Tom Lin (1) (1996–)
Autor de The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu
Para otros autores llamados Tom Lin, ver la página de desambiguación.
Obras de Tom Lin
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1996
- Nacionalidad
- USA
- Lugar de nacimiento
- Beijing, China
- Lugares de residencia
- New York, New York, USA
Davis, California, USA - Educación
- Pomona College
University of California, Davis
Miembros
Reseñas
Listas
Premios
También Puede Gustarte
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 1
- Miembros
- 227
- Popularidad
- #99,086
- Valoración
- 3.5
- Reseñas
- 17
- ISBNs
- 18
- Idiomas
- 3
Orphaned as a small boy, Ming Tsu is taken in by a man named Silas who is a hired gun in the old west. He trains Ming from childhood to be his apprentice in the world of assassins. Striking out on his own after the death of Silas, Ming Tsu meets beautiful Ada. Back then no white man would ever think of allowing his daughter to marry a Chinaman, and although she was promised to another, the two lovers elope. Not married more than two months, a gang of men hired by her father kidnap her, returning her back home and to her intended. Finding himself in hot water, Ming gets a 10 year sentence working on the railroad driving spikes alongside other men of his country, including a blind prophet who befriends Ming. After many years, he escapes with the prophet and they set out to travel west with Ming hell-bound on revenge. His plan is to find and kill each member of the gang that kidnapped his wife. If all goes well he will get his Ada back.
The two unlikely travelers roam from state to state with a list of the men to die, and tick them off one by one. Our prophet has the gift of sight, as in clairvoyance, and occasionally can aid Ming to ward off danger….and bullets. Along the way they meet up with a small ragtag group of entertainers, each having paranormal gifts. There are four men, one woman, and a small boy. The Ringmaster and his wards pay Ming Tsu to travel with them for protection against any who would harm them and together they all head west knowing Ming’s mission. The supernatural gifts these unusual people are blessed with are very different than I’ve read of in other fantasy books and I thought the author was quite clever with them as they use their abilities to aid Ming.
As a warning, this is a highly violent book. There is an abundance of killing. It is gruesome, very graphic, and not for the weak of heart. Blood and guts everywhere. I have to say it is truly the most violent book I have ever read. However, to balance it all out, the camaraderie and friendships that create emotional bonding between the cast of players is often tender and of great heart. I fell in love with most of the characters and would loved to have seen this motley crew in a series.
How this all ends is on one hand predictable, but on the other hand not so much. I did get a surprise that I didn’t see coming that I still am not sure I liked too much. All in all, I must admit I loved this bizarre story. The writing is beautiful and the key characters are for the most part lovable. Even our bloodthirsty gunslinger has his soft spots. The plot and story-line are well done but I think may have been a bit boring without the fantasy elements to give it flavor.
The reason for my rating of four stars instead of five is simple. Even for a Wild West western, and even with a trained assassin as the lead, the violence got to be over-the-top. If the author had cut it back just a bit, and added a bit more of the fantasy with less blood shed, it would have been a 5 star debut novel. I think Tom Lin is an author to watch and I look forward to his next book.… (más)