A tale of ancient China that never was but should have been. That's how the liner notes describe Barry Hughart's . and round out Hughart's delightful recounting of the adventures of Master Li and Number Ten Ox.
Chinese literature and myth are rich in material for modern fantasy writers, yet not until Guy Gavriel Kay's magical imagining of 8th Century China in did I find another so accessible to western readers.
I don't doubt that there will be (and probably have been and are) fantasy writers of Chinese origin who will use the material of their heritage in ways that will further amaze and delight us.
In the meantime, Hughart and Kay have taken this thoroughly western woman a few steps further from home than she had been before.
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