Bridge of Birds

This book is the reason I joined Sword and Laser. My copy is a dingy paperback that I'd never heard of before and probably have walked past a million times in used book shops without a thought. Inside, it's almost exactly the type of fairy tale I thrive on.

I was nervous at first because a guy named “Barry Hughart” was writing an homage to Chinese mythology, and I'm still curious as to what someone with the cultural background would think of it. My own knowledge of Chinese myths is limited to a few Journey to the West adaptations and some questionable Taiwanese dramas. Still, I think Hughart really captured the storytelling flavor of an ancient myth, from any culture. It's witty and clever at some points, then bawdy and gratuitous the next. The balance kept me engaged without the book itself becoming pretentious in any way.

I felt a lot of the style was also very reminiscent of a reversed Don Quixote, with a clueless Sancho Panza and a clever knight. Li Kao's slightly flawed character is a little bit wise sage and a lot of folk trickster. The dialogue had me laughing out loud regularly, particularly anything involving Ma Grub and Pawnbroker Fang. Number 10 Ox is a little harder to grasp, but then again he's the readers avatar into the world and just as confused as we're supposed to be at times.

I loved the twists and turns that slowly wrap the main characters into a larger, more epic tale, and the way that plot turns in on itself time and again. Miser Shen is probably my favorite character, and also the only one responsible for me getting weepy eyed.

The only problem I have with the book is one I have consistently with fantasy fiction, and since this book was written in the eighties and set in “A China that Never Was,” it can't really lean on the “period piece” crutch I give to a lot of authors. The book represents women pretty awfully. Every female character in the story is either an awful, greedy succubus or a sexy bimbo. I might give Bright Star the exception here, but being half-naked most of her time on stage and valued only as a concubine, I really can't. I did enjoy Lotus Cloud and the way men reacted to her. I felt her role in the story was appropriate to her character, but still I don't think it would be too hard to portray a single woman as an intelligent being.

I think it only grated on me because the horrible women are so horrible and there is no redemption for any of them the way there is for most of the horrible men. Murdering them is seen as the appropriate solution. I don't mind the ridiculously gory violence, which is par for the course in the little Chinese mythology I know, but there is just no balance in the story on gender lines. I feel like I bring this up in every review I make and I'm sounding like a pretentious women's studies major, but I just feel the criticism is valid here.

It's a shame that it puts such a damper on what would otherwise be a five-star book for me. The pacing, the humor, the depth of emotions explored all make it a wonderful read, and I will certainly continue on in the series once I can find the other two books. I would certainly recommend it to anyone with a love of mythology and a good sense of humor.