Bridge of Birds
If you’re looking for a good historical novel, don’t look for it here. There’s a bit of history that shows up (the specific year it takes place in is specified), but that’s just some basic grounding for a story rooted in Chinese myth.
Some of those myths are quite real, including the ‘Duke of Ch’in’, or Qin Shi Huang, who is a figure of great renown, accomplishments… and occasional bogeyman of China.
The writing itself is wonderful, and part of what makes the somewhat surreal setting that incorporates many legends and tales, and keeps anything from jarring out of place. This also allows all sorts of fun, over-the-top action… in something of the best pulp traditions, though it doesn’t have that feel at all. Its hard to properly recommend this enough, it’s a very fun book, that is actually a bit longer than I remembered, but the action goes at a smooth clip that keeps the pages turning.
For me (and, it would seem, a lot of westerners) it feels exactly as the blurb says: ‘an ancient China that never was’, but I can’t help wondering how someone with a lot more knowledge (say, a native…) would feel about the book. Hughart apparently has studied China fairly extensively, so I hope it would hold up there as well.
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