The City Trilogy

March 10, 2003
Set in fictional Sunlon City during an unspecified period, these three enigmatic short novels by the father of Taiwanese SF offer Chang's view of "the true nature of human society in general and Chinese society in particular," as the translator says in his preface of the 1980 story "City of the Bronze Statue," which serves as the trilogy's prologue. Five Jade Disks
(1984) traces the efforts of the native Huhui to retake Sunlon City ("Sun" plus "lon," as in "Babylon") from their interstellar overlords, the Shan. In Defenders of the Dragon City
(1986), the Shan return to try to destroy the city. Several years later, in Tale of a Feather
(1996), a dictator seizes the city's government and tries to exterminate all his enemies, including the Shan and the several races of Huhui natives. Despite the translator's valiant attempts to animate these characters through colloquial Americanisms and slangy locutions, Huhui "soul toucher" (singer) Miss Qi and her several comrades never come alive. Shifting alliances among races; warrior brotherhood bonds continually broken and reshaped; kaleidoscopic political machinations as well as a strange pictographic invented language that obstructs rather than enlightens the narrative: these all muddle the bleak, deterministic view of a society dominated by an ever-more malignant "Bronze Statue" and its cult—the embodiment of Chang's terrifying concept of human history. (May)Forecast:This literary curiosity will appeal mainly to Asian scholars, but with promotion playing up the Tolkienian aspects, like the invented language, it stands to sell in higher than usual numbers for a university press book.

April 15, 2003
Three short novels chronicle the rise and fall of Sunlon City, heart of a faraway world populated by warring nations. In Five Jade Disks, the warlike Shan conquer Sunlon City and a rebel movement rises up to overthrow their conquerors. Defenders of the Dragon City details a second attempt by the Shan to conquer Sunlon City and impose their way of life upon its people. Tale of a Feather describes the rise of a despot and the city's internal struggles to fight off tyranny. Filled with its own legendry, philosophy, poetry, and social mores, the world created by Chang, considered to be Taiwan's "father of science fiction," resounds with grace and style. Elegantly told in a quasi-formal style, this unusual work, first published in Taiwan and now available for the first time in English, belongs in most sf collections. Libraries with an interest in contemporary Chinese literature should also acquire.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2003
The first English translation of leading Taiwanese sf writer Chang's work is a trilogy densely woven out of history, politics, and philosophy and set in a recognizable but quite alien world. The prologue to "Five Jade Disks" introduces the bronze statue that towers over Sunlon City even after imperialist Shan invaders destroy the place. In "Five Jade Disks," the Huhui people rebel against Shan occupation forces. In "Defenders of the Dragon City," the Shan use Huhui factions--feathered people, serpent people, and leopard people--in an attempt to regain the city. Several years later, in "Tale of a Feather," Sunlon City is finally brought to blazing ruin by the machinations of a petty power-hungry dictator, Mayor Ma. The historical depth with which Chang endows the world he creates reflects great comprehension of our world. In the manner of the very best sf, Chang's makes readers think about ideas of great importance to the world they inhabit by posing them in the context of a well-realized, intricately detailed alien society. His Sunlon City, with its masses as well as the almost allegorical leading figures in the action, is virtually a rounded character itself, which, while it facilitates Chang's historicizing, makes for gripping reading. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)