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Second review: November 2017
Gosh, has it really been 7 years—nearly 8?—since I read this? Feels like no time at all.
Anyway, after not enjoying Who Fears Death, I was struck with a sudden … craving (?) for this book. Just an urge to re-read it. I can’t explain why. I just knew it would help.
And it definitely did. I have little to add about the book itself in this second review—my first review stands. I’ll say that I picked up on a lot more of the … uh … sexual stuff this time around. 20-year-old ...more
Gosh, has it really been 7 years—nearly 8?—since I read this? Feels like no time at all.
Anyway, after not enjoying Who Fears Death, I was struck with a sudden … craving (?) for this book. Just an urge to re-read it. I can’t explain why. I just knew it would help.
And it definitely did. I have little to add about the book itself in this second review—my first review stands. I’ll say that I picked up on a lot more of the … uh … sexual stuff this time around. 20-year-old ...more

I was really torn between 3 & 4 stars for "Bridge of Birds". I enjoyed the story and thought that the setting (ancient China) and characters were quite unique for fantasy. I loved that it was a done-in-one fantasy. I thought the prose was beautifully lyrical. It was funny in places. However, the story fell a little bit flat because it was told in the style of a myth or fable. The characters were more like caricatures than three-dimensional people. I didn't sense any great urgency to their obviou
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Bridge of Birds makes a nice change from the standard Western fantasy. Barry Hughart is a Western writer, of course, but he's drawing on non-typical settings and sources -- although, of course, a lot of the stories and lore in this book is made up for the purposes of the story, there are also things I recognise from the little I've read of Monkey (Journey to the West). It's different enough to be refreshing. Some of the stories it includes are lovely -- particularly the one that turns out to be
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First I need to explain that because my library held the latter two books in this series and not this one, I came to Bridge of Birds already familiar with Number Ten Ox and Master Li. I was also used to a less 'heavy' storyline, as the latter two books have less cosmic plotlines.
BoB is an epic set in Hughart's 'China that never was' and a powerful one. If, like me, you read the other two books first, then you owe it to yourself to read this, too. Expect a little less whimsy and detective work an ...more
BoB is an epic set in Hughart's 'China that never was' and a powerful one. If, like me, you read the other two books first, then you owe it to yourself to read this, too. Expect a little less whimsy and detective work an ...more

Dec 30, 2008
Carolyn
marked it as browse-to-read-someday

Apr 12, 2009
Brad
marked it as to-read

Jan 19, 2010
Jaimie
marked it as own-to-read

Mar 29, 2010
Eric
marked it as to-read

Aug 27, 2010
Julie S.
marked it as to-read

Oct 20, 2010
Thermopyle
marked it as to-read

Apr 01, 2011
Suz
marked it as tbr

Sep 29, 2012
Andy
marked it as to-read

Jan 16, 2013
Gianni
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May 29, 2013
Mikael Lindberg
marked it as to-read


Jan 18, 2014
Figgy
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Jul 28, 2014
Maria
marked it as to-read

Aug 08, 2014
Joelle
marked it as to-read