Not So Divine: Love, War, and Lackluster Lore in Sue Lynn Tan’s Immortal

Brimming with fantastical Chinese xianxia (fantasy heavily influenced by Chinese mythology and folklore) elements, Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan promises a wondrous journey, but its dull characters and patchy plot pacing left much to be desired.

In the tumultuous mortal realm, Zhao Liyen, the heir to Tianxia, receives the Divine Pearl Lotus from her grandfather. The exact one that was supposed to be an offering to the Queen of the Golden Desert, but was stolen by her grandfather to save her from a life-threatening poison. While the immortals question her grandfather about the stolen lotus, he dies suddenly, forcing Liyen to ascend the throne.

This enchanted lotus grows to be the root of all of Liyen’s troubles as she is summoned to the Immortal Realm by the Queen of the Golden Desert and is placed under the watch of one of the immortals she despises the most: the God of War.

The prose was unfortunately rather drab with the descriptions of the scenery and Liyen’s internal conflict, especially with her feelings about the God of War, who she presumably hates (as she proceeds to state multiple times.) Many scenes, particularly those where Liyen talks about her hatred towards the God of War, could have benefitted from greater illustrative language as the repetitive comparison of her feelings to fire failed to execute the depth needed for their relationship. However, there was a scene where the short yet embellished prose worked, which was the sword-training scene between the protagonists.

Furthermore, Liyen was very transparent about her feelings and it felt as if I was supposed to be convinced that she was a very headstrong individual, yet after finishing Immortal​, she did not appear to fully demonstrate those traits. I struggled to connect with her, which I felt was the fault of the brief amount of time that her background was elaborated upon - there were more statements than actual actions.

I did wish to learn a bit more about the God of War and his relationship with the Queen of the Golden Desert, specifically his relations with the other characters that became significant later. The God of War felt quite underdeveloped with how a lot of his background wasn’t explored, with his existence merely being a love interest for Liyen.

Of course, since Liyen is the main character, and this was mostly a romance, I didn’t expect much from the secondary characters, but their actions failed to feel believable with how quickly they trusted the main character's words. Additionally, the way that the kingdom of Tianxia operated was confusing, when Liyen left for the Immortal Realm and didn’t even decree that Chengyin would take care of Tianxia, did the ministers not scheme anything? (and surely wouldn’t the kingdom be in strife over an inexperienced ruler? The stakes were oddly low for a supposedly unstable kingdom.)

Character development wasn’t the only aspect that suffered, the plot’s pacing felt all over the place. At the beginning of the book, everything passed by quickly with no time to process and understand the main issues, yet at the middle, the plot went from being draggy with how Liyen was wandering the God of War’s home, to jumping around so much where it felt like I was getting whiplash from the different tones.

While Immortal was marketed as a “romantasy,” I had hoped for more of the fantasy elements to shine throughout the story as Sue Lynn Tan’s world was quite beautiful (I had enjoyed Daughter of the Moon Goddess and Immortal is set in the same world - and Chinese fantasy is 100% my Achilles heel) and appeared to be more of an open world building story. The main focus was definitely romance, but even that focus was lost for some time when Liyen was in the Netherworld.

The chemistry between Liyen and the God of War was pretty typical of a romance book, and the first half of their romance wasn’t done in the best way with how their enemies-to-lovers type romance played out. It was almost entirely her saying that she can’t seem to hate him, but needs to. Even after a major plot point in which Liyen and the God of War are said to have grown closer, the two’s chemistry remained as dry as the Golden Desert. Although the enticing premise, yet lacking story was a bit of a disappointment, Immortal is a decent read for anybody who is looking for a generic romance to kill time (but the incorporated Chinese mythology is always a plus.) Questions I still have for Immortal (SPOILERS AHEAD) **highlight to see**

Many of the story’s details weren’t explained with Immortal’s ending, like was the grandfather actually Liyen’s grandfather? Did Aunt Shou know who she was from the absolute beginning? When Liyen came down to the Mortal Realm, was she reborn or did they erase the memories of the kingdom? I’m still confused how the God of War even entered the Netherworld too?