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Title: The Broken Wheel : A Chung Kuo Novel by David Wingrove ISBN: 0-440-20928-5 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 05 October, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.43 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A must have
Comment: Take the chance and embark on a long journey with David Wingrove. You will not be let down. Problem is, you will see nothing of your friends or family for the next three months.
But, that is what you are looking for in a book, isn't it?
Rating: 3
Summary: If it's so bad, why am I still reading it?
Comment: Another example of psycho-fi - characterized by unpleasant characters, ruthless power plays and rampant paranoia. Superior practicioners of this flavor of sci-fi include Frank Herbert and CJ Cherryh. Wingrove has penned a compelling saga weakened by a lack of endearing characters - at least any that live very long. Maybe that's just an honest reflection of the rather vicious society he creates - where good guys die young (and painfully) while slavery, racism, brutality, incest, pedophilia, treachery, and murder abound. If, like me, you prefer stories that give you someone to identify with, this one's going to be tough going. And yet it's intriguing - and I'm still reading.
Rating: 4
Summary: Slavery is more complicated an evil than it seems
Comment: This book provides a great illustration of the fact that ownership of another human being dehumanizes everyone concerned. There's a scene where a young newlywed prince--a nice guy for the most part--is worried about the welfare of the two young maids he owned during early adolescence. So he sends an emmisary to check on them. The two girls tell the emmisary that they're lonely for the prince and miss him badly. You see, during the previous volume, "The Middle Kingdom", they had "initiated him into manhood", quite affectionately explaining to him; "That's what we're here for". In the process, they both fell in love with him. Neither girl (they're sisters) is jealous of the other. They don't even resent his new bride--the way they see it, they had both played a part in a necessary rite of passage for the kid. In this book, he admits to himself that the reason he cares about their welfare is that he loves them as well. What's the best thing he can do for them? He plans to give them their freedom, as well as a substantial dowry. They can't have him, but they'll never be anyone's property again. That's what's so cruddy about slavery--when master and slave care for each other as people, but all that "the system" depicted in this story allows is a "semi-requited" relationship. I felt so sorry for all three of these young people. It's too much of a temptation to chalk it all up to the alleged Oriental "lower respect for human dignity" and forget that we in the West have our share of it in our history. There's a lesson in this for HUMANITY, period. However human society "advances" or "regresses" in our future, we damn sure don't want to go back to something like that.
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Title: The Stone Within : A Chung Kuo Novel: Book Four by David Wingrove ISBN: 0440217555 Publisher: Dell Publishing Pub. Date: 01 November, 1994 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Beneath the Tree of Heaven by David Wingrove ISBN: 0440221536 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 01 April, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom : Book 1 by David Wingrove ISBN: 0440207614 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 05 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: White Moon, Red Dragon : A Chung Kuo Novel: Book Six by David Wingrove ISBN: 0440223083 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 10 March, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Days of Bitter Strength by David Wingrove ISBN: 0440507944 Publisher: DTP Pub. Date: 07 July, 1997 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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