Of Mountains and Seas

Of Mountains and Seas is interesting on technical level, interweaving a multitude of characters, perspectives, and time periods to create a generational narrative around a core theme and antagonist. The result, unfortunately, didn’t really resonate with me; it was a little too fractured, with the various narratives only being distantly related to each other or connected with the core theme. The individual stories struggled to build momentum within themselves for me, particularly for the first third before the overarching shape of the narrative began to materialize.
A strength of the story is in it antagonist, who is manipulative and abusive as he goes from one section of the story to next ruining one life after another, all tied neatly together with a history of his own abuse and trauma. He makes the story significantly heavier, because he is actively destroying the lives of POV characters, but it makes it easy to root against him even as you empathize to an extent.
The Chinese cultural themes in the narrative are a nice change from the classic western fantasies, both with the mythical creatures used, and how the culture itself is displayed through the characters. But most of it is largely surface level, which will service some readers just fine while leaving others wanting.
I found the prose generally fine, but it can occasionally be a bit too straightforward and or simplistic.