{"id":4692,"date":"2017-01-28T21:11:06","date_gmt":"2017-01-29T05:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=4692"},"modified":"2018-02-22T11:04:44","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T19:04:44","slug":"the-chronicles-of-master-li-and-number-ten-ox-by-barry-hughart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/the-chronicles-of-master-li-and-number-ten-ox-by-barry-hughart","title":{"rendered":"The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart"},"content":{"rendered":"

“You Peking weaklings call these things flies?\u201d he yelled. \u201cBack in Soochow we have flies so big that we clip their wings, hitch them to plows, and use them for oxen!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The<\/a>It would be hard to find a more original fantasy series than The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox<\/em><\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/em>, won the World Fantasy Award in 1985, and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in 1986.\u00a0Bridge of Birds<\/em> was followed by\u00a0The Story of the Stone<\/em> in 1988 and\u00a0Eight Skilled Gentlemen<\/em> in 1991.<\/p>\n

This was my third reading of\u00a0Bridge of Birds<\/em>, and the first time I had read any of its sequels.\u00a0Bridge of Birds<\/em> 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<\/a>\u00a0describes it well:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The quest led them to a host of truly memorable characters, multiple wonders, incredible adventures\u2014and 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.<\/p>\n

The author claims that this is a novel of an ancient China that never was. But, oh\u2026it should have been!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Story of the<\/em> Stone, on the other hand,\u00a0<\/em>was a bit of a letdown, and\u00a0Eight Skilled Gentlemen<\/em>\u00a0is definitely the weakest of the three stories. Both stories lack the the epic plot of\u00a0Bridge of Birds<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/em>\u00a0alone, with\u00a0The Story of the Stone<\/em> and\u00a0Eight Skilled Gentlemen\u00a0<\/em>a nice bonus.<\/p>\n

The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox<\/em><\/a> by Barry Hughart
\nKindle edition<\/em> Burton (MI): Subterranean Press, 2011
\nPrinted length: 652 pages<\/p>\n

An omnibus of the novels:
\nBridge of Birds<\/em>
\nNew York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984<\/p>\n

The Story of the Stone<\/em>
\nNew York: Doubleday, 1988<\/p>\n

Eight Skilled Gentlemen<\/em>
\nNew York: Doubleday, 1991<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“You Peking weaklings call these things flies?\u201d he yelled. \u201cBack in Soochow we have flies so big that we clip their wings, hitch them to plows, and use them for oxen!\u201d 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...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Book review: The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1057,5],"tags":[901,36,842,158],"class_list":["post-4692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-books","tag-barry-hughart","tag-book-recommendations","tag-book-reviews","tag-fantasy-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/master_li_banner.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-1dG","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4692"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4704,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4692\/revisions\/4704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}