We need more Chinese urban fantasy please!

This book contains the following interconnected short stories: Wild Garlic, On a Phantom Tide, The Shade of Lo Man Gong, Pagan Night, Desert Night Ride, Caravan of Death, Tong Yun Guy, Shaunessy Fong, Tinsel Chink, In the Temple of Forgotten Spirits. They capture the adventures of Jack Hong as he hitchhikes across the USA chasing after the elusive keilin (Chinese unicorn). The collection as a whole works pretty well. I think a few edits would have tightened the story up a bit so that it read smoothly as a novel. Each tale reads like a really long chapter for the most part but sometimes one story will reference actions or people we just left in the previous story. We haven’t had time to forget, so it comes off a little repetitive here and there.

And that is my only criticism of the book.

Jack Hong is an interesting character on an engaging journey. He gets a little jail time for losing a fight and that’s when Lo Man Gong appears, practically pushing him out a window into a jail break. From there, Jack follows the misty form of the keilin, not knowing what the spirit wants with him. But he has plenty of opportunities to help others along the way.

Shaunessy Fong brought in the mystery solving aspect to the novel, as well as ghosts. Jack had his first nasty shock being tossed into jail, then another shock with the escape artist spirit Gong, yet one more with keilin, and finally, now, here are some ghosts. I was waiting for Jack to faint! But he rallied and decided that perhaps he was witnessing this horrible moment of the past via the ghosts reenactment because he was meant to help them.

Desert Night Ride is set in the desert Southwest, starting in Albuquerque and ending near Salt Lake City. Throughout this entire novel, Jack is sometimes searching for his ancestral past, sometimes ignoring it, and sometimes making peace with it. This tale did a great job of showcasing this particular aspect to the greater story. Plus, it’s the desert which is a setting I always enjoy in stories.

Wild Garlic struck a different captured my mind for other reasons. Set in the Ozarks, the population is primarily White with this one Chinese wife. On his way through, Jack is first invited to have dinner with them and then later to help them calm an angry spirit. It’s only late in the story that there’s something magical about some of the characters in this tale. While the Ozarks have kept them a bit isolated from their native culture, it’s also that isolation that’s allowed them to fly under the radar.

Caravan of Death has a little time travel element to it. Here, Jack learns a bit about the Chinese work gangs for one of the big railroad companies in the 1800s. Jack also helps a woman see how her ancestry isn’t lost in her own offspring as that ancestry helped to make this country travelable.

In the Temple of Forgotten Spirits wraps up the novel quite nicely. It brings everything home while also giving Jack a new purpose, a quest to set out upon. The author took the time to add plenty of notes about his experiences that relate to a specific tale or what his historical research turned up. I really enjoyed these as well as I enjoy learning little bits from my entertainment. All told, 4/5 stars.

The Narration: Anthony Lee did OK with this narration. He starts off a little rough, sometimes putting emphasis on one word over others in a sentence, making it sound awkward. But he smooths out about 1/3 of the way into the book. His attempt at hick accents sounded off but his pronunciation of various Asian words sounded great to my untutored ears. He had distinct voices for all the characters and his female voices were believable. 4/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Anthony Lee. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

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Great Bunch of Short Stories

I really enjoyed this book. It's a compilation of short stories surrounding a Chinese American man (Jack) hitchhiking America. All of these are stand alone stories but combined as a whole they make a wonderful book of his adventures. Usually in books like these, there are two or three really good stories and the rest are filler; BUT in this book I enjoyed every story. I loved how he added history with the different Chinese folklore. The narration was just okay.

"This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review."

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Liked the idea....

There were some interesting aspects to most of the stories, however, the narration was just sub-par, and I believe this kept the stories slow and found it difficult to relate to the character. As a general rule I like Chinese fantasy and art, however, the main character seemed so.....meh?! The history aspect to the stories needs to be told and this was the only part(s) I found interesting.

“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

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4 people found this helpful

Interesting set of stories

This is an interesting set of stories that all center around a Chinese American man hitchhiking across America. Each story is a standalone, which makes it nice for when you have limited time and don't want to stop in the middle of a story. But some of them do mention others in the book, which ties them together nicely.

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If I had the opportunity to relate to each story

So the idea and the concept are pretty good
The stories are good and interesting
Everything is very very well written
All in all, the book is worth listening to
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review .

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Not my favorite, but pretty decent

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

So, this was an interesting listen. The book comes across as a collection of linked short stories about the same guy, rather than a novel. The thoughts by the author were kind of odd for me. They were interesting but it kind of took me out of the story. This wasn't a big deal, just an observation for potential listeners. The stories themselves were goodand held my interest. The narration was decent. Not the best I've ever heard but far from the worst. All in all, it was middle of the road audio book for me. It wasn't one I'd go out of my way to recommend, but if you like cultural history based fantasy stories, it might be worth checking out.

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Entertaining and Educational

The stories within this set are very entertaining but if you listen to the afterward of each story very educational. I found the progression of Jack Hong's adventures to be intriguing and I must admit at times a bit frightening as the author's language is very descriptive and with Anthony Lee as the narrator made it more realistic. I throughly found this series to be one of the best and wishing there was more. I highly recommend this series which I received at Audiobooks Unleashed. This review is honest and unbiased give it a listen or read.

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Interesting bassis in folklore

This is the first book I’ve read/listened to by this author. I enjoyed the author’s notes after each short story. They added a level of interest, and insight into his intent behind the story. They improved my take on the stories since I felt the stories were average. The conclusion to the book tied all the stories together nicely. The main character lacked depth and I never came to feel for the guy. I don’t think it would have taken much to flesh out his personal story a bit more. The Chinese folklore (that the stories were based on) was interesting.

This is the first book I’ve listened to by this narrator (Anthony Lee). His narration tone was pleasant, and his character voices were good. However, his overall narration was average. He put inflections on words that people would not do when in conversation or relating a tale. This can made listening to the book more difficult to listen to because it disrupts the flow.

There are no explicit sex scenes, excessive violence or swearing.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review.

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3 people found this helpful

REALLY LIKED IT!!

This is a beautiful collection of stories from William Wu that I really enjoyed. It was different from titles I usually listen to, and appreciate the beauty in the stories. The author's comments about each story was also very helpful and insightful. Follow the adventures of a Chinese-American as he travels and meets all sorts of interesting things. Very neat book, really enjoyed the writing and narration :)
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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1 person found this helpful

Okay

BOOK REVIEW.......
I found this book to be an okay story. Could have used a little more work but over all it was okay

NARRATOR REVIEW..........
I think it might have been better with a different narrator. I've listened to this narrator before and thought he did good but he didn't seem to bring it for this book. Maybe he like me just wasn't feeling the book either.

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