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The Monkey King's Amazing Adventure
China's most popular traditional novel, The Monkey King's Amazing Adventures is the story of the Monkey King, his incredible origin and downfall, and his epic quest to redeem himself with his trusted companions, as they face fantastic foes, demons, and monsters and have amazing adventures in their travels to the Western paradise.
Kindle Edition
Published May 31, 2018
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December 28, 2018
This book falls under the category of things I would not usually read. Yet another shout out to r/fantasy and the book bingo reading challenge.
I normally don't leave a review or rating if I think a book is not good but I figure this book has no ratings or reviews so maybe I could give some insight here.
I cannot comment on the translation really, I have not read any others previously. I am most familiar with the Monkey King from Dota 2. I have also not seen any of the other various media incarnations of these stories be it movies or TV shows or comics.
With all that taken into consideration, this book is really broken into thirds. The first third is the introduction by Daniel Kane describing the translations (specifically Timothy Richard's) and the history of how the Monkey King and his lore began. He also has some interesting comments on the Buddhist teachings involved in the stories as well as some commentary on the differences in how the stories have been perceived over the years. The second third is the origins of the Monkey King, how he was born and how he learned and grew in all his many powers. The final third is the "Journey to the West" if you will. This is the core story of the Monkey King to me, the episodic tellings of the Monkey King's travel with the monk to gain the scriptures from India.
My big complaint with this book is the format. There are huge walls of text. I read this on my kindle so a page is relative but there are some paragraphs that lasted over 4 pages long. There are few page breaks for some poems or small pictures and the dialogue is presented in a dense, all encompassing, paragraph as well. The prose is also dense and describes things quickly. Let me give an example. I took what I think of as a shorter paragraph. In this paragraph Sun is referring to the Monkey King.
I feel as if the contents of this paragraph could easily be an entire episode of a 30 minute animated show. There is a lot going on. And with page after page of these walls of text I quickly grew tired of the format.
The Monkey King himself was hard to cheer for as well. The majority of the story I thought of him as an arrogant jerk. He was also super powerful. He has more abilities than I care to mention in this review. This is my video game mindset but the power structure in the story was murky at best. I had a hard time discerning who would be a worthy fight for our Monkey King or who would be a one line sentence of "and then the Monkey King hit him once with his club and defeated him."
What I did like was the introduction. The history of the stories and the perception of them throughout the years and the comments on the translation were interesting to me. I also enjoyed the moments of philosophy and spirituality at different points in the story. For example:
Overall, this book is a two star for me because of how often I found reading it to be hard and slow. It takes a different type of reader than me and my normally fantasy books to truly enjoy this tale.
I normally don't leave a review or rating if I think a book is not good but I figure this book has no ratings or reviews so maybe I could give some insight here.
I cannot comment on the translation really, I have not read any others previously. I am most familiar with the Monkey King from Dota 2. I have also not seen any of the other various media incarnations of these stories be it movies or TV shows or comics.
With all that taken into consideration, this book is really broken into thirds. The first third is the introduction by Daniel Kane describing the translations (specifically Timothy Richard's) and the history of how the Monkey King and his lore began. He also has some interesting comments on the Buddhist teachings involved in the stories as well as some commentary on the differences in how the stories have been perceived over the years. The second third is the origins of the Monkey King, how he was born and how he learned and grew in all his many powers. The final third is the "Journey to the West" if you will. This is the core story of the Monkey King to me, the episodic tellings of the Monkey King's travel with the monk to gain the scriptures from India.
My big complaint with this book is the format. There are huge walls of text. I read this on my kindle so a page is relative but there are some paragraphs that lasted over 4 pages long. There are few page breaks for some poems or small pictures and the dialogue is presented in a dense, all encompassing, paragraph as well. The prose is also dense and describes things quickly. Let me give an example. I took what I think of as a shorter paragraph. In this paragraph Sun is referring to the Monkey King.
They fought a terrible battle, and the demon was allowed to strike three times before Sun began to strike. At one stroke Sun was cut in two like a melon. But he laughed, saying, “I am now two complete Suns, and if cut into ten thousand pieces I shall be ten thousand Suns!” The demon said, “To multiply yourself is easy, but you cannot unite yourself again.” At this Sun turned a somersault and was united into one as before. Then the demon chief opened his gigantic mouth and swallowed him alive. Now Sun gave him great pains, so that the demon took emetics to cast him out. But Sun said he was too comfortable to come out; he meant to pass the winter there as it was warm; he would set up a kitchen, and cook the demon’s vitals on a tripod of bones, from time to time, as he required food. Soon he produced such terrible agony inside, that the demon was thrown into convulsions on the ground.
I feel as if the contents of this paragraph could easily be an entire episode of a 30 minute animated show. There is a lot going on. And with page after page of these walls of text I quickly grew tired of the format.
The Monkey King himself was hard to cheer for as well. The majority of the story I thought of him as an arrogant jerk. He was also super powerful. He has more abilities than I care to mention in this review. This is my video game mindset but the power structure in the story was murky at best. I had a hard time discerning who would be a worthy fight for our Monkey King or who would be a one line sentence of "and then the Monkey King hit him once with his club and defeated him."
What I did like was the introduction. The history of the stories and the perception of them throughout the years and the comments on the translation were interesting to me. I also enjoyed the moments of philosophy and spirituality at different points in the story. For example:
He found all men were in search of fame or riches, and none sought for everlasting life.
Overall, this book is a two star for me because of how often I found reading it to be hard and slow. It takes a different type of reader than me and my normally fantasy books to truly enjoy this tale.
Displaying 1 of 1 review