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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
First of all: I loved the idea that its a new gender-bended queer retelling of the chinese classic water margins. I loved reading the classic (in german translation though) and was really excited to read Huangs new version of it. Alas...
I think there is so much unused potential. Like: In the original there were even female outlaws among the 108 outlaws - why dont they appear here again? For example tigermum? And where is our Sung? Is he meant to be Song Jiang Spring Rain? Well. She is too noble and not at least as funny as him. In the original, Sung saved himself various times from being murdered by uttering "Poor me, poor Sung..." - and his going-to-be-murderers apologized immeadiately, for they hadn't known that he was THE Sung... as his name was famous amongst the outlaws.
Apropos 108: I found it really lazy how they got the number. In the orinigal its all about getting all those 108 outlaws together. Its very much about recruiting and meeting new outlaws. But here it was rather lazy:
And worst of all- Why is everyone so damn heroic? What I loved most about the original, was the point it made, that everyone is selfish. And even the outlaws from liangshan did not steal robin-hood-like to distribute the riches among the people but just kept it for themselves. In this version they are the utopian robin-hood-version. And I think that took a lot of the strength from the story.
I guess I expected too much. I guess its rather a wuxia-story in its own right with slight resemblences of the original. For my taste way too stern, too heroic.
I am really sorry. I just liked the original better.
I think there is so much unused potential. Like: In the original there were even female outlaws among the 108 outlaws - why dont they appear here again? For example tigermum? And where is our Sung? Is he meant to be Song Jiang Spring Rain? Well. She is too noble and not at least as funny as him. In the original, Sung saved himself various times from being murdered by uttering "Poor me, poor Sung..." - and his going-to-be-murderers apologized immeadiately, for they hadn't known that he was THE Sung... as his name was famous amongst the outlaws.
Apropos 108: I found it really lazy how they got the number. In the orinigal its all about getting all those 108 outlaws together. Its very much about recruiting and meeting new outlaws. But here it was rather lazy:
Spoiler
At the big battle they were about 40 persons. After the battle and due to their increasing fame (through printed matter) their numbers suddenly increased to 108 persons. Mostly nonames. The original takes at least a tiny paragraph space to introduce each new member.And worst of all- Why is everyone so damn heroic? What I loved most about the original, was the point it made, that everyone is selfish. And even the outlaws from liangshan did not steal robin-hood-like to distribute the riches among the people but just kept it for themselves. In this version they are the utopian robin-hood-version. And I think that took a lot of the strength from the story.
I guess I expected too much. I guess its rather a wuxia-story in its own right with slight resemblences of the original. For my taste way too stern, too heroic.
I am really sorry. I just liked the original better.
adventurous
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
we love to see the fury of women taking down empires. this was a lot more political than i thought, the pacing was a bit slow in the middle but damn the action scenes were incredible! and i adored every woman character, they each had their strengths and it was amazing to watch them come together to take down an empire. iconic!!!
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I went into this book totally blind as a book bingo challenge for judging a book by its cover. A little more intense than I normally go for, this book was a satisfying ride the whole way through. Lots of things happened that I didn't expect, after I thought I knew what was coming.