Bridge of Birds (1984)

Erring on the side of five stars, as I thought this was incredibly charming. A lot of fun to read. ( )

In an Ancient China, that never was, Yu Lu (not to be confused with the eminent author of The Classic of Tea)[1:] sets out on a quest to save the children of his village. Everyone between the ages of 8 and 13 has been struck down by a mysterious plague. He is sent to the Peking in order to bring back a wise man who can help them solve the mystery of this plague that can count. Soon Yu Lu (also known as Number Ten Ox due to his great strength) and the wise man Li Kao[2:] are racing across China in an attempt to locate the Root of Power that just may save the afflicted children.

Full review: http://www.susanhatedliterature.net/2010/08/25/bridge-of-birds/ ( )

I very much enjoyed the story told here. It was funny, well-written, and crammed lots into quite a small volume (so much so that I read it entirely in handfull of hours on a train). The descriptions of the adventures were engaging to a point, but I rather felt like it hopped from one impossible-to-escape situation to another (with some suitably impossible escape being made each time, of course).

But if you can put that aside, this tale reminded me most of shows like Monkey Magic that I saw on TV, and other Chinese tales. Enchanting, pearls of wisdom scattered freely, and "realistic" in that I felt this was almost certainly a re-telling or translation of a real Chinese tale.

I think it will be a while before I would search out the rest of the series, so it fails the 4 stars mark for me. ( )

After all of these years and more re-reads than I know, still a fave. ( )

I thought I was really going to like this one. Turned out I had a real problem staying engaged with the story. It gets rather repetitive in the middle, and the ending - which really did it for other people - was meh for me. I'm glad to to be done with it. ( )