Bridge of Birds — Urth Net

Darryl Swett06 Jun 2002, 18:54original as archived

Bridge of Birds

↰ answers Michael Straight · by quotation

11 quoted lines · 1–2 deep

From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu> 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 Straight06 Jun 2002, 20:03original as archived

↳ follows Darryl Swett · by subject

2 quoted lines

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