The Water Outlaws

by S. L. Huang

No cover — S. L. Huang: The Water Outlaws (2023, Tor.com)

English language

Published June 19, 2023 by Tor.com.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-18042-1

(3 reviews)

In the jianghu, you break the law to make it your own.

Lin Chong is an expert arms instructor, training the Emperor's soldiers in sword and truncheon, battle axe and spear, lance and crossbow. Unlike bolder friends who flirt with challenging the unequal hierarchies and values of Imperial society, she believes in keeping her head down and doing her job.

Until a powerful man with a vendetta rips that carefully-built life away.

Disgraced, tattooed as a criminal, and on the run from an Imperial Marshall who will stop at nothing to see her dead, Lin Chong is recruited by the Bandits of Liangshan. Mountain outlaws on the margins of society, the Liangshan Bandits proclaim a belief in justice—for women, for the downtrodden, for progressive thinkers a corrupt Empire would imprison or destroy. They’re also murderers, thieves, smugglers, and cutthroats.

Apart, they love like demons and fight like tigers. Together, they …

In the jianghu, you break the law to make it your own.

Until a powerful man with a vendetta rips that carefully-built life away.

Apart, they love like demons and fight like tigers. Together, they could bring down an empire.

2 editions

technicat@bookwyrm.social reviewed The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang

The story sounds pretty cool but I'm just not into the writing.

No rating

Looks like it could be a fascinating story in the mode of Ken Liu's "silkpunk" stories and R.F. Kuang's Poppy War trilogy (the author of which whose name was mangled with S.L. Huang's in the Hugo controversy "report", I just thought that was hilarious), but as with the a previous work by this author I found the prose too herky jerky, long stretches of action with some dialogue but it doesn't really convey atmosphere and character to me, reads more like a screenplay, so I set it aside after the first chapter.

heavyboots reviewed The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang

Action and adventure in ancient China

4 stars

A mostly female, partially LGBTQ cast (on the hero side anyway) sees a former arms instructor in ancient China join a bandit camp in the vein of Robin Hood. Quite a fun read! Much adventure and swashbuckling as well as fighting for justice from oppression, sexual assault, classism etc.

flying_cookie@bookwyrm.social

rated it

Nov 24