Bridge of Birds : A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was

Rating:
Summary: The Best Book I've Ever Read
Review: What can I say about this wonderful book that others haven't already said? I laughed so loud while reading this that people on the bus edged away from me. I forced by spouse to listen while I read pages aloud. In places, I had to put the book down I was so overcome by tears. I read until 3:00 a.m. because the quest was so exciting I couldn't fall asleep until I knew what happened. I leant my first copy to a friend who never returned it. I bought another copy, and then leant it to another friend (who also never returned it). I then bought two more copies, one to keep and one to lend out. I've given it to people for gifts. In the last 15 years, I must have read this book 10 times. After we moved, I had a yearning to read about Master Li and Number Ten Ox again, and was heartbroken when, once again, I found I had leant my last copy. For my birthday, my husband just gave me a very nice hardback edition, with instructions to purchase 10 used paperback copies to "lend" out to friends. The best book I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: A charming novel of a magic China that never was
Review: This novel is considered a modern fantasy classic. For some reason, when it first came out it couldn't hold my interest. However, on a recent re-reading of the book I can see why so many people love it. It's full of people of character, tragedy, wonder and ancient evil deeds and a detective story to boot. It really is a fairy tale - a clever story that gradually winds to a wonderful happy ending. If you want something light, amusing and clever to read then this book fulfils all those needs easily and is a nice way to spend a day or two.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't hold my interest
Review: Although charming, the book is very episodic. There's not much character development, and there was not enough plot to keep me wanting to continue. I gave up after halfway.

Rating:
Summary: Due adventures from the plague *
Review: Fantasy with a touch of humour is uncommon. There are two excellent writers who have carved a significant niche in the fantasy field. Terry Pratchett is one, and Barry Hughart the other. Both have inventive minds, produce wonderfully exotic places and introduce us to characters no "mainstream" author would dare venture. Where Pratchett creates new places, Hughart devises a time that "never was" in a real place - China. This story of an imaginary China has every exemplary feature in fantasy - mystery, adventure, romance. It adds to these formulaic items a cast even Hollywood would be pressed to match. And, in twenty years since this book was published, has notably failed to do so. Perhaps it's just as well, because Hughart's excellence in story and character would be hard to portray in Hollywood terms.

Hughart's tale of a quest to find a cure surpasses anything in the fantasy genre. A group of village children, limited in age range, has been struck down by a plague. "How can a plague count?" asks the local abbot. The children aren't dead, but in a coma. Perhaps a knowledgeable man would know of a cure. Lu Yu, "Number Ten Ox", the strong tenth son of a peasant, is sent to find such a sage. He turns up Li Kao, a venerable sage "with a slight flaw in his character". We think the "slight flaw" is his thirst for wine, but that proves too simple.

Number Ten Ox carries Li Kao to various places in China seeking the Great Root of Power - a ginseng root endowed with great curative traits. Along the way, the duo encounter the Ancestress, an immense woman of immense powers of her own. They deal with the mind-reading Duke of Ch'in, whose name was adopted by the West to describe all of China. Some lesser characters, Miser Chen, Henpecked Ho, and Doctor Death make their appearances, seemingly transitory. And Number Ten Ox falls in love. He adores the lady Lotus Cloud who has a bizarre preference for lovers that provide her with jade and pearls.

Through all the adventures, no few of which are more than life-threatening, Number Ten Ox carries the image of the suffering children in his mind. It would be simple for him to turn away from the memory of their sleeping figures, but Ox is true to the quest. So long as he maintains his desire to cure them, Li Kao is retained to help. But it's far from clear which is driving which, since the Venerable Sage has developed his own quest - what is the meaning of a child's game verse? How does it affect all of China? Li Kao's drive for answers readily equals Ox's search for a cure for the plague.

Hughart's stylistic quirks and sinuous plotting twists keeps this book a enchanting read. He places his protagonists in various quandaries, confronting them with dangers and delights. Li Kao's wine-sodden brain should leave him helpless, but he contrives to extricate the pair with penetrating analyses of each threat. At the end, when he must unravel the most fundamental mystery, what The Bridge of Birds is, he's more concerned with why he couldn't work out the solution sooner. But if he had, there wouldn't be a fine 278 page sequence to enjoy! [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

* with apologies and thanks to Janet Turner Hospital

Rating:
Summary: Flawless!
Review: "My surname is Li and my personal name is Kao, and there is a slight flaw in my character." So sayeth Master Li Kao: wise man, trickster, scholar, gambler, philosopher, knife fighter, alchemist, drinker of wine, and corrupter of the innocent. Perched upon the shoulders of his esteemed companion, Number Ten Ox, Master Li wanders through ancient China in search of adventure - frequently finding more of it than he can handle. Along the way, they encounter ghosts, fabulous treasures, demons, goddesses, spiders, and a plain but lusty young woman who knows how to live life to its fullest. Throw in an evil Mother-in-Law, a couple of miserly con men, and a little dark Chinese Magic, and you've got a recipe for outrageous fun.

You'll read this book till the pages fall out. Then, you'll buy another copy and read THAT one to tatters. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why this incredible book and its two sequels are not welded to the top of the Bestseller rack. They're just about the most fun you can have with your clothes on. (I'm not allowed to read `Bridge of Birds' after dark, because I laugh so loud that I wake up everyone in the house.)

Do yourself a favor... Open this book, and step into the China that never was, but should have been. Before you know it, Master Li will have you saying, "Ah... if I were only ninety again..."

Jeff Edwards, Author of "Torpedo: A Surface Warfare Thriller"

Rating:
Summary: "Fantastic"
Review: Imagine 'Crouching Tiger' wrapped up in 'A Princess's Bride', and you get 'Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was.' In fact this book *could* have been written a thousand years ago by a Chinese sage with a wacky sense of humor, and the book tries very hard to give you that feeling. Scattered throught the book are references to Chinese mythology, but that doesn't mean you have to have a masters degree in that subject to understand it. The book's plot is smooth, following the adventures of Number Ten Ox and Li Kao as they search for the great ginseg root of power. Now I'm sure that sounds riveting, *yawn*, but because this is just a summary, I can't give too many details or jokes. What I can say is that if you liked Princess Bride, you'll love this book. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, well hey, you've read this far. You could probably just come to my house and borrow it. Cheers!

Rating:
Summary: Trouble reaching author?
Review: I give 5 stars to this thing because I wrote it, and if you can think of a better reason let me know. Which is the point.People tell me they've had a horrible time getting an address, which isn't supposed to be secret, and anyone interested can try [e-mail] and usually get a reply.

Rating:
Summary: Fantasy & Comedy all in ONE
Review: This isn't a history novel, this isn't a romance, this isn't a 'dragon-fighting-spells-action' book. This is a funny book. You read it and you laugh aloud, unless you don't understand it then you seriously need to read more. You also are sad at some places, but that's good - if you aren't sad, then you haven't connected with the characters enough, and the writer isn't doing his job. In this book you understand the characters, you get to know them in a few pages, and it's great.
This story is set in 'Ancient China', but not any China that's ever been anywhere except in imagination. It has myths and other things in it that you may have encountered before.
It starts when a pair of annoying people accidentally poison all the children of their village, and one young man (the main character, Number-Ten-Ox) goes to find someone who knows the cure for them. He finds Master Li, who has a slight flaw in his character, and they figure out they must find the Root of Power to cure the children. They then embark upon a magical and hilarious journey, where they meet new characters (friends and foes alike) and pick up pieces to a puzzle that takes until the end to complete (as is right).
If you like bizarre fantasy novels, this is for you. If you like Terry Pratchett, you'll like this as well. If you want to know all aspects of Ancient China, read this.
And if you want to know what a Bridge of Birds is, you had better get reading.

Rating:
Summary: Bridge of Bored
Review: Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart is a modestly entertaining novel, by turns amusing and dull as a textbook. With the author's tendency to grossly underplay certain story elements, it is simultaneously simplistic and confounding. I suppose an optimist could look at these traits and say to himself, "This is a book that works on many levels." Being a pessimist, I'm afraid I fall under the, "This is a book that can't decide what it wants to be."

Ostensibly this is a book about Lu Yu, nicknamed Number Ten Ox, who travels from his rural town to the big city to engage a wise man to return with him and cure the village's children of a deadly sleeping sickness (fortunately the sickness is not so deadly that the heros cannot fart around for a year or so before actually helping the sick children). The only wise man willing to work for the paltry sum offered by Number 10 Ox is Li Kao, a twinkly-eyed old drunk who has the perplexing ability to con anyone out of vast sums of money (putting into question his insistence on sleeping on the floor in a dirty old tenement in the first place). The cure takes the two on a romp through a mythical old China peopled with the kind of moronic rubes found in all fairy tales - those greedy and stupid enough to hand over their money just because someone tells them they'll be receiving some magic beans and a donkey that poops gold coins.

Hughart stretches this hoary old chestnut within an inch of its elasticity as Master Li and Ox wander from city to city collecting bits of the Great Root of Power in order to effect the cure. But at times it appears that the only real purpose in doing all this traveling is to get Number 10 Ox laid, for he winds up in bed with a woman in every town. I expect this was meant to be amusing, but eventually became merely tedious.

I am not generally prudish, but I found myself startled by the astounding amount of violence in this book. Couched in amusing anecdotes and twinkly narrative are hundreds upon hundreds of murders enacted by or caused by the two "heros". I could see in many cases that the doomed characters deserved their fate, but not all.

Bridge of Birds has its moments, but I didn't find it to be the gem of which so many reviewers wrote. Still, I liked it enough that if I come across the sequels, I will surely read them, but I won't be traipsing hundreds of leagues, murdering everyone who gets in my way, to find them. I may not even cross the street.