PortadaGruposCharlasMásPanorama actual
Buscar en el sitio
Este sitio utiliza cookies para ofrecer nuestros servicios, mejorar el rendimiento, análisis y (si no estás registrado) publicidad. Al usar LibraryThing reconoces que has leído y comprendido nuestros términos de servicio y política de privacidad. El uso del sitio y de los servicios está sujeto a estas políticas y términos.

Resultados de Google Books

Pulse en una miniatura para ir a Google Books.

Cargando...

Jade Man's Skin

por Daniel Fox

MiembrosReseñasPopularidadValoración promediaMenciones
685386,423 (3.9)6
In this soaring epic, Daniel Fox weaves the ancient myths and legends of feudal China into a fantasy world of brutal war and brittle passion, immortal gods and mystical creatures. nbsp; With the long-chained dragon now free and the rebels' invasion smashed by her exultant fury, the balance of power has changed. Young emperor Chien Hua is no longer struggling for survival; now he is ambitious to strike back. As treacherous General Ping Wen whispers in the emperor's ear, not even Chien Hua's beloved concubine or his most trusted bodyguard can reason with him. Worse, prolonged exposure to magical jade is changing him radically: His increasingly godlike powers are making him dangerously rash. But with the dragon patrolling the skies above and the strait beneath, the emperor's forces have no hope of launching a counterattack--until a goddess moves to interfere. Yet neither the clash of armies nor the opposing wills of goddess and dragon can decide ultimate victory or defeat. The fate of the war lies in the blood-deep bonds between the dragon and the boy Han, her jailer and her liberator--and in the prices both will pay for their freedom.… (más)
Ninguno
Cargando...

Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará.

Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro.

» Ver también 6 menciones

Mostrando 5 de 5
I ended up passing on this book. I got about 130 pages in and even though I like the writing, I can't figure out what the heck is going on. There are a thousand characters and no mentions of what went down in the first book, so I couldn't tell who anybody is or what they're doing or how they're related to anybody else. After a hundred pages I could figure out some of it but I felt like I was missing the whole story. It's tough sometimes when you get the second book in a series for review -- most of the time you can catch up just fine, but this is one of those cases where the first book is a necessary read. ( )
  Crowinator | Sep 23, 2013 |
It's hard to describe this book, second in "Moshui, The Books of Stone and Water" in anything less than superlatives. It's a rare second book (the first being Dragon in Chains) that stands so well on its own. There's no trace of "middle book syndrome," the let-down of a volume that is essentially all development. Jade Man's Skin has its own integrity, gorgeous prose, action that ranges from subtle to gritty to expansive. The ending was so perfect, so satisfying, that if the story ends there (which it does not), I would have been completely satisfied. ( )
  rosstrowbridge | Mar 6, 2011 |
Why are the second books of trilogies so difficult? Jade Man's Skin is the second book of Moshui: The Books of Stone and Water, a series set in an alternate China where dragons are real and jade has the power to make an emperor nearly invincible. I greatly enjoyed Dragon in Chains, the first in this series. And I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy Jade Man's Skin; only that I enjoyed it less. It seems to start somewhere and end somewhere, but there is a great deal of chatter in between.

The dragon inhabiting the strait between the mainland of the empire (which is clearly China, though it is not given a name) and Taishu (which appears to be Taiwan in our world) has been mostly unchained, but is not entirely free. Not only is she somehow bound to the boy, Han, whose own chains, once stricken, unleashed the dragon, but she is also forbidden to act whenever she chooses by the goddess of the strait, the Li-goddess. The Li-goddess’s sympathies appear to lie with the young emperor, Chien Hua, but that is not entirely clear; indeed, it seems that her sympathies are most explicitly with the fisherman, Old Yen, the grandfather of Mei Ling, who is the emperor’s first – and so far, only – concubine.

Almost everyone is at odds with everyone else in this chapter of Fox’s trilogy. General Ping Wen wants the emperor’s throne, but he is ostensibly the emperor’s principal protector at the moment, the one in charge of the armed forces who remain loyal to Chien Hua. Tunghai Wang, the soldier who led the rebellion again the emperor that forced him to flee to Taishu, does not know of Ping Wen’s ambitions, but relies upon him to assassinate the emperor. Mei Ling and the emperor’s mother know of Ping Wen’s treachery, but are unable to convince the emperor, who wants to follow Ping Wen’s advice to launch an assault on the mainland.

Yes, there are many different characters and story arcs to keep track of in this book. Some characters who played significant roles in Dragon in Chains, such as the jade master, Guangli, and the pirate, Li Ton, have only walk-on roles here, as the epic grows beyond what can be contained in a single volume. New characters appear, like the eunuch Jung, and Siew Ren, of whom we only heard tangentially in the first book. It soon becomes difficult to remember who everyone is in this vast cast of characters. It is difficult to pay the close attention necessary to keep everyone in his or her place, as the story sags under its own weight and, it must be said, even becomes boring through the middle half of the book. Things pick up considerably as we approach the final battle, but until then, there is much squabbling and talking with little action, and little resolved.

This is so common in trilogies that it is almost not worth reporting. But one must wonder: why do writers write trilogies if they don’t have enough story to fill two books? Why not write a duology and keep it exciting throughout? I’m quite sure that the answer is simply financial, the theory being that three books will earn more money than two, but (while I am not privy to publishing figures on the question) I tend to doubt that that is the case. Surely readers who are disappointed in the second book will not buy the third.

I enjoy that Fox’s trilogy is sent in the Far East, a culture with which I have little familiarity, either in life or in fiction (or even in fantasy). I enjoy the magic system at work here, and I particularly enjoy the realization that Chinese dragons do not have wings, though they fly. Think about the depictions of Chinese dragons you’ve seen on scrolls or kimonos; no wings, see? For all my life, that has eluded me somehow, and now it’s clear to me that Chinese dragons seem to swim through the air, flying by a means of propulsion unknown in the West. Even if I did not enjoy the problems that arise in the romance between Mei Feng and Chien Hua (though I did); even if I did not enjoy Chung’s romantic dilemma (though I did); even if I were not interested in Han’s relationship with the dragon (though I was); I would find the time I put into reading this book repaid by this new knowledge of Chinese dragons. Sometimes the smallest details can enchant completely. And certainly, any trilogy will provide any reader with a plethora of details; it only takes one to fascinate. ( )
  TerryWeyna | Sep 27, 2010 |
Disclaimer: Daniel Fox is a friend of mine. However, I didn’t review the book just because he’s a friend — I whined shamelessly for an ARC because having read the first book in the trilogy, I very badly wanted to read the next one as soon as it was available in edited form, rather than waiting until it was on sale.

~~~

Daniel Fox keeps up the quality and the pace in the second volume of his fantasy trilogy inspired by mediaeval China. The first volume, “Dragon In Chains”, told the tale of the boy Emperor’s flight from a rebel army, and the stories of some of those touched by the war. Now the Emperor has reached safety on the remote island of Taishu on the very fringe of the Empire.

Taishu may be remote, but no would-be usurper can afford to leave the Emperor there in exile. The island holds the jade mines that are the source of imperial power — and in this world, that isn’t just symbolic. This volume explores in greater depth the subtle magic that underpins imperial rule. And there is more than imperial magic. There are other intelligences in this world, and the human forces which are arrayed against one another are starting to learn just what it means to tangle such creatures into human battles.

It’s hard to review this book in any depth without giving major spoilers for the first one (which I’ve reviewed previously), because this trilogy really is a single novel in three volumes, not a series of three interlinked novels. But what I can say is that it follows each of the major characters and threads from the first volume, developing each strand of the story in a satisfying way. This is no wish-fulfillment story wherein the Hero is noble simply because he is the Hero, but a careful consideration of the cumulative effects of power — on those who have it, whether in name only or in reality, on those who desire it, and on those who are simply in its path. And like the first volume, it neither flinches from showing the horror of war, nor wallows in gratuituous gore.

This is a complex story with equally complex characters, which genuinely needs the three volumes to do justice to the tales it has to tell. But it’s beautifully constructed, and told in stunningly good prose. If you’ve not read the first book, don’t start with this one. It really is worth your while finding “Dragon in Chains” and reading that first, not least because part of the pleasure is watching how the characters are changing and growing in response to the upheavals in their world. But there’s no need to wait for the final book to come out, as “Jade Man’s Skin” offers enough intermediate resolution of plot threads to leave a reader feeling satisfied while still wanting to hear the end of the story. Go buy them now — this series is breathtaking, in concepts, in story and in prose.

Comment thread for this review at my Livejournal. ( )
  JulesJones | Dec 13, 2009 |
Mostrando 5 de 5
sin reseñas | añadir una reseña

Pertenece a las series

Debes iniciar sesión para editar los datos de Conocimiento Común.
Para más ayuda, consulta la página de ayuda de Conocimiento Común.
Título canónico
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés. Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Título original
Títulos alternativos
Fecha de publicación original
Personas/Personajes
Lugares importantes
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés. Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Acontecimientos importantes
Películas relacionadas
Epígrafe
Dedicatoria
Primeras palabras
Citas
Últimas palabras
Aviso de desambiguación
Editores de la editorial
Blurbistas
Idioma original
DDC/MDS Canónico
LCC canónico

Referencias a esta obra en fuentes externas.

Wikipedia en inglés

Ninguno

In this soaring epic, Daniel Fox weaves the ancient myths and legends of feudal China into a fantasy world of brutal war and brittle passion, immortal gods and mystical creatures. nbsp; With the long-chained dragon now free and the rebels' invasion smashed by her exultant fury, the balance of power has changed. Young emperor Chien Hua is no longer struggling for survival; now he is ambitious to strike back. As treacherous General Ping Wen whispers in the emperor's ear, not even Chien Hua's beloved concubine or his most trusted bodyguard can reason with him. Worse, prolonged exposure to magical jade is changing him radically: His increasingly godlike powers are making him dangerously rash. But with the dragon patrolling the skies above and the strait beneath, the emperor's forces have no hope of launching a counterattack--until a goddess moves to interfere. Yet neither the clash of armies nor the opposing wills of goddess and dragon can decide ultimate victory or defeat. The fate of the war lies in the blood-deep bonds between the dragon and the boy Han, her jailer and her liberator--and in the prices both will pay for their freedom.

No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca.

Descripción del libro
Resumen Haiku

Debates activos

Ninguno

Cubiertas populares

Enlaces rápidos

Valoración

Promedio: (3.9)
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3 3
3.5 2
4 2
4.5
5 3

¿Eres tú?

Conviértete en un Autor de LibraryThing.

 

Acerca de | Contactar | LibraryThing.com | Privacidad/Condiciones | Ayuda/Preguntas frecuentes | Blog | Tienda | APIs | TinyCat | Bibliotecas heredadas | Primeros reseñadores | Conocimiento común | 203,189,863 libros! | Barra superior: Siempre visible