The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox

by Barry Hughart

Book Overview

Contains Barry Hughart's three novels concerning Master Li and Number Ten Ox, including the World Fantasy Award-winning, BRIDGE OF BIRDS. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0966543602
• ISBN13: 9780966543605
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: The Stars Our Destination Books
• Length: 652 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

The Best Books You've Never Read

Here you can find all three Master Li and Number Ten Ox novels in a single volume. If you haven't yet sampled the pleasures of Barry Hughart's "China that never was," then you have the chance for a rare treat: an enthralling, superbly written, nearly flawless set of stories that are at once intensely humanistic and delightfully funny. In "Bridge of Birds," we meet Number Ten Ox, a Chinese peasant whose village's children are stricken by a plague that can count. When the few copper coins he has can't buy a distinguished scholar to help him, he has to settle on Master Li, who has a slight flaw in his character. The mystery they set out to solve turns out to be just a part of an older, far more important crime against Heaven itself. Through a rollicking set of adventures, involving some of the most amazing characters in fantasy, they charge into the problem. The ending will simply amaze you. ("Bridge" in it's stand-alone volume has 171 reviews; 151 of them giving it 5 stars. Perhaps that will help persuade you.) In "The Story of the Stone," Number Ten Ox has become an assistant to Master Li. When the abbot of a remote monastery arrives and tells Master Li that insanely homicidal Laughing Prince has returned - and he has been dead for centuries - Number Ten Ox and Master Li set out to deal with the matter. And in "Eight Skilled Gentlemen," Master Li and Number Ten Ox are asked by the very highest Taoist scholar in China to investigate a series of mysteries, not the least of which is a vampire ghoul that appears at an execution. A critical time is coming again, and it takes all of Master Li's cunning and Ox's strength to save China. Hughart is a brilliant, lyrical writer. His plots are simply astonishing, and his ability to paint wonderful characters in a few sentences is outstanding. My test for superb fantasy is simple: when you finish the story, the ordinary world you return to should seem a duller, mundane place. Hughart's work easily passes that test. The only mildly disappointing part of this otherwise excellent edition is the jacket cover; there Hughart explains, carefully and honestly, why there won't be any more Master Li novels. It's a shame, and I hope he will reconsider. These are the best novels you haven't read. My very highest recommendation.

Utterly superlative

I rarely review books, however.... Mere words fail to describe the sheer genius that are the Mr. Hughart's efforts on Master Li and Number Ten Ox. The three books in this omnibus are so cleverly written, so unfailingly humorous and so totally poignant that other works will hereafter be spoiled for me. The author does state that he could have written more adventures for these characters after these three, but that they would have been formulaic, and what would be the point in that? As accurate as that may be, I mourn the fact that the world has no more to look forward to from this amazing author and his two phenomenal characters. Should he write anything else, I will snap it up. I also know that I will re-read these books in the future and approach that task with absolute glee, that I am given the chance to do so.

Wickedly sly and unexpectedly moving

For years "Bridge of Birds," the first book in the chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, was my Christmas gift of choice. I must have purchased at least three dozens copies for friends over the years. When the entire Chronicles was published together about ten years ago, I happily bought the edition to have a hard cover copy of all three stories in one place, even though I still had each of the original books separately. Simply put these books are hilariously funny, heart-achingly moving, and superbly and beautifully written. The Chronicles consist of three books based on folkloric Chinese ghost stories. In Bridge of Birds we meet the two main characters. Number Ten Ox is a strapping young man from a peasant village in which all the children between the ages of eight and thirteen have fallen into a coma-like stupor. He travels to Peking with the collected savings of the village to find a wise man who can figure out how a plague can learn to count. Unfortunately, or so it seems, his village is a poor one, and all he can afford is Master Li, a 100+year-old, alcoholic sage with, as he describes it, a slight flaw in his character. The two set off on an adventure that takes them all over China and brings them into contact with such wonderful characters as Miser Chen, Doctor Death, Pawnbroker Fang, Ma the Grub, One-Eyed Wong, the Ancestress, Henpecked Ho, Cut-Off-Their-Balls Wong and Lotus Cloud. Bridge of Birds is at once a clever mystery, a beautiful love story, and a wickedly funny farce in which the same crazy and wonderful characters keep popping up in amusing new situations. Barry Hughart has taken some of the most popular myths and stories of our time and anachronistically transported them back to a fantastical ancient China to create a simply delightful book. Think of a dungeon and dragons game for intelligent and well-read adults. It not only makes me laugh out loud every time I read it, its exploration of the true meaning of love and generosity also makes me cry. The next two books in the series, The Story of the Stone and Eight Skilled Gentlemen aren't as strong as Bridge of Birds, but they are still wonderful and playful explorations of Chinese mythology and any book that contains characters like Number Ten Ox and Master Li is alright by me. I've finally reluctantly accepted that Barry Hughart isn't going to write any more books about these two characters, but at least we have these three and that is no small blessing.

Historically Funny

No, the title is not a typo! This book takes place in an ancient China that existed long ago (or perhaps never at all), and Hughart's storytelling is just amazing. He builds a world that is noisy, colorful, alive, but also overwhelmingly funny. I laughed out loud many times throughout all three stories. Other reviewers talked about Hughart's imagery and prose, but they gloss over what I consider to be the best part of these books (now bound together in one volume): they are funny. Truly a romp through ancient China and an escape from modern life!

Great Book for Everyone

The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart is a work of sheer outlandish fiction. It is a beast of a book at 652 pages long and is not for the faint of literary heart, but once you finish the book, you realize how much you really loved it and wanted more. This book fulfill the axiom of "you don't know what you have until it is gone". The use of cliffhangers made this plot of coming of age a truly fast and addictive read. In the book, a country boy named Number Ten Ox from the village of Ku Fu must embark on a journey across China with the sage Master Li, who has a slight flaw in his character, to save the children of Ox's village from a terrible affliction. On the way they meet up with any number of foul and despicable villains and foil them with a devilishly clever series of tricks concocted by Master Li and inflicted by Ox. A great example is their sales pitch of a goat that can defecate gold while eating nothing but garbage, but what the buyer doesn't hear is this description. " The servant brought up the rear dragging a cart filled with garbage and cheap copper disks covered in gold leaf with a goat tethered to it." I found the book unique because of the characters. Characters often recur and appear in different roles each time. Several villains, after being tricked by the dynamic duo see the error of their ways and come back into the story as supporting protagonists. However, the role of protagonist is slightly blurred, and this gives the book its strange appeal. It is hard to distinguish which characters are right. The villains are seen through the eyes of Ox and Master Li, but some of the tricks of these two are just as dastardly as the plots of the villains. However, with the fate of the children in their hands, Ox and Master Li seem to have Right on their side, and that makes you care. The moral ambiguity in the book reflects life and I believe that Hughart was trying to apply this story to real life. As with real life, there is nor a clear sense of Right and Wrong when it comes to some issues. This is a beautifully written book in the sense of pure, rich description. "Master Li and I dazzled the eyes in tunics of sea-green silk that were secured by silver girdles with borders of jade. The jeweled pendants that dangled from our fine tasseled hats tinkled in the breeze, and we languidly waved gold-spattered Szech'uen fans." Also, the story construction leaves the reader interested and, often, wanting more and more. The author uses cliffhangers, such as this one, to help the book along. Ox and Master Li cause a disturbance in a resort town owned by a powerful duke and they have been sentenced to death in a labyrinth flooded by the tides. "Slim dark shapes were sliding across the dark floor like snakes. It was water, and the tide was coming in" There is a distinct uncertainty about how it is going to turn out for our heroes and the reader wants to find out more. The author also keeps the story moving