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Bezig met laden... The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (1998)door Barry Hughart
Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. “You Peking weaklings call these things flies?” he yelled. “Back in Soochow we have flies so big that we clip their wings, hitch them to plows, and use them for oxen!” It would be hard to find a more original fantasy series than The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart. Set in "an ancient China that never was," the series is a delicious concoction of Chinese mythology, detective fiction, epic fantasy quests, and ghost stories, sprinkled with generous helpings of ribald humor and romance. The Kindle edition I read is an omnibus edition of all three novels featuring the humble narrator Number Ten Ox and his master, the sage Li Kao, who has "a slight flaw in his character." The first book in the series, Bridge of Birds, won the World Fantasy Award in 1985, and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in 1986. Bridge of Birds was followed by The Story of the Stone in 1988 and Eight Skilled Gentlemen in 1991. This was my third reading of Bridge of Birds, and the first time I had read any of its sequels. Bridge of Birds is clearly the gem of this collection, a stand-out novel in every way. It has great narrative voice, it's by turns funny, suspenseful, and heartbreaking, and it's the kind of grand epic adventure that I really love. The plot summary from Goodreads describes it well: When the children of his village were struck with a mysterious illness, Number Ten Ox sought a wiseman to save them. He found master Li Kao, a scholar with a slight flaw in his character. Together, they set out to find the Great Root of Power, the only possible cure. The quest led them to a host of truly memorable characters, multiple wonders, incredible adventures—and strange coincidences, which were really not coincidences at all. And it involved them in an ancient crime that still perturbed the serenity of Heaven. Simply and charmingly told, this is a wry tale, a sly tale, and a story of wisdom delightfully askew. Once read, its marvels and beauty will not easily fade from the mind. The author claims that this is a novel of an ancient China that never was. But, oh…it should have been! The story is complex and detailed enough that I found myself just as enthralled with it this time as I was the first two times I read it. The Story of the Stone, on the other hand, was a bit of a letdown, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen is definitely the weakest of the three stories. Both stories lack the the epic plot of Bridge of Birds, but they still have many of its positive qualities: enjoyable banter between the two main characters, colorful secondary characters, exotic creatures and monsters, and a light-hearted humor. The biggest problem I had with both sequels was getting lost in all the esoteric ancient lore. Some of it was relevant to the story, but most seemed like baroque decoration that bogged the narratives down. Still, all three novels are tremendously entertaining, and the first two even have moments of tremendous depth and poignancy. The price of the omnibus is worth it for Bridge of Birds alone, with The Story of the Stone and Eight Skilled Gentlemen a nice bonus. This is an omnibus edition of three books set in sixth century China. Each book is a detective story with a mystery which Master Li, the ancient sage, and number ten Ox, his peasant friend and assistant have to solve. Its very engagingly written, and convincingly plunges you into ancient China, but its very long - 650 odd pages. I probably should have just bought the first book separately. Mildly recommended. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de reeks(en)Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (Omnibus 1-3)
When I got out of Andover in the 1950s I suffered from fairly severe depression, but this was back when the only such term recognized by the medical profession was "depressive" following "manic" which was one bad gig until some genius renamed it "bipolar disorder" and after that it couldn't harm a fly. Since I wasn't lucky enough to qualify for manic and clinical depression didn't exist they diagnosed schizophrenia and packed me off to a booby hatch, and while it would take too long to explain I managed to escape to Columbia University. When I wafted back into the world a few years later my depression was still there but I was allowed to prove my sanity by blowing things up for the U.S. Air Force. No, not Vietnam. Planting ingenious and mostly illegal mine fields around the eternal DMZ in Korea. Time passed but not much else. I moved to the Arizona/Sonoran Desert where I could live quietly, surrounded on all sides by prickly pear, cat's claw, devil's horns, barrel cactus, jumping cactus, and illegal immigrants. I still occasionally dreamed of bright flashes followed by BOOM! which was a shame because I had other memories of the Far East: good memories, warm memories, and in 1977 ten years before Prozac I decided to use those and whatever else I could come up with to create an alternate world into which I could creep on dark and stormy nights and pull over my head like a security blanket. So I read a lot and scribbled a lot and gradually the land of Li Kao began to take shape. I hope Ox and Li Kao can continue to give fun to readers, and I most particularly hope that on dark and stormy nights some of those readers will be able to crawl into my alternate world and pull it over them like a security blanket. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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I've read only the first part of the Chronicles, Bridge of Birds, and finishing it was almost a chore (I hate leaving books unfinished). I don't think I'll be reading the other two anytime soon, specially considering that everyone agree that they are not as good as the first one. And I didn't like the first one, so...
I think my problem with Bridge of Birds is that it is a fairy tale. I expected (wanted!) fantasy, but not the kind of extremely naïve, childish and innocent fantasy of a fairy tale. The characters have no development at all, things happen just because the story needs those things to happen to be able to go on, there are dozens of deus ex machina, everything is over the top, extremely exagerated up the point of being grotesque, there's no sense of continuity, time, distance, strength, everything that needs to be bended and twisted for the characters to reach the extremely predictable outcome is bended and twisted as needed.
I didn't like it one bit. ( )