Part 3: Chapter 21 to the End

[ScarletBea]

I'll check, thanks

Found it!
You actually mention panther, I don't know why it didn't register. You also mention "big back cat"

[eclipse]

Is Zhou wife and son really dead or did there escape?


I'm glad I enjoyed the book bit nervous reading fantasy faction /goodread friends incase I don't connect with their stories.

[G_R_Matthews]

I'll check, thanks

Found it!
You actually mention panther, I don't know why it didn't register. You also mention "big back cat"

Phew!

[G_R_Matthews]

Is Zhou wife and son really dead or did there escape?


I'm glad I enjoyed the book bit nervous reading fantasy faction /goodread friends incase I don't connect with their stories.

I can understand that

As for Zhou's wife and child... I hesitate to say, it really would ruin the next two books. 

[ScarletBea]

As for Zhou's wife and child... I hesitate to say, it really would ruin the next two books. 

My reaction exactly
Anything I thought of writing would give the game away one way or the other hehe

[eclipse]

Okay I believe them to be alive only for Zhou to lose them all over again.I see what the others think when there get to the end :-)

The Midwife scene did you laugh when you were writing it down?

[G_R_Matthews]

Okay I believe them to be alive only for Zhou to lose them all over again.I see what the others think when there get to the end :-)

The Midwife scene did you laugh when you were writing it down?

Definitely The book was very grim by that time, and something was needed to lighten it, to build some humour into the characters.

[Raptori]

Finished! Very good second half of the book, and felt it was a solid 4 stars throughout. Also really enjoyed the Wu stuff, good to hear there's a lot more of that in the sequels. I'll definitely be reading them, once I've read the ~30 books I have left on my bingo list. 

Okay I believe them to be alive only for Zhou to lose them all over again.I see what the others think when there get to the end :-)

I've been certain of this for the whole book, except that in the scene where Zhou fights the Duke, he sees his son's dead body, no? I guess that could be either imagined or some other child, but I thought that was confirmation that he had actually seen their bodies... 

[G_R_Matthews]

Finished! Very good second half of the book, and felt it was a solid 4 stars throughout. Also really enjoyed the Wu stuff, good to hear there's a lot more of that in the sequels. I'll definitely be reading them, once I've read the ~30 books I have left on my bingo list. 

Okay I believe them to be alive only for Zhou to lose them all over again.I see what the others think when there get to the end :-)

I've been certain of this for the whole book, except that in the scene where Zhou fights the Duke, he sees his son's dead body, no? I guess that could be either imagined or some other child, but I thought that was confirmation that he had actually seen their bodies... 

Interesting...

And thanks for the great comments I hope this book fits something on your Bingo card!

[Raptori]

Finished! Very good second half of the book, and felt it was a solid 4 stars throughout. Also really enjoyed the Wu stuff, good to hear there's a lot more of that in the sequels. I'll definitely be reading them, once I've read the ~30 books I have left on my bingo list. 

Okay I believe them to be alive only for Zhou to lose them all over again.I see what the others think when there get to the end :-)

I've been certain of this for the whole book, except that in the scene where Zhou fights the Duke, he sees his son's dead body, no? I guess that could be either imagined or some other child, but I thought that was confirmation that he had actually seen their bodies... 

Interesting...

Hey, no being mysterious. Totally not allowed. 

And thanks for the great comments I hope this book fits something on your Bingo card!

Thanks for the great read!

It could potentially fit three actually: Self-published/Indie, Novel with fewer than 3000 GR ratings, and Novel inspired by non-western folklore/myth. I'll probably be putting it in the third one 

[SJBudd]

So I've just got to chapter 30 still really enjoying it. I'm loving that Zhou's getting even more bad ass now that he's got special powers.

I also still really like Haung, (managed to get the girl in the end  ) he shows his good side by sparing Zhou's life when he captured Hsin and possibly saved his life. Something I'll think he'll regret. I think there will be a big face off between them at some point.

Anyway I'm off to read some more...

[m3mnoch]

i'm on chapter 31.

had a long drive (2 hours each way) up and back from the home office up in l.a. yesterday.  listened to my phone reading all the crazy adventures to me the whole way.

i should be able to finish listening to it on my run this afternoon.

[G_R_Matthews]

I think there will be a big face off between them at some point.

That would certainly be an interesting battle

[G_R_Matthews]

i'm on chapter 31.

had a long drive (2 hours each way) up and back from the home office up in l.a. yesterday.  listened to my phone reading all the crazy adventures to me the whole way.

i should be able to finish listening to it on my run this afternoon.

I hope you enjoy the ending

[Lanko]

I read Chapter 21 to 30 in a blaze (less than an hour, what the heck).

So Zhou's sudden "skill" in swords was actually magic. Interesting, I totally didn't see the connection between the snakes and black/white vision. Also liked the big bad dragon and how even him is afraid of the Bear.

I'm gonna be honest and say that contrary to everyone else apparently, I didn't enjoy Huang because there was no challenges for him to bypass, no moral choices to make or even a hard battle, while Zhou had all that. Huang's biggest problem was "do I marry this pretty girl or not?".

Well, that changed when he got his own kid and is now being threatened, as he got some tension in his life and his chapters are now much more interesting.

Speaking of his marriage, I now have this wild theory about Jiao:

Spoiler for Hiden:

That she is a Jiin-Wei herself.

Wait, what? First, let's consider the culture of the ancient China that served as inspiration: extremely rigid and hierarchy based. So Jiao's behavior, like actively chasing her man is abnormally out of place and pretty much she encourages and pushes him to marry her.

Also, how easily he got the permission to marry, despite everyone saying it was forbidden and an anomaly.

At chapter 22, she says she heard about a lot of married Jiin-Wei with children. Yet at chapter 28 we see that Huang passed months in the secret archives of the order searching for this and concluded married Jiin-Wei were a total anomaly, even if they were the duke's bodyguard and only one who fathered a child - and outside of marriage.

So even if she says it was from stories, it's curious she, who I think was a servant girl, knows more about his order than he himself who is pretty much a high officer with access to a secret archive. Also, if a Jiin-Wei can have permission to marry, there's nothing that says they can't be ordered to marry someone, is there?

He didn't even need to court her or anything, felt like she was obsessed with him for no reason, it was just too easy. Easy come, easy goes, right? And how the Emperor seems to know something about Huang, and who is better to give that info?

This is very wild, of course, it could just be records got destroyed and that one specifically preserved to be found by Jiin-Wei with similar thoughts but stories survived down the ages, but if this ends up happening later on it the other books it would blow my mind.

And last, what the heck with the blurb of book 2, G.R.? I just opened Goodreads, someone put book 2 on "Want to Read" and now I know the duke dies, a traitor is slain (Marbu probably) and the city of Yaart is destroyed. *Rages*