Rating: 
Summary: The book is a gate to a saga so good you wish it won't end
Review: The plot of this particular book is very complicated, making the readers always on the edge, never know what will happen on the next page. You will keep guessing about the line of the story. THe intrigues are very well-woven and you will be really absorbed in them.
THe characterization is superb. Wingrove do not make good or bad guys here, he just created a whole new humans, with all of their light and dark sides, with all of their good and evil. THe characters aren't your regular superhero and supervillain, but personalities you could very well identify in your surrounding, or within you!
Mr Wingrove also make special efforts in detailing the ancient Han (Chinese) traditions and words, making this book like a Chinese history book. Yet the sensible sci-fi tidbits and mambo-jumbos are scattered everywhere, that you would realize that this universe is set in our future. The book is a combination of Isaac Asimov's grand science fiction, James Clavell's oriental drama and Tom Clancy's quick-paced techno-thriller .
Rating:
Summary: If you thought DUNE was a 10, this is a 9.5.
Review: The Gushing ============= The first book in, what I hope, is a series without end. It's that good! Author David Wingrove has created a world as rich as Frank Herbert's DUNE series, with as many (or more!) characters and plot twists (many don't seem to be yet resolved after 5 books). The writing is careful and tight, again reminiscent of Herbert (or Herbert in his younger days, as the harsher critics of the DUNE series might say) What DUNE is to questions of metaphysics, spirituality, messianic traditions, and heroic individualism, Wingrove's series is to questions of politics, class warfare, cultural tradition, and sociology of the masses. The characters are multi-dimensional. Moral ambiguity pervades the plot. There is neither a good side nor bad side. There are good and evil people on both sides. And sometimes good slide into evil and evil return from the dark side. The Plot ============= In the not-too-distant future, a vastly over populated Earth is dominated by the culture and politics of ancient China. Seven Chinese kings rule the world. One king rules each continent as an absolute monarch. Each continent is actually a massive city state. Most of a continent's open areas have been swallowed up by a multi-level city (built from a strong but light substance called "ice"). Few citizens ever see the light of day. A rich elite -- business owners and nobility -- live on the top levels while a huge peasant class live in incredible poverty in the lower levels. The series examines the personal and social dynamics of warehousing a huge population in "caves of steel" and how a "master race", descendants of the ancient Chinese, can control a population through a combination of big-brother technology, a secret police force, and an edict that carefully limits advances in science. However, as history has shown, even a caged population cannot be stopped from eventually demanding freedom... The Criticism ============= The first three books contain a high degree of very twisted sexua
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but Possibly Flawed Premise
Review: Okay, ditto everyone's glowing reviews -- so I'd like to just critique the premise of this whole series. Historically, Chinese rule has meant peace and prosperity. This series uses a kind of Yellow Peril sentiment as a premise, but the historical record thus far shows that so peaceful and prosperous had the Middle Kingdom been that Europeans were able to mercilessly exploit Chinese complacency and self-satisfaction. For example, the Chinese invented gunpowder, but had no real military use for it since they were the strongest power by far in Asia, and save for border barbarians every so often, everyone was at peace, relative to Europe during the same epoch. Another example is the fact that the Chinese were the first to make grand sea voyages of discovery to Africa, under the Muslim admiral Zheng He, and unlike later European sails, these ships were truly on good-will missions -- their objective had not been to plant flags, but simply, a la Star Trek's Enterprise, to boldly go where no Chinese subject had gone before! One last note along these lines: no less a person than Theodor Herzl, widely honored as the Father of Zionism, pointed very specifically to the fact of general Imperial Chinese peace, enlightenment, and meritocracy, such that Chinese Jews had totally assimilated into the wider Chinese population out of all physically distinct characteristics -- so tolerant were the Chinese of other faiths -- as a reason for establishing a uniquely Jewish state (to wit: not only was the survival of World Jewry threatened by pogroms in hostile communities). So, if anything, Chinese rule in the future should prove just as enlightened as it had been in the past! Which is to say, all the bloody melodrama founding the premise of Wingrove's series of vaguely Yellow Peril Science Fiction (or Speculative Fiction -- take your pick of labels) is very much flawed. Again, I liked this book well-enough, but I was a little disappointed at Wingrove taking the easy way out (I mean, anybody can simply imagine an extension of comtemporary Chinese authoritarianism into the future -- more interesting is how China, say, could become a true "Middle" Kingdom again, given its many, many problems now, and how science and technology might be involved in such a development...).
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievable for a Chinese reader
Review: Although Chung Kuo presents the reader with a fascinating view of a future dominated by Chinese culture, it does so at such a ponderous pace that it is hardly worth the voyage. The book is a saga of political intrigue which plays itself out in endless meetings filled with knowing looks and nods between more than 100 characters. Occasional scenes of brutal violence are completely out of balance with the rest of the narrative, and never make up for the generally slow pace. It is nearly impossible to find a character that the reader will care about. Part of the problem is that Wingrove treats most of them as chess pieces: they are there only to serve a function in the big political game. As soon as they've played their part, they're gone. The next time something needs to happen, a new character is introduced. Another problem is that few characters have any admirable traits; they are all some kind of murderer, rapist, or political backstabber. Female characters are all either virgins or whores, and never of any consequence. We never know which side we're supposed to hope will win the big struggle for control. Both sides have their relevant points and philosophies as well as their own despicable characters. It is hard to care when one side has the upper hand on the other. It's like watching two old men you don't know playing chess in the park. Who cares if the one with the blue hat wins?
Rating: 
Summary: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Review: Chung Kuo has quite a few faults, indeed. It is violent and graphic in a few places and there is quite a bit of death, language, and explicit sexual themes throughout. Don't expect an incredibly complex set of characters, or beautiful or gripping descriptions. Still I COULD NOT put this book down. Not that it was so good. But the world it purports is almost believable, and it is fairly gripping. It's more or less worth slogging through, but BE WARNED: there are scenes in it, as well as its sequel "The Broken Wheel" (I haven't read any of the ones following) that still nauseate me when I think of them almost a year later (they're that sick). Good but not great. There's way better sci-fi/fantasy books in this vein out there - but if you want depressed, crumbling, revolution, etc, go with Chung Kuo.
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