Do Xianxia novels exist outside of very old classics and modern webnovels?

May 26, 2023 at 12:45 PM

Hello,

After doing some research, I am pretty sure that the answer is no, but I wanted to ask here to be sure. All I have been able to find is what is considered the first modern xianxia novel 蜀山剑侠传 (Legend of the Swordsmen of the Mountains of Shu), which is unfinished and extremely long, and I can't find any reviews online.

I recently read my first wuxia novel, 流星·蝴蝶·剑 by Gu Long, and although I really enjoyed it, I tend to prefer fantasy with supernatural and mythological elements, so I wanted to give xianxia a try. I would love to read the classics like Journey to the West, Investiture of the Gods, etc, but I'm pretty sure they are too difficult for me right now and probably will always be.

Webnovels are overwhelming to me. There are too many of them, they seem to either go on forever or end abrutply, and I have no idea how to tell which ones are good (there is no strong consensus like for wuxia, where Jin Yong, Gu Long, etc always come up).

So, can anyone recommend any xianxia/ghost/shenmo novel from the 19th or 20th centuries? Or some completed webnovels from the early 2000s that aren't crazy long and are well regarded?

Thanks!