{"id":13510,"date":"2020-10-19T17:05:41","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T21:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=13510"},"modified":"2021-06-05T09:57:14","modified_gmt":"2021-06-05T13:57:14","slug":"eight-skilled-gentlemen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13510","title":{"rendered":"Eight Skilled Gentlemen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight Skilled Gentlemen<\/a><\/em> (1990) Barry Hughart<\/a> (The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Year of the Horse 3338 (a.d. 640)<\/p>\n

This is my least favorite of the three stories. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, just that I don’t like it as much as the first story.<\/p>\n

A vampire ghoul has killed an important mandarin, and now Master Li and Number Ten Ox are asked to figure out what happened.<\/p>\n

I found sandal prints in a soft spot in the path close to the pile. The toes had dug in and sprayed dirt backward, which would be consistent with somebody running for his life, and I soon found another soft spot with a huge print on it that might have been made by a creature like a vampire ghoul.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They end up working with Yen Shih, a master puppeteer, as they try and untangle the mystery.<\/p>\n

The God of Beauty had been jealous indeed. What I had taken to be an artist\u2019s depiction of torment was in reality the ravages of smallpox, and rarely have I seen such destruction to a human face. It was a miracle that his eyesight remained, and as for his craft\u2014 who hadn\u2019t heard of Yen Shih, greatest of puppeteers?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nobody interfered with puppeteers. They brought laughter and joy to everybody, bandit and soldier alike, and they traveled under the protection of more deities than most priests could count.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m sure the fact that this was bedtime reading and took me months to finish also affected my enjoyment of the story, since this one is a bit convoluted and wanders all over the place.<\/p>\n

Publisher : Subterranean Press
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eight Skilled Gentlemen (1990) Barry Hughart (The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox) Year of the Horse 3338 (a.d. 640) This is my least favorite of the three stories. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, just that I don’t like it as much as the first story. A vampire ghoul has killed an important […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[193,31,292,2,33,41],"tags":[134],"class_list":["post-13510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-10","category-asian","category-ebook","category-fantasy","category-historical","category-reread","tag-barry-hughart"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-3vU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2607,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2607","url_meta":{"origin":13510,"position":0},"title":"Bridge of Birds","author":"Michelle","date":"October 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Bridge of Birds (1984) Barry Hughart A year or so ago I ordered The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, because I'd read Bridge of Birds, loved it, and wanted to read more. Unfortunately for me, The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox is a BIG\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Master-Li-Number-Ten-Ox.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2631,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2631","url_meta":{"origin":13510,"position":1},"title":"Eight Skilled Gentlemen","author":"Michelle","date":"November 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Eight Skilled Gentlemen (1991) Barry Hughart This is the third and final book in the Master Li and Number Ten Ox trilogy. I'm a little sad to see it end, but it was quite enjoyable. Oddly, the passages that caught my attention in this book weren't the funny ones, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Master-Li-Number-Ten-Ox.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13275,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13275","url_meta":{"origin":13510,"position":2},"title":"The Story of the Stone","author":"Michelle","date":"July 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Story of the Stone (1988) Barry Hughart (The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox) Year of the Serpent 3,339 (A.D. 650). I've been re-reading The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox before bed for a really long time now. I'd read a page or two,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Master-Li-Number-Ten-Ox-e1510885499371.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9668,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9668","url_meta":{"origin":13510,"position":3},"title":"Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was","author":"Michelle","date":"February 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was (1984) Barry Hughart Set in the Middle Kingdom of China, Year of the Tiger 3337 (AD 639) All the children in the village between the ages of eight and thirteen have fall victim to an unknown illness, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/Bridge-of-Birds.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2611,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2611","url_meta":{"origin":13510,"position":4},"title":"The Story of the Stone","author":"Michelle","date":"November 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Story of the Stone (1988) Barry Hughart Master Li has taken Number Ten Ox on as his assistant. The Abbot of the monastery of the Valley of Sorrows comes to Master Li asking for help resolving the unexpected death of his librarian, and the strange dead spots in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Master-Li-Number-Ten-Ox.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":464,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/464","url_meta":{"origin":13510,"position":5},"title":"Bridge of Birds","author":"Michelle","date":"October 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was (1984) Barry Hughart I have a weakness for fantasy novels set in Asia--especially those set in ancient China. So when I saw Bridge of Birds on the shelf I immediately snatched it up. A strange malady has struck\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/Bridge-of-Birds.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}