Another Hughart Winner:
No surprise, another entertaining and delightful Li Kao and Number Ten Ox fantasy-adventure. The grisly murder of a prominent mandarin by a mysterious ghoul provides the catalyst for this duo to go delving into China's ancient mythology searching for the answers. Along the way, author Barry Hughart creates some of the most curious and imaginative heroes and villains you will ever encounter. Just superb.

Sadly, as noted by previous reviewers, this is the third and last book that the author has written in this series. On the bright side, the books he did write were all sparkling 5-star reads. Eight Skilled Gentlemen is a winner - just read it.

This is the last of Hughart's Ancient China stories, and he somehow managed to get me teary-eyed at the end there (bastard;)). It wasn't as good as the second book, but only because I've grown wise to his plot twists. The theme of all the books was definitely that appearances are deceiving and people are always in disguise. Even the narrator wears his peasantry like a cloak. The last part of this book was an amazing ending to a fascinating and beautiful trilogy. ( )

Eight Skilled Gentlemen is the third and last of Hughart's Master Li and Number Ten Ox stories. Which is unfortunate, because these are some really great books. Hughart's prose is just as lyrical here as in the previous volumes, and the incorporation of Chinese folklore is just as fascinating as always. Even though the plot is a bit weaker here than in the previous two volumes, Eight Skilled Gentlemen is still better than most and high n my list of keepers.

Highly recommended, but read the other two first to get the full effect. ( )

This mystery resonates less with me than Hughart's earlier works, but contains some of the most engaging characters. The mad puppeteer and his beautiful daughter are delightful and simultaneously melancholy. The plotting is, once again, very tight, and the boat race is captivating. ( )

This one is the third one in the series, and was written only one year after the previous one. Compared to the previous two books, this one was a somewhat lesser effort, in that the story wasn't as crisp and things didn't tie together as nicely, and you could fairly easily tell the direction of the twists based on the way the previous books had worked (something that bothered me about the Harry Potter series, as well).

Still, this book was still quite enjoyable. The style, with all the references to real and fake Chinese legends and characters and landscapes, is still very fun to read. The dialogue, as well; the characters are just as fond of puns, poetic phrasings and alliteration as the real Chinese people I've dealt with, and since I enjoy those things myself, I get a kick out of seeing them here. The characters, well... if you like the two leads, you're not going to find anything to object to here, although the act is wearing a bit thin. Ox will always fall in love with the main female lead, Master Li will always find clues somewhere and play the charlatan half the time, etc. A little development wouldn't hurt.

The plot isn't as well thought out as the previous two books, but on the whole, it played nicely. It just wasn't as tight, but it's a high order to get that. Here, we have high-level mandarins, Chinese vampires and a series of amusing gods, ape-men, and ancient, mysterious cages, and all of it has to be worked out fairly quickly. It's still imaginative, but just not all tied together quite as well.

Anyway, it's definitely still good, and I'd still recommend it if you're already in the series. It's just sad it's the last one; there really should have been a few more. Stupid publishing companies. ( )