A review by virtualmima
Journey to the West by Wu Ch'eng-En, W.J.F. Jenner

adventurous medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Written in the 16th century and loosely based on the real-life story of Xuanzang's voyage to India to bring some Buddhist scriptures back to China, Journey to the West is the story of the shapeshifting Handsome Monkey King, who learned how to cloud-somersault and gained immortality through Buddhist teachings, then spent his time stealing and pulling pranks on deities, making a lot of enemies and causing trouble throughout the heavens. After a five hundred year imprisonment, a monk frees him and forces him to accompany him on his trip to West Heaven. They are joined by a pig-faced monster named Idiot and another monk, and it becomes a more episodic account of encounters with various monsters. Even though it starts to get a little repetitive, the story remains very creative and engaging, I could imagine someone turning this into a good videogame or anime miniseries. There's no point in ever wasting your time reading contemporary fantasy garbage when you could just read ancient classics like this and get a lot more out of it.