Monday, January 18, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Snake Lies Waiting by Jin Yong (Translated by Gigi Chang and Anna Holmwood)

 


A Snake Lies Waiting is the third volume (of four) in the recent translated version of Jin Yong's classic Wuxia series, Legend of the Condor Heroes.  The first volume was released in 2019 as "A Hero Born" (which I reviewed here) and the second as "A Bond Undone" (which I reviewed here).  This story, along with its sequel series, are considered foundational texts in the Wuxia genre, and I've found myself greatly enjoying them as I've taken each out from the library.  They're not character focused like the stories I usually love, but the kung fu sequences are so outrageous and over the top that I can't help but love them.  

A Snake Lies Waiting is no different, so this won't be a particularly long review.  Series protagonists Guo Jing and Lotus Huang continue to get into more and more dangerous situations, that result in them interacting with and learning from - and fighting - more and more Kung Fu Masters.  You can tell though that this is the start of the end of the story, as in this volume characters from the first two volumes long gone return all at once, but it continues its zany kung fu fun all the way from beginning to end.  If you enjoyed the first two volumes, you'll enjoy this, if not you won't, but if you're still questioning whether to start this series, this one's another vote in favor of yes.

---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------
Guo Jing, along with his two shifus Zhou Botong and Count Seven Hong, has left Peach Blossom Island but is once more in grave danger: because unknown to anyone but Lotus Huang, her father Apothecary Huang has put them on a ship destined to fall apart at sea, hoping to kill them plus their knowledge of the legendary Nine Yin Manuel.  And Lotus is almost certainly too far away to get to them in time to save them.....

But even if they can all survive, and even if Guo Jing can reunite with Lotus, greater dangers still lurk: for one of the Five Greats of kung fu, Western Venom Viper Ouyang, is after him seeking revenge for the humiliation he showed his nephew, as well as for his knowledge of the Nine Yin Manuel.  And even further out there is the Sixth Prince of the Jin, Wanyan Honglie, who still seeks the power to evilly defeat the Song, as well as Yang Kang, Guo Jing's sworn brother who still secretly follows his adopted Jin father and is willing to do perhaps anything to get his way..... 
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If you're reading this series, you should know how this series works by now:  Guo Jing and his companions - Lotus Huang and a variety of Kung Fu masters and people of political influence (the Mongolians) - get into trouble caused generally by other Kung Fu Masters, some of whom act honorably and only through misunderstanding while others act dishonorably and cause greater trouble.  This requires Guo Jing and his friends to figure out new ways out of the situation, usually through innovative uses of the Kung Fu they have learned, or for them to figure out and learn new Kung Fu techniques from new Shifus (Masters) or from books which they slowly figure out how to grasp.  

Along the way the book will wind up with at least a few sequences in which several Kung Fu masters fight - often with our protagonists watching or involved in only on the side - only to be met by more Kung Fu masters, and the more Kung Fu Masters.....you get the idea.  It's ridiculous, and yet the books make this tremendous fun and here it's highlighted by a sequence where Guo Jing and Lotus Huang are waylaid by a injury that requires 7 days of rest and can only watch from a hiding place as practically every character from the last two books who we've left behind comes back to try and find Guo Jing and in the end wind up in greater and greater messes.  It's just so hilarious and enjoyable that it's hard not to smile through it all.

There are still some gender issues in this book although it's better than in the last book and still better than a lot of SF/F for this age - for example, two women minor characters and potential extra love interests for Guo Jing come back, and one winds up married off to another character and has little impact and just sort of seems there and the other stays as a conflicting love interest but has no other personality here.  Again Lotus Huang is smarter and more capable but gets less skilled than Guo Jing in this book, and while you'd expect her to come to the rescue at first instead she once again gets a damsel in distress moment for a little bit, followed by her fearing life isn't worth going on without Guo Jing, who really doesn't deserve her.  Still the final arc of this book features Lotus Huang having a tremendous moment of triumph on her own and its amazing fun and worthy of her character, even if she's still saddled to Guo Jing by plot purposes.  So it's not nearly as bad as I might've feared, and the fun in this book overcomes these problems for me given this book's age.  

In short, still tremendous fun and I cannot wait for the final volume in April to come out here.  
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