Five Jade Disks
(category: science fiction)book 1 of The City Trilogy by
Chang Hsi-Kuo
published by Columbia University Press in 2003Nick read a library book, in February 2010
Nick's rating: 5 out of 10
Nick's opinion:
Interested in Chinese literature? Chinese culture? Chinese history? ... read this book. But as a science fiction novel -- it's rubbish. Characters keep popping out of nowhere, making some point, then disappearing. The points may be fascinating in terms of Chinese culture -- I wouldn't know -- but they are irrelevant to the plot. Or, when they do somehow keep the plot moving -- they tend to be not worth the effort. For example: the master spy gets his brother to transport the girl in a "frog-hopper". As far as I can tell, the only reason for the brother to appear is so that he can show off his frog-hopper skills. Good grief! Couldn't the master spy pilot a frog-hopper?! There is some humour, there are some clever ideas, a lot of coincidences (bordering on deus ex machina) and an abrupt ending. The uprising has killed a lot of the enemy -- but the all-powerful enemy space-ship is still free to destroy all revolutionaries! Even though books 2 & 3 of the trilogy are in the same volume -- I will not bother to read on.
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