# Bridge of Birds *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 06 Jun 2002* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Darryl Swett *06 Jun 2002, 18:54* > From: Michael Straight > Reply-To: urth at urth.net > To: urth at urth.net > Subject: Re: Kai Lung (was Re: (urth) Major new Wolfe story online) > Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 14:57:45 -0400 (EDT) > > On Thu, 9 May 2002, Adam Stephanides wrote: >> The Kai Lung stories were an early-20th-century series of fantasy >> stories >> set in China, written by Ernest Bramah. The characters in them always >> talk >> in the flowery, ultra-polite idiom of the Chinese princess in "Under >> Hill," >> so I assumed that Wolfe was pastiching Kai Lung. But he might have been >> pastiching Vance, I suppose. > When I read the story, I thought Wolfe might be pastiching Barry Hughart's > _Bridge of Birds_ (which is possibly the most wonderful fantasy novel I've > ever read, Wolfe's works included). > > -Rostrum I started _Bridge of Birds_ last night, and I have to praise its wit and charm. Hughart did an excellent job of making the book fun to read. It probably sounds strange, but I had a smile on my face, even when a plague beset the village. I have also checked out _The Golden Age_ by John C. Wright, which is next in my queue. -Darryl/Dragonfly --- ### Michael Straight *06 Jun 2002, 20:03 · follows Darryl Swett* > On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, Darryl Swett wrote: > I started _Bridge of Birds_ last night, and I have to praise its wit and > charm. Hughart did an excellent job of making the book fun to read. It > probably sounds strange, but I had a smile on my face, even when a plague > beset the village. Not at all strange. One of the chief virtues of BoB is Hughart's ability to maintain a light (and often hilarious) tone while telling about grim events, and yet still managing to treat the characters and their sufferings as real, not as just cartoons to be laughed at. -Rostrum ---