The premise of this novel is a revenge tale. The protagonist, Fu Hongxue, was raised to master the use of a black sabre, and the purpose of it is to one day search out the remaining survivors who murdered his father and his father's family members 20 years before. Suffice it to say that this tale of revenge and the use of the black sabre, common knight-errant novel tropes, are depicted very differently from other similar stories.
The first time I read this book was back in 2016, but at the time, my Chinese reading comprehension level was not as advanced as it is now. Previously, what mainly captivated me was the plot, characters and ideas. This time around, I am able to appreciate the style of writing so much more.
I would liken Gu Long to Ernest Hemingway in the way he uses dialogue. I would also compare him to William Faulkner in the way he is able to describe the setting and use it to tell the story of the characters who are situated in that setting.
There is too much to say about this book, but I feel that it's best to say simply that once I've read Gu Long, I find it very hard to go back to reading Jin Yong. The styles are so different, and this style just affects me on a much deeper emotional level because of its brevity. The language is so compact, yet so poetic and so meaningful. Sometimes, less is more.