A Very Welcome Arrival!

[chomiji]

I had a nice, fat package from Amazon awaiting me at home!

It contained but a single volume:

The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox

Comments

[eldanis.livejournal.com]

There's more?! I've read Bridge of Birds (and loved it sooooooo much), and I thought that was all there was. o.o

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Two more books! The Story of the Stone and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. IMO, not as good as BoB, but still good. :)

[chomiji]

What telophase said!

This particular volume is a fancy small-press hardback omnibus of all three novels.

IMO, Bridge of Birds is by far the best one - it's probably in my top 10 fantasy novels of all time. But Eight Skilled Gentleman really is quite good as well. The Story of the Stone suffers by comparison with the other two, but it's still worth reading.

(OK to friend you ... ?)

[eldanis.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, I think I need to add another item to my growing list of 'things to order from Amazon.' The copy of BoB that I read was borrowed, so I don't actually own it, but this makes a good excuse to get all three at once.

(Yes, please do! *goes ahead and friends you too*)

[chomiji]

(Done ... now you should get tons more if you click on "fic" ... .)

[badtzphoto.livejournal.com]

This makes me curious about the book - holding 600 page hard-covered is probably like Harry Potter 6 or 7, right? Tempting...

[chomiji]

It's three fantasy novels collected into one volume, all set in "a China that never was," written by Barry Hughart.

Master Li is a wily old former courtier, trained as a scholar, who knows far more about scams and other criminal behavior than such a person should. As he describes himself, he has "a slight flaw" in his character.

Number Ten Ox, his companion, is a good-hearted, naive, hugely-strong peasant youth who encounters Master Li when many of the children of his village are suddenly dying of a mysterious disease, and Ox is sent to find Master Li to solve the problem.

During their adventures, which are hilarious, they encounter numerous figures from Chinese history and legend. Master Li solves the puzzles and mysteries, and Ox provides the muscle and narrates the stories. He may be naive, but he is very observant, and not without humor.

They're great books, and there ought to have been more of them, especially when I think of all the crap pseudo-Tolkien and imitation-Potter fantasies published instead.

[badtzphoto.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the details. They sounds interesting. I'll put it on my wishlist :)