I Defy My Ascension

Kk, I just read 3 chapters. Well, this certainly isn’t the worst I’ve seen. I’m a Chinese person so at least I understand the context. They don’t provide context because every Chinese person reads Jouney to the West, so it’s normal to assume you already know the context before reading. However, the problem comes when you suddenly have a western audience reading it, the author probably didn’t expect it either. To most people, it’s a completely new world build and cultural references, and the story already began before world-building, so obviously, it looks like a mess.
I won’t bother explaining, I’ll just tell you you gotta at least read or finished watching the entire series on Jouney to the West to even understand what’s going on.
Can’t really blame the translator either, translating this is no different from translating the bible, except this is Buddhism instead of Christianity. Journey to the West is a cultural piece of classic after all.
Personally, I hate alternative fiction on classics because 99% of the time they ruin it. There’re insider jokes on making Monkey King marry the fox demon, or making the monk marry… etc. The point is people suck at creating an alternative storyline for classics. Like you can’t recreate Lord of the Ring either.
My point is, I get it, you can hate it, but I don’t think it deserves this much.