October 22, 2021
Status: Completed
If you enjoy reading about very heavy, explicit, and painful non-consensual BD*M, this is the book for you! If not, you've been warned. It is incomplete in terms of plot but truthfully.... does it really even need one?
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Montero
Montero rated it
November 16, 2023
Status: Completed
I want to start this off by saying this isn't being given a low rating because it is erotica or for the acts in this book... on paper.

I do have some positive things to say about this book, while the smut didn't do it for me personally the sections that weren't people f*cking did have a real sense of atmosphere and mythic tone. The fact that I really enjoyed those parts of this book, however fleeting, gives me hope that I will enjoy his plot-driven works more.

This falls into a... more>> trap a lot of erotica tend to fall into, where most of what we get is descriptions of mechanical-feeling s*x acts that begin and end abruptly, with little in the way of passion between the characters. There is no sense of escalation, and the s*x isn't generally used to characterize anyone or develop the relationship dynamic. When viewed as just pure p*rn with the intent to arouse, I felt that the descriptions tended to make the s*x sound very painful and repetitive, but not in a way that makes it kinky in the punishment/humiliation way, just uncomfortable and impersonal. If it was intended to be an impersonal, no strings attached kind of relationship, then there's no focus on that from any of the characters, either. These scenes exist in their own bubble entirely indapendent of each other. Nothing done in a scene has a knock on effect to any of the later ones. The author skips any kind of build up or teasing seemingly rushing to get to 'the good bit' where the (humongous) d*ck goes in the ass and then goes full force and stays there for the entire s*x scene which went for hours in the exact same position off page. It's clear this is here to show how masculine, unrelenting, and virile the top is. The bottom (or 0 if you prefer) doesn't really seem to be enjoying it and there is no focus on his disempowerment, so there isn't even an interesting power dynamic once we move on from the first relationship.

Another problem the book has imo is how there is also little plot lead in to the s*x scenes. It's not super noticeable early on because Xiang Yu is a prisoner and the other guy is going to visit when he wants to f*ck which is pretty simple as context for their s*xual relationship. This all falls apart when he breaks out with Liu Bang's son. Obviously the aprodisiac is meant to be a substantial reason for them to become our secondary couple, but the passion felt fairly one-sided to me. It doesn't really work as a dub/non con fantasy really for either side imo and I would argue anything vaguely resembling a BD*M dynamic stops being a thing after the first relationship.

The way some of these practices are depicted in this book are downright dangerous, and I'm not talking about ye olde f*cking machine. Fantasy in fiction is fine and all if you want to write dub/non con be my guest but when you are putting stuff in your book like:

Spoiler

Sounding a guy with a feather... do I need to explain why this was excruciating to read? Feathers are a breeding ground for dirt and bacteria; two things you absolutely don't want in your eurethra. Metal exists in this universe and this is taking place in a pleasure house so why wouldn't they have a specialist tool made for this purpose? I get that it's a spontaneity thing but.. no. The urethral lining has the consistency of wet paper towels and isn't a straight path but yeah, just ram it all the way in! I'm sure that will feel great for him and not result in serious injury! Picturing an internal tear in my own d*ck made me want to shrivel up like a raisin.

I'm sure some people would make the argument that 'it's just fiction' but as we saw with the dark BD*M romance boom, people don't do their own research and take the erotica they read at face value (especially when it's something that gets as little representation as sounding) and think that zip ties are an okay form of restraint to use irl. That's how people get seriously hurt, because fiction makes things look easy, when all the author has done is remove all of the 'boring' steps to a kink relationship, like healthy communication, safewords, physical safety for practices like choking and bondage, and... and not giving your partner dickrot, for god's sake! It's a really irresponsible thing to write as an author, is my point. He could have written literally anything else (i.e. something resembling hygienic sounding) because it's fiction.

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The translation reads in a way that feels off kilter. It's not the worst HTL I've tried reading but the flow feels a little janky. This gets worse later on in the story when certain words are censored and are written like (***this) breaking up the flow of the sentence and any eroticism it may have been trying to build. I think this was Fei Tian's doing and not the translator's, I just wish it wasn't formatted like this but that's just a minor nitpick.

Basically the s*x scenes are repetitive and unmotivated, the translation choppy and stilted, but it does have a tone that comes through. I don't think Fei Tian is a bad writer, I just don't think he was trying very hard here, like this story was written for his own enjoyment and all the internal monologues and context that would have made the scenes hot for me were the incidental details he kept in his head while he wrote about the bit that got him going - one guy ramming another for like six hours straight until his ass bleeds. And tbh, fair game to him, it just wasn't very good. <<less
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