Rating: 
Summary: Promising beginning and middle let down by the ending
Review: In Beneath The Tree of Heaven, page 421, is a wonderful description of the game of GO. How stong is David in GO?
Rating: 
Summary: What a great book, I knew that the game of GO is the future.
Review: In Beneath The Tree of Heaven, page 421, is a wonderful description of the game of GO. How stong is David in GO?
Rating:
Summary: Promising beginning and middle let down by the ending
Review: Just like its predecessor, Days of Bitter Strength throws away an interesting first three quarters with the most preposterous, ill thought out and badly executed ending. One gets the feeling that Wingrove was working to a deadline leaving him with thirty minutes to write a hundred pages. Characters behave in a way that is totally alien to the way that they had been presented thus far (Li Yuan, in particular, whose fall into dotage is ridiculous)And anyway, has anybody counted the number of times characters 'shudder' in Wingrove's series? The whole thing seems to be written by someone with real talent who simply cannot be bothered to write more than one draft. Which is a real shame, because if ever a series had real potential it is this one (and I thought the first three were really good...)
Rating:
Summary: A must have
Review: Take the chance and embark on a long journey with David Wingrove. You will not be let down. Problem is, you will see nothing of your friends or family for the next three months. But, that is what you are looking for in a book, isn't it?
Rating:
Summary: I started reading and could not stop. It's the best.
Review: To David Wingrove: I saw no mention of Book No. 8. Don't do this to the fans that have lived in Chung Kuo these past seven years
Rating:
Summary: Books I-V excellent, then this
Review: While Wingrove has always been kinda mediocre in his writing, his imaginations and characters made the first 6 books good. And I felt he should have STOPPED. There was a fairly satisfying ending at that point. Stop. Stop Book VII is so irritating that I've tried to read it 3 times, and failed. Consider that I commonly read 1000s of pages of fantasy/sci-fi a year, and the number of unfinished series [because of apathy] over the last 30 years is countable on one hand. Stop with Boook VI. You do NOT need any thing else
Rating: 
Summary: Magnificent acceleration towards climax of series
Review: Wingrove brings us one step closer to the final chapter of Chung Kuo with Book 7. The pace quickens dramatically with this volume, and the true nature of the opposing forces in the universe becomes clearer. I was impressed by the significant development we see in central characters, and the final collapse of the civilization we met in Book 1. At the center of it all, Kim Ward and Ben Shepard continue to be fascinating and clearly opposing characters. Their development over the past six books -- never having met -- and the positions they represent come to an interesting point in this novel. Days of Bitter Strength delivers the promise of this series at its best. I have also just finished Book 8 in the series (in an imported hardcover edition) and believe fans will not be disappointed with the climax of this brilliant series.
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