Crouching Keeper, Hidden Dragon

Dragonkeeper Series
By Carole Wilkinson

Dragonkeeper *** (YA ****)

Garden of the Purple Dragon ** (YA ***)

Dragon Moon *** (YA ****)

Culture Shock ***½

Summary: As a YA series, these books are quick and breezy reads that will entertain the young reader. For adults, the bits of Chinese culture and history should keep interest just long enough to get through the improbable storylines.

Not often do I find books by western authors whose protagonists are Chinese or Japanese. And more often, if they touch on Asia at all, the characters are Japanese. Perhaps this is because it is the easiest of all Asian countries for a westerner to identify with since it is the most western of all the Asian countries. So these books captured my attention immediately because they are set in ancient China. What also surprised me was that it is a Young Adult (YA) series.

The Dragonkeeper series by Australian writer Carole Wilkinson follows the adventures of Ping, a young slave girl who helps an ancient dragon escape from the clutches of an abusive Imperial Dragonkeeper. In the first book, Ping helps Danzi the dragon travel to the land beyond while being pursued by a ruthless dragon hunter. The second and third books relate Ping’s journeys with another dragon, Kai, and their troubles trying to find their place in China.

The first and third books are the strongest of the series. The first provides the reader with vivid details about life in Han Dynasty China and also gives us a great set of characters in Ping and Danzi. The third book is also strong because the story centers on the relationship between the dragons and their keepers. We finally discover more about the complex relationship between dragon and man and the events that lead to catastrophe. Dragon Moon is a good story about man’s stewardship (or lack thereof) of the creatures on earth and the environmental message will resonate well with some readers.

However, the second book, Garden of the Purple Dragon, is the weakest of the three. It has Ping and Kai navigating the maze of the Imperial Bureaucracy. Ping makes friends with the young Emperor of China Liu Che who appoints her as Imperial Dragonkeeper. This relationship feels contrived and did not ring true to this reader. Ping is a peasant girl. Despite this fact, she is befriended by the Emperor and given an Imperial title. I know Ping is the protagonist, but the events surrounding her ascendance in the Imperial Court seemed highly improbable to me and will likely feel off even for YA readers.

Finally, since this is a YA series, the modern sounding dialogue and writing style were clearly chosen to engage its target audience. If you are searching for high prose reminiscent of Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori, you will not find it here. The language is simple, straightforward and clean making the reading light and breezy.

Overall, if you want a quick and easy read that takes place in ancient China, you could do worse than take these books to the beach this summer. Just remember that the target audience is Young Adults (which is why I gave each book two ratings)

Culture Shock: Yes, I gave it ***½ and not *** or ****. Why? It deserves a **** because of all the Asian content. There are a lot of Chinese words and the author includes a glossary. The author also gives the reader a lot of cultural information and history to go along with the language. The reason for the half is because as a YA series, the author manages to simplify things for the younger reader. Although I would not recommend using this book as a history text, it does impart quite a bit between its covers.

Nit Pick: the number eight is frowned upon in Dragon Moon since it is “double 4” and 4 sounds like the word “death”. It is the number nine that is revered. The number eight in modern Chinese culture is definitely a good luck number but so is the number 9. I do not know if this is a modern sensibility was the same in Han Dynasty China. I would be curious to find out.

For more information, go to Carole Wilkinson's website.

News, Reviews and Intrepid Travellers

As Calgary breathes a collective sigh and returns to work with a post-Stampede hangover, I note that it has been a while since I’ve posted anything here. This is something I am changing right now. Even blogging is writing, right? It’s what I am going to blog about that should hopefully be of interest.

Asian Echoes has always been about bringing the Asian experience* in literature to the average Western reader. There are many Western and Non-Western novels about Asia and Asians or written from an Asian perspective and I want to introduce many of them to you – one book at a time.

So, what I intend on doing is introducing them to you through book reviews. But aside from the ubiquitous star ratings (which are still only my opinion), I also plan on taking a cue from Intrepid Travel and using a Culture Shock rating. This is not a rating about how good it presents the culture or how accurate it is. Instead, the Culture Shock rating will let you know just how much Asian culture is present between the pages. Does it gloss over the facts and history or does it present a detailed look at Asian life and use many foreign words and phrases? Does it have Japanese characters with Japanese names and no other mention about culture, or do the concepts in the novel require more than a passing familiarity of Japanese customs and mores?

Each short review, aside from a description and recommendation, will include some mention of the cultural aspects present in the novel.

All the novels and books to be reviewed were originally written in English or translated to English and all should be easily accessible at your local book store or at online book sellers.

Here is the Culture Shock Rating:

1 star: The author uses Asian characters and names and not much else. Very easy and very familiar.

2 stars: The author uses Asian characters, names and simple foreign words and phrases most Westerners would find familiar.

3 stars: The author uses Asian characters, names and settings. Some foreign words and phrases are sprinkled throughout the book, but their meanings are apparent or easy to understand from context.

4 stars: The author uses Asian characters and settings. The author liberally uses foreign words and phrases throughout the book, the meanings of which are either understandable in their context or may require a glossary. Basic understanding of culture and history would go a long way to appreciating some of the concepts addressed in the book.

5 stars: The author uses Asian characters, settings and language. Complex cultural and historical information is imparted to the reader (sometimes in the form of info dumps). A good understanding of mythology, culture and history may be necessary to appreciate the nuances in this book.

Watch right here for the first review later this week.

* “Asian” in this case means Chinese and Japanese as these are the cultures I was raised in and am most familiar with. I know there are other cultures such as India which also fit under this classification, but I know very little about them. Since they say “write what you know”, I defer to those who know better.

Protagonize Me

Check out this site: Protagonize.com.

Try your hand at interactive fiction by visiting Protagonize.com, a new web site by Nick Bouton, a 29 year old software developer from Burnaby B.C.

You can choose from 18 different story categories and start writing a living, breathing narrative that may never end. Or, you can simply log on and contribute directly to the already growing number of stories started by amateurs, pros and semi-pros alike. And don’t be afraid of breaking continuity or taking the story in directions the original author intended, many of the stories are absurd or nonsensical.

Just don’t slay the main character. Bouton says it is the quickest way to kill a ripping yarn.

Six Word Stories then Get OUT

Check this WIRED article out - stories by science fiction and fantasy authors that are only 6 words long. Only Arthur C. Clarke refused to pare his work to six words. Go figure.

I challenge all writers reading this Blog (and anyone else who wishes to give this a try) to attempt writing their own six word story.

Plus: I've added a link to Natsuo Kirino. Her first English novel is entitled "Out" - a gritty noir-like novel about murder and mayhem in Tokyo. Her second English translated novel, Grotesque, is already out in Hardcover.

Her website has only basic information on her. You can find an English language interview with her here.

Sorry about the long wait between posts. Life just caught up with me. But I'm back.

My Treat Isn't Really "My Treat"

Happy Holidays everyone. I know its been a while, but things have been very interesting for me. New job, new child, you know ... life.

Being Asian, red envelopes full of money (lai see) are a welcome gift in a stocking or under the tree. Being married and having kids I don't see them much anymore. Instead, gift cards have become the ubiquitous gift in a lot of envelopes.

And, I got a VISA "MyTreat" card this year. I thanked the friend who gave it to me and really do appreciate him remembering me at this time of year, but I hope to never receive another of these ever again ... not unless VISA changes things.

Most gift cards come in a cardboard wrap and have a few rules attached to them ... usually an expiry date or "participating stores only" stipulations. The VISA card has a few more charges and rules, however.

First, there is a Purchase Fee of $3.95. That's right ... $3.95 is skimmed right off the top and given to VISA. This may not be much on a $100 Gift Card, but for the $25 one it comes to a whopping 15.7%. So the recipient of the gift does not even get the full value of the Gift Card. What a rip-off.

There are other rules too - maintenance fees, fees for inquiring how much of a balance you have left etc. Most of this is on the back of the card (see the first diagram). But, on the inside, there are (surprise, surprise), more rules (see the second diagram). For instance, you MUST have a bill of over 20% more than the value of the card when using this card at a restaurant, hotel car rental agency or cruise line (on the MyTreat Website, this is listed as 15%. So, which is it?). And don't bother trying to return any merchandise bought with this card. It is too much of a headache. These rules are not written where the purchaser can clearly read them before deciding to purchase this nonsense of a gift card.

Finally, a long two page contract is included with the card. Luckily, it does not have any more hidden fees, but anyone who thought using this card would be simple was dead wrong.

So be warned. You can purchase a gift card for a particular shop or restaurant or you can get these VISA gift cards that do not provide full value for the recipient and come with a myriad of rules and fees. Your choice. Happy holidays.

The Wheel of Time Has Stopped Rolling

The author Robert Jordon, best known for his Wheel of time series, passed away on September 16, 2007. You can read the full story on his blog.

Although I had not read the entirety of his series (which from my understanding remains unfinished), he will be missed by all writers of genre fiction.

I am Canadian. Really.

The CBC radio show, “The Current”, is running an in-depth report on “Mixed-race identity”. For those who know me, this is a subject near and dear to my heart. As a budding writer, it influences a large part of what I write about and how I face that subject. I sent in a series of posts in their forum on this subject. You can read what I said below.

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Where do I come from? As a Canadian of Chinese and Japanese ancestry I get that question a lot. I do not think it a rude or ignorant question. People are usually genuinely curious. They are usually shocked to find out that I was born in Montreal, Quebec (and was fluently bi-lingual until the age of six).

I am a third generation Chinese - Japanese Canadian. My parents (who were both born in Canada) married at a time when it was very "bad form" for Chinese and Japanese to date, let alone marry. Even now, their union raises eyebrows in the Asian community.

I have grown up in Canada and throughout my school years was (usually) the only non-white in my class. Others pegged me as "different" and I stood out no matter where I went. I felt very alienated and often wished that I was white. How could someone feel that they were wholly Canadian, when they were made to feel that they didn't truly belong? Claims that not only was I born here, but my parents were born here fell on deaf ears. I looked different, so I must be different and come from somewhere else. Not here. Not Canada.

This sense of alienation followed me even into High School. At an early age I had shown promise in the fine arts such as acting, but was told by well meaning teachers that even though I could be an accomplished actor, it was unfortunate that I was Asian and there would be little or no place for me in Canada. They were not racist or trying to be mean, they were only telling me the current reality - that there was no place for me. Needless to say, I gave up on that dream.

Slowly things changed and far from being resentful about my heritage, I began to embrace it. I found strength in my cultural heritage and a sense of belonging and identity that I did not experience in my earlier life. I began actively seeking out books and literature about my heritage and found very little. I began watching movies and interacting with others in my own cultural community. This process of discovery allowed me to grow, change and mature.

But even here, I did not feel that I completely belonged. I did not understand the language. I only had a minimal understanding of the culture and customs. I had never been to China or Japan. I had no shared history. And since I was both of Chinese and Japanese heritage, I looked "off" to many of them. They would smile and reassure me, but behind the smile was the knowledge that I would never truly understand or be a part of that heritage.

So I felt like a person in-between. Not really part of one world because of the way I looked, and not really part of another world because I had grown up westernized. My entire adult life has been spent reconciling these feelings of alienation that I have experienced on both sides of the cultural wall. My response has been to embrace all those things that made me unique (including those parts of me that have nothing to do with my culture). I continue to embrace my ancestry and to be proud of it. To do anything less would be to deny what I see in the mirror every day. At the same time, I realize that I do not live in Asia, that I was born and raised in Canada. I do not simply "feel" that I am Canadian, I am Canadian. And being Canadian is to celebrate all those cultural identities and take strength in them.

Today, I am happily married to a woman of Chinese ancestry (she was born in Asia but raised in Canada) and we have a two-year-old son. I will raise him to be a proud Canadian with all the rights and privileges that entails. I will also raise him to know where his great-grandparents came from and why it is important to retain that part of his background - to be proud, not arrogant about that background. And all my hopes go with him that he will find a place in his life long before I found a place in mine.

Updated: Now with links

What is a Good Reader?

Having a story critiqued is a nerve-wracking experience. You put your heart and soul on paper and then willingly hand that paper to other people. You hope that your writing is clear and concise and that the critquer understood all the nuances and metaphors.

So, when I was listening to the critiques of all the stories in the latest short story contest, if a judge didn't seem to understand a certain passage, he or she might qualify their opinion by saying "maybe I am not a good reader."

So that got me thinking. What makes a good reader? Is it a person who is well-read? Does a good reader necessarily have to be a voracious reader of the classics? Or should a good reader be one that reads widely on a certain subject? Or maybe a good reader just understands a subject without having widely read in it?

As for myself, I have widely read a lot of Asian-style fiction be it fantasy, mystery or general literature. I have read non-fiction, historical books, books about Chinese society and Japanese society, books about geisha, books about Chinese mysticism - quite a bit in fact (just look at my library for an idea of what I have read).

But outside of this preferred area of obsession, I am not so widely read. I don't read hard science fiction. I haven't read all of Shakespeare's plays and don't understand Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Dickens is a mystery to me and Jane Austin has held no interest. I fly through certain books (ie Harry Potter) and slog through others (anything by George RR Martin and China Mieville) but I still enjoy them even though they are difficult. And I don't necessarily understand all the underlying metaphors inherent in those stories even if I do read them.

Does that make me a bad reader? I don't know. What is a "Good Reader?" Opinions, anyone?

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Edit: After some discussion, it was suggested that being a "good reader" was short hand for apologizing for not necessarily understanding what a writer meant. Could be, could be.

A Happy Happy Place

Well, Conversion 23 has come and gone and with it, the Short Story Contest.

As I wrote in an earlier post, my story Happy Valley had made waves, well it made the top 5 of the Short Story Contest (and I promised not to mention it to anyone) and this past weekend, it took 1st place!!!

I was really shocked. I'm going to have a lot to live up to for World Fantasy Con next year (which is good because I won't be able to attend Conversion next year - got a wedding to go to).

And to top it all off, my own mother read the story and enjoyed it. But she said she couldn't figure out if the protagonist committed murder or suicide at the end of the story (you just have to read it to understand that). Honestly, it bugged her so much it kept up at night and she called me first thing in the morning to find out what I intended. Go figure.

Next story: SNOW

Paper Blossoms, Sharpened Steel

My short story Happy Valley has made a few waves around here (more on that later), and now I am working on my next story, Snow. This will be the first story I plan on submitting to a publisher since they are asking for submissions on an Asian theme. You can view the submission guidelines for Fantasist Enterprises here and maybe submit something of your own. Wish me luck.

The deadline is December 15th 2007, so I hope to write a few more stories before sending in the best two. And I hope they get Stephanie Pui-Mun Law to do the artwork again. She did it for one of the publishers other anthologies and her artwork is amazing. Check it out.

In the meantime, IFWA and the rest of the crew are preparing for Con-Version 23 and we have a Star Trek Filk to rehearse (the fools - I told them I can't sing, but would they listen? Muwah hah hah ;-) )

The World of Saramyr Appears on Bookshelves

I just picked up this omnibus of the Braided Path trilogy by Chris Wooding. He is a British author that is making waves with his world of Saramyr, an Asian-inspired world written for adults (there are now a few kids books including Jeff Stone's "The Five Ancestors" Series and the Dragonkeeper series by Carole Wilkinson [see series link to the left]).

Between this and works by such authors as Lian Hearn, looks like Asian-inspired worlds are slowly rising in popularity.

Check out Chris Wooding's site. This link is connected to a description of the first book in the series, The Weavers of Saramyr. Book Two is the Skein of Lament and the last book in the series is entitled The Ascendancy Veil.

That's Me in the Fuzzy Red Suit...

... and Darth represents the stranglehold that writing has had on my life this past month. Normally, I would be jumping for joy. I've done so much this past month that I've had no time for blogging. The truth is quite a bit farther afileld.

It's not that I have had a lack of writing work to do. I've had critiques, assignments for a small splitter group within my writing group, and a writing contest to prepare for. So, why haven't I accomplished anything? Why has my writing life been holding an anvil over my head?

And it's not as if I have not done anything. I have done the crits. I have started a story for the splitter group. The problem is, the story is not done. It was also going to be my writing contest entry. Well, with the deadline this weekend, I doubt anything will be done for that. The only consolation I have is I have not seen anything from the splitter group either.

Last week, with deadlines looming, I found myself complaining aloud about how little time I had to actually write. I looked at the promises I made to myself and then I added up the amount of time I spent writing. I felt depressed and disappointed with myself. Then I wondered if I was actually cut out for the writing life or whether I would end up just being another wanna-be writer.

Then I picked up Page After Page by Heather Sellers and my writing life began to transform. This was the book I needed. It doesn't discuss writing theory. It doesn't tell you the intricacies of plot, character and theme. It's about the writing life and how to get to it.

Ever since, writing has stopped having a strangehold on me. It is not torturing me or calling me nasty names. Now, it is co-operating. I am writing a little bit each day and even keeping a journal. It's baby steps, I know, but as life has shown me recently, babies quickly learn to run very fast.

Golden Pigs Can Fly

Happy Chinese New Year!

On February 18th, we enter the 4075th year on the Chinese Calendar, also known as the Year of the Fire Pig, or if you follow legend, the Year of the Golden Pig.

The Year of the Golden Fire Pig comes only once every 600 years and rumor has it, 2007 is this special year. It is Golden because the combination of elemental Fire, the sign Pig, and Yin/Yang components bring this year once every six centuries! It is said that children born under this sign will live in comfort as wealth and luck are always near. The Fire Pig is known to have traits of wealth, prosperity, luck and fertility.

So what are you waiting for...go out and celebrate.

Snakes ... Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?

This book is a great example of lateral fiction thinking. Snake Agent is an eclectic blend of science fiction, Chinese mythology, fantasy, and hard-boiled detective stories. Detective Inspector Chen is a Police Detective in the futuristic city of Singapore Three with a penchant towards solving supernatural cases. When asked to find out what happened to the ghost of a rich industrialist's daughter, his superiors partner him with a Demon from the wrong side of Hell.

So does it work? Liz Williams does a great job of immersing the reader in a world that is completely alien to the average person. Not only does she have to introduce Singapore Three as a futuristic city with new types of technology (including roll out desktop computers), but also introduce the reader to a very complex Chinese-style mythology.

In spite of this daunting task, Liz Williams weaves what starts out as a supernatural detective story, which morphs into an apocalyptic thriller involving a possible war between the forces of Heaven and Hell. It is a good, solid narrative, but loses its focus about half way through the book.

Snake Agent is the first in a series of novels involving Detective Inspector Chen. The next one up is The Demon and the City and is already in hardcover.

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

Writing is hard. Very hard. Harder than I ever thought possible. Just looking back at what I have written this past year, most of it (as the adage goes) has been crap. I recently reviewed my last story, Little Meme, written for the "Freedom to Read Week" stories. Crap. That's the long review. It is still salvageable, but I'd have to put a lot of work into it. I am looking forward to a few critiques.

In the meantime, I am working on a new story within the theme "On the Clock". It is due at the next IFWA meeting and I am frantically working on it now (writing about being "on the clock" is very much like really being "on the clock." Go figure).

It has the working title of Happy Valley, but it's not really about happiness (if you couldn't already guess). I'll let you know how it turns out.

In the meantime, I am thinking about a new writing topic for IFWA members to write about (we just finished the theme of Censorship - that's where Little Meme came from). This one should be for Conversion 2007 in August. I am thinking of The Day of the Dead. Should be fun.

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day everyone.