A Hero Born

Jin Yong is an enormous name in Chinese literature–and finally we’re getting English translations of one of his most famous series, Legends of the Condor Heroes. This series has been filmed multiple times, and the books have been in print for half a century.

For us Westerners looking through the tiny keyhole of translated Chinese epics, this one I think serves as a good introduction. I cannot comment on the quality of the translation, but I believe that beginning with the tale of Guo Jin was a good move because this first volume is basically a coming of age tale, about a boy talented in martial arts who is in spite of it a simple person.

The Western reader has a chance to “grow up” along with Guo Jin, becoming accustomed to the picaresque style, the breezy dialogue, the many martial arts terms and moves, while taking in the details of Mongolian life on the steppe around 1200 AD. (The most famous figure in this novel is Genghis Khan.) Also, we are introduced to the world of the Jiang hu, which overlies the eternally battling imperials versus the northern clans.

The characters range from exalted to treacherous villains to just a lot of fun. We get to know the Six Freaks of the South, among other colorful figures. The reader has a chance to absorb customs and hints of culture unfamiliar to Westerners, as Guo Jin navigates his way toward adulthood and his later fame as carried out in the rest of the series.

I’m so glad to see this series at last coming to the West, and thoroughly enjoyed the tale. Looking forward to more in this marvelous, complex world.

I was excited when I first heard they were going to have this book translated into English and then I saw it on goodreads as a giveaway. I was so excited for a chance to win this. When I got the email saying that I won I couldn’t wait for it to arrive.

I was able to finish the book but it was and it wasn’t what I was expecting. The fight scenes were hard to follow. I think someone who is more familiar with different styles of fighting would enjoy them more. Some of the moves were hard to picture. It was slow in the beginning but picked up. All around it’s not a bad story. maybe down the road I will try reading this book again and will be able to see and appreciate it more. Happy reading everyone!!

I don’t normally read fantastical martial arts novels, but once I started this one I couldn’t put it down.

This story takes place in 1200 AD in the Song Empire and follows Guo Jing and his mother as they flee after his father is murdered. There they join Ghengis Khan and his people.

This story if full of wondrous characters and amazing battles. I don’t think I can do the book justice with a review other than to say, if you enjoyed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you will enjoy this.

I can’t wait to read the next book and see where it takes me.

I voluntarily read an advanced copy of this book.

One rainy Sunday afternoon in 1990-something, I curled up on the couch, picked up my TV remote, and discovered the wonderful world of Chinese Wuxia films. The movie playing was The Legend of the Mountain and the English dubbing wasn’t great, but the story! The spectacle! The action! I wanted to believe that if I studied any martial art for long enough that I, too, could fly.

I’ve since watched dozens of these movies and I’m always affected the same way. The stories catch me and keep me, but it’s the special effects that keep me coming back—or simply that same belief that the feats of athleticism accomplished offscreen by a bounce on a trampoline and an invisible wire, are actually possible. That there is a secret world buried somewhere within the layers of our own, where devotees of certain styles of kung fu can learn to do this sort of thing. That it’s all real. That it’s all possible.

So, you can imagine my delight upon discovering the newly translated A Hero Born by Jin Yong (translated by Anna Holmwood). The prose is deceptively simple. Peek beneath the surface, however, and you’ll discover the same world I did so many years ago.

A Hero Born begins the story of two men who are destined to be heroes even before they’re born. Set in the evening of the Song dynasty, a time of war, two best friends plan for the futures of their unborn children. If they are a boy and a girl, they will be married. If they are both boys, they will be best friends, just like their fathers. No plans are made in the event both children are girls. Given the time in which this was written, however, I wasn’t particularly bothered by the slight. I read this for the pure Wuxia feel of the story, and though I love to see female characters doing amazing things in modern fiction, I’ve always felt Chinese literature and film has highlighted many wonderful female characters. A Hero Born is no exception. The greatest villain in the story is female and she is truly, truly scary.

Before these plans can come to fruition, however, the two friends and their families are torn apart by the conflict between the Jin and the Song. Both children are born, and both are male. But their destinies have been irrevocably changed. Instead of growing up to be best friends, as their fathers were, these two boys will grow up on opposites of the war—one as the adopted son of Temujin (who will become the Great Khan, Genghis), the other as the adopted son of a prince of the Jin.

Chance will bring them back together in a way that is pure Chinese fantasy: a wandering monk, Eternal Spring, and a close band of warriors, the Seven Freaks of the South, meet and fight. This scene is one of my favourites in the book. The fight reads exactly like a scene from the movies, with the monk arriving with an enormous censor of wine and managing to balance the vessel throughout and use it in the fight.

Afterward, the two parties agree to a new challenge that will settle the matter of whose style of kung fu is superior: they will find these two lost children, one each, and train them over the years. They will meet again, in eighteen years, and the two children will fight. The victor will prove once and for all, who is the winner. It’s convoluted and wonderful and the reason I love watching movies and now reading books like this.

The rest of the novel focuses on the story of Guo Jing, who is born on the Mongolian Steppe and found nearly a decade later by the Seven Freaks of the South. His training begins in earnest and is interspersed with adventures that could each be a complete story on its own. Some readers might find the wandering narrative a little distracting, but this reader reveled in every encounter, especially when they included passages like the following:

“But aren’t they dead?” Zhu Cong said in disbelief. “How can they still be alive?”

“I thought so too. But it looks as if they have been hiding here, practicing their Nine Yin Skeleton Claw,” Ke Zhen’e said. “Mount your horses and head south, as fast as you can. Don’t come back for me. Keep riding for one thousand li and then wait for ten days. If I do not join you by the eleventh day, there is no need to wait any longer.”

I love the specific nature of “Keep riding for one thousand li and then wait for ten days.” To me, that’s the stuff of essential fantasy, regardless of the cultural origin of the author. I grew up on tales like these and love that they’re still being celebrated.

Next, we have another mention of a specific style, from another practitioner who is, of course, “a man of great learning from an esoteric school…”

Ke Zhen’e had heard of Lama Supreme Wisdom Lobsang Choden Rinpoche, of course, a man of great learning from an esoteric school of Buddhism in the northern plains of Kokonor, known across the south and west for his Five Finger Blade kung fu.

But wait, there’s more. There’s always more, and there’s always another style of kung fu to discover:

He had never, in all his years in the wulin, seen anything like this Orchid Touch kung fu, a technique that emphasized speed, accuracy, surprise and clarity.

Rather than throwing a new school of kung fu onto every second page, however, author Jin Yong has constructed a world that could exist—that did exist, for the most part. Fantasy that skirts close to our own history is some of the most compelling because of the way it combines myth and folklore into an almost reasonable explanation of the world around us. It’s stories like these that stay with us, becoming the myths for the future.

I loved the experience of reading this book just as much as I enjoyed the story and I’m thrilled by the idea these translations might bring a whole new world of fantasy to Western readers so that they, too, can discover the wonders of Wuxia, both in literature and maybe film. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series and anticipate a long and adventurous journey with the Condor Heroes.

I am going to start his review by stating that I can’t wait to read the next novel, A Bond Undone; it won’t come out until March of 2020, but September 17th you all can begin your journey with A Hero Born!

A Hero Born is the first of four novels, together referred to as Legend of the Condor Heroes, which themselves comprise part one of three (the other two being The Return of the Condor Heroes and Heaven Sword, Dragon Saber) of Legends of the Condor Heroes epic. Essentially A Hero Born is the first of twelve novels. The first installment was written by Jin Yong and was published in 1957; it has finally been translated into English for the first time.

Guo Jing, whose name means “serenity,” is a young boy who desires to avenge his father’s death. Learning all that he can from the Seven Freaks of the South, along with other mentors including Temujin, later known as Genghis Khan, Guo Jing grows to be a man with not only amazing Kung Fu skills, but a kind, honest heart as well. Little does he know, those who appear to have noble intentions can have ulterior motives.

A Hero Born can seem like an intimidating novel, first because it is the first in a series of twelve, but also because the names and places can make it difficult to follow all the action. I used a cheat sheet while reading, which was a big help. It was fun finding and examining all the Chinese numerology throughout the book, trying to figure out their significance to the story. I really like a lot of the characters; they are well developed and watching Guo Jing grow and mature was a great adventure that I can’t wait to continue.

A Hero Born is available September 17th. Thank you St Martin’s Publishing for an ARC of A Hero Born, given in exchange for an honest review.