Eight Skilled Gentlemen
by Barry Hughart
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Book Summary Information
Author: Barry HughartEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1991-01-01
ISBN: 0385417101
Number of pages: 255
Publisher: Foundation/Doubleday
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780385417105
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Eight Skilled Gentlemen
Book Review: A plethora of demons
Summary: 5 Stars
How easily Chinese history (that never was) segues into mythology. "Eight Skilled Gentlemen" is the third book in the 'Master Li and Number Ten Ox' trilogy, and these books should be near the top of everyone's favorite fantasies list.
The execrable villain, Sixth Degree Hosteler Tu is on the execution block at the beginning of "Eight Skilled Gentlemen." The executioner, who is going for the record in cleanly-performed beheadings by sword, botches this particular job for a very peculiar reason--a vampire ghoul crashes into the crowd around the execution block in pursuit of a band of frightened band of soldiers.
This is just the beginning of a bizarre monster-fest (in case you were wondering who the eight skilled gentlemen were.) These are demons like you've never seen before. For instance, the first demon-deity "resembles a three-year-old child with red eyes, long ears, and beautiful hair, and it kills by forcing its victims to strangle themselves."
Luckily Master Li happens upon Number Ten Ox before he finishes choking himself to death.
The plot is quite complicated, but the exotic settings and oddball characters kept this reader mightily entertained. In addition to the 'Eight Skilled Gentlemen,' there is a very old, partially deaf Celestial Master and saint who has some of the best lines in the book: at the funeral of a demon-slain high muckety-muck minister of state, he glares at a row of tight-lipped mandarins, and shouts, "Damn fools!...If you'd given Ma's corpse an enema you could have buried what remained in a walnut shell!"
Chinese saints seem to be much more opinionated and interesting than their European counterparts.
Master Li and Number Ten Ox join up with a puppeteer and his beautiful daughter to break up a ring of mandarin smugglers who are using mysterious cages to communicate with one another. The story finally resolves itself in a wild end-of-the-world dragon boat race that pits our two heroes against the gods.
I only wish Barry Hughart had continued on with this eccentric and wonderful myth of old China.
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