SO damn good. Engrossing, lyrical, thrilling, just a beautiful piece of work. And what a great story - I predict it will be made into a movie. ( )

The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin has to be the most bizarre book I've ever read in my life! It is a Western/Fantasy/Crime Thriller. Yes, that's what I said. Crazy mix if I ever saw one but I have to admit…it worked!

Orphaned as a small boy, Ming Tsu is taken in by a man named Silas who is a hired gun in the old west. He trains Ming from childhood to be his apprentice in the world of assassins. Striking out on his own after the death of Silas, Ming Tsu meets beautiful Ada. Back then no white man would ever think of allowing his daughter to marry a Chinaman, and although she was promised to another, the two lovers elope. Not married more than two months, a gang of men hired by her father kidnap her, returning her back home and to her intended. Finding himself in hot water, Ming gets a 10 year sentence working on the railroad driving spikes alongside other men of his country, including a blind prophet who befriends Ming. After many years, he escapes with the prophet and they set out to travel west with Ming hell-bound on revenge. His plan is to find and kill each member of the gang that kidnapped his wife. If all goes well he will get his Ada back.

The two unlikely travelers roam from state to state with a list of the men to die, and tick them off one by one. Our prophet has the gift of sight, as in clairvoyance, and occasionally can aid Ming to ward off danger….and bullets. Along the way they meet up with a small ragtag group of entertainers, each having paranormal gifts. There are four men, one woman, and a small boy. The Ringmaster and his wards pay Ming Tsu to travel with them for protection against any who would harm them and together they all head west knowing Ming’s mission. The supernatural gifts these unusual people are blessed with are very different than I’ve read of in other fantasy books and I thought the author was quite clever with them as they use their abilities to aid Ming.

As a warning, this is a highly violent book. There is an abundance of killing. It is gruesome, very graphic, and not for the weak of heart. Blood and guts everywhere. I have to say it is truly the most violent book I have ever read. However, to balance it all out, the camaraderie and friendships that create emotional bonding between the cast of players is often tender and of great heart. I fell in love with most of the characters and would loved to have seen this motley crew in a series.

How this all ends is on one hand predictable, but on the other hand not so much. I did get a surprise that I didn’t see coming that I still am not sure I liked too much. All in all, I must admit I loved this bizarre story. The writing is beautiful and the key characters are for the most part lovable. Even our bloodthirsty gunslinger has his soft spots. The plot and story-line are well done but I think may have been a bit boring without the fantasy elements to give it flavor.

The reason for my rating of four stars instead of five is simple. Even for a Wild West western, and even with a trained assassin as the lead, the violence got to be over-the-top. If the author had cut it back just a bit, and added a bit more of the fantasy with less blood shed, it would have been a 5 star debut novel. I think Tom Lin is an author to watch and I look forward to his next book. ( )

Short Western revenge quest with magical realism elements. Ming Tsu has a pretty high body count (thus the title), but what I really enjoyed were the descriptions of the arid intermountain west.

I do feel like the MRAzn crowd might like this book, because of the masculine violence as Ming kills those who wronged him in effort to get back to his white wife.

Skimming through some other reviews, some felt he should be "more Chinese", which... feels odd given there's no one singular way to be something? The character was orphaned at a young age and raised/trained by a white man, which would be different from the laborers coming predominantly from southern China, but he knows he's different from the majority because of how they treat him. Maybe Ming can spend some time musing on his identity after going through his vengeance list, but I do think there's something inherent in how the traveling circus became a found family of sorts, as they were all people out of time in a way. ( )

Praised for its cinematic appeal, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu is the story of Ming, an orphaned son of Chinese immigrants, raised by the notorious leader of a California crime syndicate who trained him to be his deadly enforcer. When Ming falls in love with Ada, the daughter of a powerful railroad magnate, the two elope and seize the opportunity to escape to a different life. But in a violent raid, Ada’s tycoon father’s henchmen kidnap her and conscript Ming into service for the Central Pacific Railroad. Ming escapes and takes off on a journey to avenge all who have wronged him and to rescue his wife. Along the way, he encounters a mystical band of traveling performers – outsiders in their own right – and serves as a Sherpa and bodyguard to ensure their safe passage. Part thriller, part revenge drama, part romance: this is a story of one man’s quest for redemption and meaning, set against a distinct brutality that defines the founding of the American West. The New York Times called it: “An astounding debut that reimagines the classic Western through the eyes of a Chinese American assassin on a quest to rescue his kidnapped wife and exact his revenge on her abductors”

Anti-miscegenation laws—laws prohibiting interracial marriage and relationships—plagued the United States and were a part of the American fabric for centuries, some lasting until the 1960s. Tom Lin frames his debut novel, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, around this issue as the eponymous protagonist of the story was married to a white woman until her father and the local law enforcement put an end to it. But, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu isn't a simple revenge/romance story. You see, Ming is a murderer. The morality of this tale isn't clear and dry. Ming travels a long road to reunite with Ada, and it might not pan out the way he thinks it will.

While the likes of C Pam Zhang have written novels featuring Chinese characters in the Wild West, Tom Lin's novel feels truly pulpy in the sense that he is honoring the tradition of the dime store westerns with all their heroics, descriptions of the land, and description of outlaws. Lin just sets the record straight about how the West wasn't just a bunch of white, Europeans and natives battling it out but it was truly a melting pot. The Chinese emigrated to the Western US in search of gold and ended up helping build the transcontinental Railroad.

Lin has created a dreamy Western landscape, steeped in myth and history, starring a sympathetic protagonist—one who you cheer on till the devastating conclusion.

( )

Lots of killing!! I kept reading thinking it would have some redeeming value, but to the end it was just lots of killing. Somewhat interesting characters and some enlightenment into the racism of the time, but not a book I would recommend. ( )