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  • (WFC) The River Judge (Water Outlaws) by S L Huang

    From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to All on Fri Dec 20 14:19:51 2024
    The River Judge (Water Outlaws) by S L Huang

    Given the chance to assume control of the family businesses, pragmatist
    Li Li takes it. There are just one or two managerial issues to clarify,
    but nothing a knife to the ribs and a midnight burial won't handle.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/sharper-than-a-serpents-tooth
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Sat Jan 4 22:20:13 2025
    James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:

    The River Judge (Water Outlaws) by S L Huang

    So, I read this based on Mr. Nicholl's review, and I found it disappointing.
    I felt like I was missing out on some of the basic story, so I read the original Water Outlaws book.

    The original book in the series is sort of a satire and adaptation of the classic Chinese novel Water Margin, in much of the way that Bridge of Birds
    is an adaptation of Journey to the West. However, genders are reversed and
    it is a woman martial arts instructor who is driven from her position by
    an unjust official and is forced to join a band of female renegades and revolutionaries in lands far from the capital.

    I liked the original book and I'd recommend it but so far the other books
    in the series have just seemed strained to me.
    --scott

    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to Scott Dorsey on Sun Jan 5 08:30:13 2025
    On 4 Jan 2025 22:20:13 -0000, kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

    James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:

    The River Judge (Water Outlaws) by S L Huang

    So, I read this based on Mr. Nicholl's review, and I found it disappointing. >I felt like I was missing out on some of the basic story, so I read the >original Water Outlaws book.

    The original book in the series is sort of a satire and adaptation of the >classic Chinese novel Water Margin, in much of the way that Bridge of Birds >is an adaptation of Journey to the West. However, genders are reversed and >it is a woman martial arts instructor who is driven from her position by
    an unjust official and is forced to join a band of female renegades and >revolutionaries in lands far from the capital.

    I liked the original book and I'd recommend it but so far the other books
    in the series have just seemed strained to me.

    If this is consistently the case (Mr. Nicholl's reviews encourage you
    to read it, and it disappoints) then that makes a very valuable
    resource: you can safely ignore any book he reviews and the review
    encourages you to read it.

    I did this with a movie reviewer I called "The Chick Flick Reviewer".
    If she liked a film then, whatever else it was, it was a chick flick.
    If she didn't like then, whatever else it was, it was not.

    Thus, she liked /Cars/ -- which is a chick flick (a romance). She
    disliked /Cars 2/ -- which is not (it is exactly what the trailer
    promises -- a James Bond film set in the world of Cars, no romance
    involved).

    She was /very/ reliable.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to psperson@old.netcom.invalid on Sun Jan 5 17:22:33 2025
    Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
    If this is consistently the case (Mr. Nicholl's reviews encourage you
    to read it, and it disappoints) then that makes a very valuable
    resource: you can safely ignore any book he reviews and the review
    encourages you to read it.

    It's not consistent... and in this case I really liked the idea, just not
    the implementation. I'm kind of glad I read the book, but I would't read
    it again and I don't feel like I need to read the rest of the series.

    I think maybe some of my problem is that I don't really like the idea of
    novel series. I want a story arc with an ending.
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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