The Story of the Stone and Eight Skilled Gentleman by Barry Hughart

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Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Barry Hughart's The Story of the Stone and Eight Skilled Gentleman.

The Short of It

Plot: Number Ten Ox and Master Li have a couple more adventures.
Page Count: 
The Story of the Stone: 271
Eight Skilled Gentleman: 255
Award: Remaining books in a trilogy; first book (Bridge of Birds) won.
Worth a read: Yes. 
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Fail
Technobabble: Minimal.
Review: Enjoyable continuations of Number Ten Ox's story. The character work is consistently excellent, the pacing is quick, the writing is good. Does not, however, really expand or improve upon anything. These are enjoyable - possible even very good - but they lack the magic that makes Bridge of Birds something special. Every small thing contributes to the overall story - but it starts to feel heavy-handed. 


The Medium of It
Spoiler Free!

This is going to be a short one. If you enjoyed the first book in the trilogy, these are worth the read. It's fun to watch Number Ten Ox's station improve in life, his competence quietly growing throughout. Hughart stays true to his characters at every step, developing them as people, having them work in ways that make sense. But it's not Bridge of Birds, and some of the novelty has worn off.

That's it for these - worth a read, enjoyable, but not astounding.

If you want 'em, get 'em here! I'll get a few cents at no extra cost to you.
Link of the Stone
Eight Linked Gentleman
The Whole Collection

The Long of It
Spoilers Ahead!

Does every villain need to be someone we already met who was in disguise? This is one of the features that undermines the novelty of these two: every entry in the trilogy has the villain hiding somewhere in plain sight. The twists are much less twisty when they're the same ones each time.

Well, Stranger, I guess you shouldn't trust anyone.
And don't forget to read a book!

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