Book Review: Takuan from Koto by Ryu Zhong

A stone marten, in pursuit of the sun, climbs to the very Heavens and causes quite a commotion. Both the stubborn gods and the ordinary people have a hard time when weredemons break free. Even the Lord of the Underworld turns out to be powerless.

But sometimes even a mouse can be stronger than an elephant, as the old proverb says. The fate of the world ends up in the hands of Takuan — a young trickster, who deceives the greedy, angry, and ignorant people across the country of Chinayindu. On his journey, he meets the wandering warrior Zhu Leizu, a temple monk named Soliang, the clumsy sorcerer Bricabrac, and many others.

Our story begins with a village boy setting off to a monastery to become a demon-hunting monk, only to find out how truly dull monastic life can be.

Or does our story actually begin with the birth of the stone marten Ta Guan?

This book is a full box set of series ‘Adventures of Takuan from Koto’:

1. Prince of Blue Flowers
2. Hunters of Weredemons
3. Envoys of Celestials

GENRE: Asian Fantasy Adventure

PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ‘Ryū’ means ‘dragon’ in Japanese, and ‘Zhong’ can be translated from Chinese as ‘flute’. This amalgam of languages represents the fusion of cultures that characterises the writings of Ryū Zhong.

In their books, Ryū Zhong explore challenges that humanity might face as our technology gets more and more complicated to the level where it becomes magic. Such a shift would force people to look towards religion and reinterpret realities that today, we call fairy tales.

Ryū Zhong were lucky to be born and grow in Asia. Now they live in Amsterdam, study Dutch, and translate their writings to English.

Review

I watched Netflix's The Monkey King just a few weeks ago, and that film actually helped me get immersed and appreciate this book, as I'm not very familiar with Chinese and Japanese mythology and folklore. (Though watching Noragami and Dragonball did me some good, I thought I recognized some of the names and characters, just in a different context, LOL.)

This book is tagged as light humorous fantasy, comedy and adventure, fantasy and magic, set in a pan-Asian continent in quasi-medieval times with magic in the air, and it absolutely delivered what it promised! And while it's stated to be for middle grade and young adult audiences, I believe adults will enjoy this just as well. I loved how the prose gave off the vibe of an ancient ancestor telling stories by a fire in a small village, down to the proverbs and even the closing statements every chapter that pretty much had the vibe of "if you want to know more, come back and listen to the rest of the story tomorrow." I also enjoyed the cheeky bits, like when the narrator would say something about a character or an event, then add, "but we already know that." And the cursing that's become harmless because there are no actual swear words, but they sound like the usual phrases anyway, haha. I would SO be here for an audiobook. Dramatized for full effect. Just imagine!

Anyway, the whole thing opens, as said in the blurb, with the stone marten. For those who (like me) don't know what a marten is:

(Thank you, Wikipedia.)

But the animal on the cover is actually Jin, Takuan's eventual companion — yet the marten is significant to everything that it's just right for the book to start there. Then the story moved on to Takuan himself and his adventures, which culminate, or at least the first part, with something involving the Prince of Blue Flowers (hence the part title).

The second part, Hunters of Weredemons, started off with another character, Soliang, but led us back to another familiar face, and, eventually, Takuan. I also had an aha moment about weredemons because... well, how did I not think weredemons were what they were supposed to be, haha! And the part is appropriately titled as there were lots of demon hunting and weredemons.

The last part, Envoys of Celestials, was where everyone came together. It was a very smart way to wrap things up, because by then we were familiar with the characters, and the seeds of the overarching plot had been sowed. Though some things were resolved a little too quickly, and some were left open, I didn't think there was a need to really draw them out either. And the twist, I didn't see that coming!

I really enjoyed how the major characters' stories and adventures were all connected, and how they ran into each other every now and then. Plus, just when I thought I'd forgotten who this character was, the narrator, right on cue, would be there with a reminder — which I thought was simply brilliant. Especially since I sometimes got confused with the names, and because of all the trickery and deceit, at certain points we'd have far too many monks and demon hunters and weredemons.

Near the end, we get these gems, which are rather profound and much applicable to real life:

• "Life is transient, imperfect and impermanent. That is what makes life beautiful. While there is the unknown and incomprehensible around, the enjoyment of life lies in absorbing the new with wide-open eyes. Life is beautiful in serving the human race."
• The three roots of evil that nestle at the bottom of the human heart are greed, ignorance, and anger, and they could be tamed by keeping the above in mind.

And it all ended with family, which I really loved.

The covers are also super cool, and I say covers, plural, because look at these ones from the individually released parts!

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️