Name: Omar's review of A Hero Born by Jin Yong
Item: A Hero Born
Rating: 3
Author: Omar

Jin Yong

THE CHINESE "LORD OF THE RINGS" - NOW IN ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME. THE SERIES EVERY CHINESE READER HAS BEEN ENJOYING FOR DECADES - 300 MILLION COPIES SOLD. China: 1200 A.D. The Song Empire has been invaded by its warlike Jurchen neighbours from the north. Half its territory and its historic capital lie in enemy hands; the peasants toil under the burden of the annual tribute demanded by the victors. Meanwhile, on the Mongolian steppe, a disparate nation of great warriors is about to be united by a warlord whose name will endure for eternity: Genghis Khan. Guo Jing, son of a murdered Song patriot, grew up with Genghis Khan's army. He is humble, loyal, perhaps not altogether wise, and is fated from birth to one day confront an opponent who is the opposite of him in every way: privileged, cunning and flawlessly trained in the martial arts. Guided by his faithful shifus, The Seven Heroes of the South, Guo Jing must return to China - to the Garden of the Drunken Immortals in Jiaxing - to fulfil his destiny. But in a divided land riven by war and betrayal, his courage and his loyalties will be tested at every turn. Translated from the Chinese by Anna Holmwood Volume 2 - A Bond Undone - will be published in January 2019.

A Hero Born

Omar

Now in English for the first time! Set in ancient China, in a world where kung fu is magic, kingdoms vie for power and the battle to become the ultimate kung fu master unfolds, an unlikely hero is born... in the first book in the epic Legends of the Condor Heroes series by the critically acclaimed master of the genre, Jin Yong. After his father—a devoted Song patriot—is murdered by the Jin empire, Guo Jing and his mother flee to the plains of Ghengis Khan and his people for refuge. For one day he must face his mortal enemy in battle in the Garden of the Drunken Immortals. Under the tutelage of Genghis Khan and The Seven Heroes of the South, Guo Jing hones his kung fu skills. Humble, loyal and perhaps not always wise, Guo Jing faces a destiny both great and terrible. However, in a land divided—and a future largely unknown—Guo Jing must navigate love and war, honor and betrayal before he can face his own fate and become the hero he’s meant to be. Legends of the Condor Heroes A Hero Born A Bond Undone A Snake Lies Waiting A Heart Divided

The Definitive Edition

Reading this book was like reading a legend or myth. It was full of unforgettable characters, a dumb but kind-hearted protagonist and a perfect female lead. The writing was simple but beautiful, and the wuxia setting was perfect (of course).

Anyway, I strongly recommend you to have the glossary of the characters at hand, because there are A LOT of different names.

Mary

Reading this book was like reading a legend or myth. It was full of unforgettable characters, a dumb but kind-hearted protagonist and a perfect female lead. The writing was simple but beautiful, and the wuxia setting was perfect (of course).

Anyway, I strongly recommend you to have the glossary of the characters at hand, because there are A LOT of different names.

Gracie Marsden

There were certainly some exciting points in this book that were entertaining, but the writing seemed awkward and was hard to read at points. I think I'll try reading it in Mandarin sometime to see if I like it better.

THE CHINESE "LORD OF THE RINGS" - NOW IN ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME. THE SERIES EVERY CHINESE READER HAS BEEN ENJOYING FOR DECADES - 300 MILLION COPIES SOLD. "Jin Yong's work, in the Chinese-speaking world, has a cultural currency roughly equal to that of "Harry Potter" and "Star Wars" combined" Nick Frisch, New Yorker "Like every fairy tale you're ever loved, imbued with jokes and epic grandeur. Prepare to be swept along." Jamie Buxton, Daily Mail China: 1200 A.D. The Song Empire has been invaded by its warlike Jurchen neighbours from the north. Half its territory and its historic capital lie in enemy hands; the peasants toil under the burden of the annual tribute demanded by the victors. Meanwhile, on the Mongolian steppe, a disparate nation of great warriors is about to be united by a warlord whose name will endure for eternity: Genghis Khan. Guo Jing, son of a murdered Song patriot, grew up with Genghis Khan's army. He is humble, loyal, perhaps not altogether wise, and is fated from birth to one day confront an opponent who is the opposite of him in every way: privileged, cunning and flawlessly trained in the martial arts. Guided by his faithful shifus, The Seven Heroes of the South, Guo Jing must return to China - to the Garden of the Drunken Immortals in Jiaxing - to fulfil his destiny. But in a divided land riven by war and betrayal, his courage and his loyalties will be tested at every turn. Translated from the Chinese by Anna Holmwood

the bestselling Chinese fantasy phenomenon

altlovesbooks

I enjoyed this book the way I enjoy kung fu movies and Japanese tokusatsu shows. Yes, the story isn't the deepest. Yes, people can't actually fly around with spears and swords and bows. I enjoyed the way this story was told, the way scenes were described, and the picture of old China it painted. The ending (if it could be called as such) was abrupt, but this book is a compilation of basically small serial novellas that came out periodically. If you read these like a monster-of-the-week story, all self contained and satisfying, you'll have a better experience.

That said, I feel like the translation work was a little janky in places. I don't speak or read Chinese at all, but certain passages felt better translated than others. I don't know if that's a result of the source material or no, but it was enough to disrupt my reading in places.

Fraser Simons

Very fun stuff. A combination of historical fiction with fantasy extrapolated from spiritualism. The action sequences/choreography is probably the best I’ve read. It’s Wuxia, so melodramatic as heck. Not very plotty, more of a prologue, it feels like. I really enjoyed this and am glad I’ve got the sequel already. Doesn’t conform to western fantasy (obviously) and is therefore not formulaic and novel, which gave it a lot of latitude.

The epic Chinese classic and phenomenon published in the US for the first time! A fantastical generational saga and kung fu epic, A Hero Born is the classic novel of its time, stretching from the Song Empire (China 1200 AD) to the appearance of a warlord whose name will endure for eternity: Genghis Khan. Filled with an extraordinary cast of characters, A Hero Born is a tale of fantasy and wonder, love and passion, treachery and war, betrayal and brotherhood. And then a hero is born... After his father, a Song patriot, was murdered, Guo Jing and his mother fled to the plains and joined Ghengis Khan and his people. Loyal, humble and driven, he learned all he could from the warlord and his army in hopes of one day joining them in their cause. But what Guo Jing doesn’t know is that he’s destined to battle an opponent that will challenge him in every way imaginable and with a connection to his past that no one envisioned. With the help and guidance of his shifus, The Seven Heroes of the South, Guo Jing returns to China to face his foe and carry out his destiny. But in a land divided by treachery and war, betrayal and ambition, he’ll have to put his courage and knowledge to the test to survive.

A Novel

Mahogany Skillings

A Hero Born is written simply. And that's all it needs to capture your attention.

There is kung fu fighting, mistaken identity, historical figures, mystical creatures and a cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers. I can't imagine if I had been reading this story as it was originally serialized. Things may have been broken in the rage born from having to wait til next week or month. As it is, I can't wait for the next book in this series to be available.

The omniscient writing was a little challenging to get used to at first, but this style makes this book decidedly not one with an unreliable narrator. The reader is always given all the information even when the characters don't have it. Even with all this knowledge, you don't get bored. Watching the characters play out their drama and commonplace actions is just as delightful when you know SOMETHING is going to happen.

I recommend this book if you have ever enjoyed old kung fu movies. The story and plot points will be right up your alley.

Sahi K

The first time I saw the name of this book was in a top 100 fantasy (or maybe SFF, I can’t remember exactly) books of all time list, and I was pleasantly surprised because there weren’t many translated works from Asia among the list. However, at the time, I still didn’t know much about the significance of this series, and also didn’t have any knowledge about Chinese history and literature. But it always remained in my mind and I guess I knew even then that I would read this book one day. And finally that day has come. 

I don’t think I would have had the same appreciation for this book I have now if I had picked it up a couple years ago. Now after having watched atleast a few wuxia shows, understanding some common terms in Chinese that are used in these books, getting to research a bit on Chinese dynasties and in general just loving these stories that I’ve gotten to explore, I find myself in a much better place to read this wuxia classic that has been a staple for Chinese readers and drama watchers for many years now. And I can totally see where all the dramas that I loved get their inspiration from. The expansive setting of three different empires fighting for supremacy, as well as much more personal feuds between various sects or martial artists in the wulin - this book is full of stakes, big and small and it was exciting to anticipate the next upcoming conflict. I was also delighted by some similarities in plot and characterizations that I found when compared to Handsome Siblings, an excellent wuxia drama which I loved and is itself an adaptation of another classic by Gu Long. The pacing is a bit uneven though - sometimes giving more slice of life vibes, while sometimes years pass by in just a sentence - but it never impeded my enjoyment of the story. 

The writing is something I obviously can’t comment much about because it’s a translation, which I thought was quite good. But I can’t deny that there were many moments in the initial chapters where the translation choices jarred me and just pulled me out of the story. One of them was the literal translation of Chinese names to English. As I wasn’t actually expecting this, having gotten accustomed to names and honorifics in the original language while watching my favorite Cdramas, imagine my surprise when the two important characters we meet initially are called Skyfury Guo and Ironheart Kang. I had to go searching on wiki to find out that their actual names are Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin. I later realized that this romanization of Chinese names seems to be pretty common in translation of Chinese classics, particularly the versions I checked out of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I can understand this choice being made a few years ago to endear the books to a more broad English speaking audience; but this translation of A Hero Born is pretty new and in this age when many of us are used to watching media of international origins with subtitles, I just found this kind of changing of names to be a bit unusual. And the problem is that it’s not even consistent. Almost all the Mongol and Jurchen characters names are kept intact, as well as those of some of the important main/side characters, so I’m not sure why only some names had to be romanized. 

The other instance where I found that translations as not quite fitting was when different forms of martial art moves are named. It is ofcourse true that I never understand the Chinese or translated names of these moves when watching a wuxia drama, but it’s easier to follow what the move is supposed to be doing in a visual medium. But just using lots of martial art moves names - which are pretty weird like Wild Goose Leaves the Flock, Returning Horse, Trident Searches the Sea by Night etc - during a tense fight sequence felt very out of place and slightly prevented me from enjoying the martial arts action sequences which are usually my favorite parts of anything wuxia. 

But keeping my complaints aside, the book does have some great characters, each having signature characteristics which define them. Skyfury Guo and Ironheart Yang are the epitome of sworn brotherhood, who will do anything to protect each other and their families. Guo Jing is described as simple minded a lot of times in the book and he does come across as slightly naive, but he is endlessly determined, very brave and good hearted, and just overall a nice young man. I just didn’t expect that the protagonist of such a famous wuxia classic will not be a martial arts prodigy. The various martial artists who show up in the book at times are all eccentric or good or evil or just short tempered in their own ways and it was interesting to see our main character interact with them all. As was it equally interesting to meet the various leaders of the Mongol tribes including Temujin before he became known as Genghis Khan; and the two princes of the Jurchens. 

I was slightly disappointed that we don’t get to see much of Wanyan Kang, especially how he grew up in a completely different environment to that of Guo Jing. With the way the story started, I thought both their storylines would go in parallel but alas it was not to be. And it was also a complete shock to see the kind of arrogant and powerful prince he became, not at all deferential to his mother or shifu, and finding no fault in bullying people. I can now see where the story is going and I’m sure it’ll be very interesting to read but also bittersweet. 

To conclude, I’m glad I picked up this classic. As one of the pioneers of the modern wuxia genre, we can find most of the beloved tropes of the genre here which made for a very fun read. It is full of action, adventure, conspiracies and betrayals, ambition, brotherhood, loyalty and love. As this book only represents the first quarter of the first part of the Condor Trilogy, it can feel a bit like a setup for the upcoming major plot but it’s still very enjoyable, as long as one is ready to overlook some of the translation choices. I decided sometime early this year that I would read all four books of the series and while I’m not sure I can binge them all together, here’s hoping that I can read the rest of the three before the end of the year. And who knows, maybe I’ll finally get to watch the drama adaptation as well. Do let me know if any of you have suggestions for which version of the drama adaptation I should watch - it just has too many to choose from.

The writing (translation) is simplistic, which definitely made it hard to get through the first ~20% or so of the book. But after that things pick up and the story got interesting enough in and of itself to keep me reading and actually want to read the next volume.

Story Eater

I will not even pretend that I could write a critique about such a work as this. I would not do so for other works embedded into national psyche, and I will not do so for this. I’ve read many reviews mentioning this work with reverent tones, many equating Jin Yong’s work with other fantasy writers and calling him what amounts to the Chinese literary Tolkien. I respectfully disagree. Yong could be more accurately described for those who have not read his saga in the realm/genre of writers such as Scott. No work of Tolkien’s Middle Earth was historical in nature. Sure, it incorporated historically mythical creatures of Scandinavia and Britain, but it did not include such legendary figures in it from history such as Ghengis Khan. 

Just as Scott brushed a majestic picture of Jacobean Scotland and a humorous, heroic picture of the medieval England of the Merry Men, so Yong paints a portrait of China in the 12th and 13th centuries. The landscape is vast, the characters lovable and flawed, honorable and sometimes cheesily villainous. No characters are treated with developmental flippancy. I especially liked the honorable masters, whose expertise as martial heroes did not keep them from being humble and passing their wisdom on to young people.

On perhaps a more important note, what a monumental shame that I have just now been introduced to Guo Jing and Yang Kang. How many students could I have pulled back from the brink of the Reading Apathy Abyss with stories of the Seven Heroes of the South? How many girls could have opened the pages of a novel that contained a heroines such as Huang Rong and Mu Nianci—both butt-kicking girls who have no superpowers but their fists and feet. If someone would have put this into my hands when I was a young reader, I would have gobbled it up. It also would have changed my literary consciousness. 

If my local library doesn’t get a copy of this on their own budget, they’ll have it from mine. These are books young fans of fantasy need to be reading today as part of their word diet. It was a great pleasure for me to join in the experience that is Legends of the Condor Heroes.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, for which I give my own opinion.

Anyaconda

Lost in translation. That's how it felt mostly for me. I believe this book has great potential. I was hoping for an epic fantasy paired with martial arts/Kung Fu, but I had issues with the writing style and the characters. I had trouble keeping them all apart or even picturing them in my head. The dialogues are all matter of fact without and wooden.
I really wanted to like this, but I DNFed it at 30%.
I still believe though that this will find it's fanbase.

JIN. YONG

THE CHINESE "LORD OF THE RINGS" - NOW IN ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME. THE SERIES EVERY CHINESE READER HAS BEEN ENJOYING FOR DECADES - 300 MILLION COPIES SOLD. China: 1200 A.D. The Song Empire has been invaded by its warlike Jurchen neighbours from the north. Half its territory and its historic capital lie in enemy hands; the peasants toil under the burden of the annual tribute demanded by the victors. Meanwhile, on the Mongolian steppe, a disparate nation of great warriors is about to be united by a warlord whose name will endure for eternity: Genghis Khan. Guo Jing, son of a murdered Song patriot, grew up with Genghis Khan's army. He is humble, loyal, perhaps not altogether wise, and is fated from birth to one day confront an opponent who is the opposite of him in every way: privileged, cunning and flawlessly trained in the martial arts. Guided by his faithful shifus, The Seven Heroes of the South, Guo Jing must return to China - to the Garden of the Drunken Immortals in Jiaxing - to fulfil his destiny. But in a divided land riven by war and betrayal, his courage and his loyalties will be tested at every turn. Translated from the Chinese by Anna Holmwood

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