Book Review - Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber

 

 

This was a reread for me after several decades!

The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber is Book 3 in the Condor Heroes Trilogy. Currently, no official English translation exists as yet, although it may be on the publishing agenda of MacLehose Press.

While I still love the complex plot overall, I'll admit that the protagonist Zhang Wuji has struck me as a non-trustworthy young man who's easily swayed one way or another, at worst fickle where his love interests are concerned, despite having acquired supreme martial arts skills. (Frankly, I hadn't paid attention to this deep personality flaw when I read the novel as a teen.) The author did explain in his Afterword that Zhang was meant to be flawed, as this way the character would be truer-to-life.

The main story line centers around Zhang Wuji's involvement in his foster father the Golden Hair Lion King's revenge feats, interwoven with a major subplot of a peasants' uprising against the oppressive ruling Mongolian Yuan dynasty and various subplots concerning his four love interests and violent conflicts among a host of martial arts clans/sects.

I love that Jin Yong always weaves history around his martial heroes' epic adventures, like in this instance. The realism in the history components serves to ground the fantastical story and gives it veracity and cultural authenticity. Also, I love the way the author expresses his negative opinion, through the POV of protagonist Zhang Wuji, of Zhu Yuanzhang (the rebel who managed to seize the throne and become the founder of the Ming Dynasty), which opinion I entirely agree with. I've read official and unofficial texts about Zhu and have always felt he was a roguish and vile opportunist.

For those readers who are intimidated by the dry and lengthy history books, reading Jin Yong's wuxia novels is certainly a good way to learn Chinese history. 

 

Book Review - The Day Lasts More Than A Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov

 

This was an extraordinary read, not only because this was the first novel by a Kyrgyz writer I'd read, but also this was my first encounter with the blending of realism and science fiction in a novel.

In this novel, two parallel story lines are woven into the narrative. One is about the trials and tribulations of living in the harsh, windswept steppe of the Sarozek desert in Kazhakstan and one man's determination to uphold certain traditional burial rites and to seek justice for his dear friend who's been wrongly accused of a crime. In juxtaposition to this story line is an account of two astronauts' strange space encounter with an alien civilization while working under a joint space program undertaken by the U.S. and Russia, which encounter causes the two countries' collaboration to collapse.

The blending of the two story lines is symbolic of the disparity between humanity (with all its attachment to cherished cultures and conflicted morals) on the one hand and, on the other, scientific progress founded on mankind's thirst for knowledge, only ironically marred by its fear of the unknown.

While I found the premise to be an interesting one, the narrative style tends to drag the story out. Overall, I'd give it 3.7 stars.

 

ACWW's 30th Anniversary Celebration

 

 

On Sunday May 4, I had the honor and pleasure of joining the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop's 30th anniversary ( + its president Todd Wong's birthday) celebrations. 

 

At the celebratory dim sum lunch event, I also had the chance to talk about some interesting specifics related to the wuxia genre (like the earliest wuxia story ever written and the origin of 'qinggong'), and introduce my wuxia-myth Sword Maiden from the Moon duology (i.e. The Heavenly Sword and The Earthly Blaze).

 

ACWW has always been a friendly and supportive writers' group and I cherish being a part of it.

 
 

The Earthly Blaze Eligible for Nomination for CSFFA's 2025 Aurora Award for Best Novel

 

 

I'm pleased to say that The Earthly Blaze (Sword Maiden from the Moon, #2) has been confirmed eligible for nomination for CSFFA's 2025 Aurora Award for Best Novel!

 

This Sword Maiden duology is an epic wuxia story woven with Chinese mythology and speculative history with themes of family love, fellowship loyalty, fighting injustice, loss, sacrifice and kungfu rivalry.

 

The wuxia genre is a niche subgenre of fantasy in the English book world. If you want to support this genre of Chinese literature reaching a wider Anglosphere audience, you could help by nominating The Earthly Blaze!

 

Here's the Eligibility List! You need to be a member of CSFFA in order to nominate and later vote for any title (annual membership dues is only C$10). 

 

The deadline for nomination is April 5, 2025.

 

Book Review - A Deadly Secret by Jin Yong

 

 

This was the first time I read this short wuxia novel. When I was about halfway through, a thought hit me: "This sounds so familiar!" The way the story went reminded me of Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo. It has the same dark themes of betrayal, revenge, greed and corruption, and the similar plot line where the protagonist is framed and wrongly accused, losing the love of his life to his enemy in the process, and where he stumbles on a treasure find. But of course the historical settings and plot details are totally different. Being a wuxia novel, there are the usual wuxia tropes of martial arts rivalry, struggle against injustice, secret manual, violent conflicts etc.

Apparently Jin Yong himself admitted that this story had been inspired by the said French classic. It was also based on an incident that he had witnessed as a child that had haunted his memory ever since.

Regardless, the short novel was a rather moving read with a core moral theme of fighting prejudices and bigotry.
 

International Women's Day - Celebration of Tang Sai'er

 

On this International Women's Day, let's celebrate Tang Sai'er's dauntless wuxia spirit and her valiant cause of liberation from tyranny!

Honored that both The Heavenly Sword and The Earthly Blaze are 2024 Indie Ink Award Finalists in the category Writing the Future We Need: Asian Representation by an Asian Author.

 

 

The Sword Maiden Duology are 2024 Indie Ink Awards Finalists!

 

 

Both The Heavenly Sword (Book 1) and The Earthly Blaze (Book 2) in the Sword Maiden from the Moon duology are FINALISTS in the category "Writing the Future We Need: Asian Representation by an Asian Author" of the 2024 Indie Ink Awards.

 

From February to July the contest will be in the reading phase (i.e. judges will read the books that are finalists and choose a winner in each category). Winners will be announced in August 2025.

Indeed, we do need a future with much more Asian representation by authentic Asian voices in the English book world, where Asian representation is dominated by those whitewashed Big Five quasi-Asian authors who don't speak their root culture's language.