The Sopranos For Fantasy Fans

I loved this book !. I love me some epic fantasy and I'm well versed in western inspired fantasy. But I love Asian mythology and love the new trend though it's still relatively small in number of Asian inspired fantasy books, which is slowly but surely growing. When I hear a new fantasy series is based in a steam age, western or modern era I start to worry, I've seen it done badly so many times with shallow characters. This massively shattered that trend the world is not explained in the depth of a Tolkien, Martin or Jordan but the immediate world is extremely well described and easy to envision, particularly for anime fans of movies and shows like Akira and Cowboy Bebop. If you love a gangster epic this is definitely worth your time with characters as rich and flawed as any ASOIAF as well as Goodfellas, The Godfather and The Sopranos. I loved all the influences from Triad and Yakuza culture a great blend of these criminal organisations for the gangland in this book. We have fantastically flawed characters as well as the morally bankrupt. Fonda Lee never forgets these characters are criminals and doesn't shy away from their brutality, their ruthlessness and their willingness to engage in deplorable acts. She covers everything from how these criminal organisations get started usually from political strife. She handles foreign importation and corruption, she deals with drug addiction, dependency and self medication. She even manages to touch on mental illness, sexual predators and PTSD. She describes the perfect moral compromise between loyalty to family and honour as well as the cost of honour when your family's honour is compromised or completely lacking. Can't praise this book enough check it out if you like anything I just said, I cannot wait to see where she goes with all this.

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1 person found this helpful

Fantastic pacing and well structured plot

A well written story with believable character actions and interesting magic. Well worth a listen.

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Great read/listen

Once in to the story it is difficult to put it down! On to the next in the series.

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Absolutely Brilliant Story

I just wish I had found this book sooner. Brilliant start to a trilogy. Great characters that you can invest in and story that grips you and dosent let go. The narrator is brilliant and brings the story to. Now straight on to the second book. I won't be disappointed

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An exploration of themes through character.

The themes throughout this series are explored primarily through character and I am here for it. I wouldn't describe any of them as 'good' people but I didn't cheer anyone's losses, they are all emphatically written. Even the big bad, while doing terrible things (as everyone in the series does), and is constantly presented in the worst light (due to the perspectives that we follow), has understandable goals and her actions make complete sense to who she is.

The lore is expressed by the character we're following. We learn about religion through the religious, military history from the warriors, the rest of the world by the well travelled. So much so, when we get an exposition dump from an omnipotent voice it's jarring, at least to my mind.

The magic is simple and self consistent. While simple, it is expressed uniquely depending on the skills and philosophy of the user.

Same story for action. Action is again an exploration of character. It's kept interesting by high stakes for character and reader and unique pairings of character and motivation.

The plot is the weakest aspect of the series I think. It could be described as meandering, but I think each sequence explores a theme through a unique character perspective. If the goal is to get from where we begin to where we're going in the most efficient manner, this ain't it chief.

Instead, I think the goal is explore a theme like 'loyalty' what does it mean to someone who prioritizes family vs country vs friendship vs oneself? Same perspectives but the theme 'sacrifice'. What does 'clan' mean to those that have one and want them? Don't have one and want them... I personally loved it.

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Amazing

Just finished the trilogy and thought I’d return to where it all started. This is well worth the time and would highly highly recommend.
10/10 storytelling and narration.

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Fantastic narrator and an emotional trilogy

I've read the while trilogy and it's one of my favourite series. Very good world building and incredibly flawed characters who felt like real people. Sometimes I hated them and sometimes I loved them.

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blown away somewhat

I liked the vibe as soon as I started but assumed it was just 'The Godfather' plus Sopranos elements with a cool surface level facelift. there are definitely similarities with Puzo's writing style but as it went on, the characters took on such complexity and nuance, I don't feel it's overstating it to say Tolstoy couldn't do much better. I was really really pleasantly surprised. the narrator fitted perfectly and did a
great job.

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3 people found this helpful

Wow so long! I really wanted to like this book.

Plus points, A well crafted world with lots of interesting ideas interwoven.
Places and characters fleshed out nicely.
Negatives It was just too long, lots of boring dialogue between interesting segments of the story.
Not easy to form any kind of attachment or liking for any of the key protagonists in the story. I found it very difficult to want any of the key characters to win through.
Some of the key characters would act in ways, completely out of character with the way they had been developed.
The narrator had an annoying voice that did little to add to the enjoyment of listening.

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Great Start to the Series

The series has got great reviews. This was a great first entry. In tes of characters, it has defined, grew and left some on a cliff edge.
I'm excited for the next two entries in the series.

The only complaint I have, I have this too with other books, is that the narrator needs a more feminine intonated voice for reading Shae and Wen's parts.

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