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Mar. 19th, 2024 10:36 pmThe friend who recommended me S.L. Huang's The Water Outlaws suggested that it might be helpful to read up beforehand on the source material that the book is adapted from, The Water Margin, which she had not done. I also did not do this, although I am definitely interested in doing so now!
The Water Outlaws is about a heroic group of mostly-female bandits that end up doing battle against a couple of evil officials that are trying to create a Forbidden Weapon. The most protagonist-y character is Lin Chong, a righteous and law-abiding arms instructor who gets framed for a crime by her evil boss after she refuses to Submit to his Advances, then is rescued and recruited by the bandits on her way to prison, where she finds herself in the middle of a power struggle between the bandit group's criminal founders and the newer leadership who want to forge the group into a Weapon of Righteousness.
The inter-bandit politics and power struggles were some of my favorite parts of the book -- well, no, that's not correct. My favorite parts of the book and also I think unequivocally the best parts of the book are the fight sequences. They're incredibly fun to read, and I say this as a person who's not usually much of a fight scene enjoyer -- inventive, well-choreographed, clearly described, and a bit over the top in the best possible way. But I also did really like the bandit politics and was a bit sorry that this wasn't the whole plot of the book and got more or less resolved midway through, although I understand that one must eventually defeat the big bad etc.
I do think that ... hmm. I don't have a problem with Lin Chong being The Protagonist and I don't have a problem with there being a lot of different bandits with their own complex motivations, but I do think the book runs into a bit of a problem wherein every character is a foil or parallel to Lin Chong, and Lin Chong as a result has perhaps too many foils .... I think the parallel arc with Lin Chong's friend who starts out as the fashionable radical to Lin Chong's stoic conservative and ends up trapped within the system while Lin Chong gets increasingly radicalized works well, and Lin Chong's sworn sisterhood with a boisterous monk is very fun, but there's a lot of interesting stuff set up in the first half about Lin Chong's wary respect-and-mistrust for various other members of the group that doesn't feel to me like it fully pays off; Chao Gai (exorcist village chief!) and Song Jiyang (radical poetess!) in particular both feel like really intriguing outlines of characters that never quite snap into focus the way I wanted them to. On the other hand if I had such a rich mine of characters to play with as seems to be provided in The Water Margin I wouldn't want to condense any down either.
That said, I had an extremely good time with the book overall and would recommend to anyone who likes fun outlaw schemes and cool action sequences. I am going to be thinking about
( spoilers ) with respectful awe for a long time.
The Water Outlaws is about a heroic group of mostly-female bandits that end up doing battle against a couple of evil officials that are trying to create a Forbidden Weapon. The most protagonist-y character is Lin Chong, a righteous and law-abiding arms instructor who gets framed for a crime by her evil boss after she refuses to Submit to his Advances, then is rescued and recruited by the bandits on her way to prison, where she finds herself in the middle of a power struggle between the bandit group's criminal founders and the newer leadership who want to forge the group into a Weapon of Righteousness.
The inter-bandit politics and power struggles were some of my favorite parts of the book -- well, no, that's not correct. My favorite parts of the book and also I think unequivocally the best parts of the book are the fight sequences. They're incredibly fun to read, and I say this as a person who's not usually much of a fight scene enjoyer -- inventive, well-choreographed, clearly described, and a bit over the top in the best possible way. But I also did really like the bandit politics and was a bit sorry that this wasn't the whole plot of the book and got more or less resolved midway through, although I understand that one must eventually defeat the big bad etc.
I do think that ... hmm. I don't have a problem with Lin Chong being The Protagonist and I don't have a problem with there being a lot of different bandits with their own complex motivations, but I do think the book runs into a bit of a problem wherein every character is a foil or parallel to Lin Chong, and Lin Chong as a result has perhaps too many foils .... I think the parallel arc with Lin Chong's friend who starts out as the fashionable radical to Lin Chong's stoic conservative and ends up trapped within the system while Lin Chong gets increasingly radicalized works well, and Lin Chong's sworn sisterhood with a boisterous monk is very fun, but there's a lot of interesting stuff set up in the first half about Lin Chong's wary respect-and-mistrust for various other members of the group that doesn't feel to me like it fully pays off; Chao Gai (exorcist village chief!) and Song Jiyang (radical poetess!) in particular both feel like really intriguing outlines of characters that never quite snap into focus the way I wanted them to. On the other hand if I had such a rich mine of characters to play with as seems to be provided in The Water Margin I wouldn't want to condense any down either.
That said, I had an extremely good time with the book overall and would recommend to anyone who likes fun outlaw schemes and cool action sequences. I am going to be thinking about
( spoilers ) with respectful awe for a long time.
