Review of A Hero Born by Jin Yong & Translated by Anna Holmwood

Read for: Netgalley/Requested Review & Audio Book

Synopsis: "The epic Chinese classic and phenomenon published in the US for the first time!

A fantastical generational saga and kung fu epic, A Hero Born is the classic novel of its time, stretching from the Song Empire (China 1200 AD) to the appearance of a warlord whose name will endure for eternity: Genghis Khan. Filled with an extraordinary cast of characters, A Hero Born is a tale of fantasy and wonder, love and passion, treachery and war, betrayal and brotherhood.

And then a hero is born...

After his father, a Song patriot, was murdered, Guo Jing and his mother fled to the plains and joined Ghengis Khan and his people. Loyal, humble and driven, he learned all he could from the warlord and his army in hopes of one day joining them in their cause. But what Guo Jing doesn’t know is that he’s destined to battle an opponent that will challenge him in every way imaginable and with a connection to his past that no one envisioned.

With the help and guidance of his shifus, The Seven Heroes of the South, Guo Jing returns to China to face his foe and carry out his destiny. But in a land divided by treachery and war, betrayal and ambition, he’ll have to put his courage and knowledge to the test to survive."

My Review:  I have heard a lot about this book and have been curious to give it a try. I started off reading the digital version and it was slow going for me. This is not uncommon for me as I generally struggle a bit with books based on or set in eastern cultures. So when it was released on audio book I downloaded that to read side by side and it went much better. At times this story was super interesting and intriguing, I found the time we spent with Charity & Lily Li to be the most interesting, it read the smoothest of all the story. After that it started jumping from character story to character story line but I didn't spend enough time with any of them to really connect with them. One of the things that I really struggled with in this one (and all similarly set books) were the names, all the characters are referred to by several different names and they are often very similar to other characters, so it was extremely confusing; fortunately, this book included a character list at the front so you knew to refer to it as necessary. I think this would be great for those who are really interested in Martial Arts, even though I spent years watching my brother take classes, I still really struggled to wrap my head around all the various forms and moves described throughout this book. I also think that this would adapt to film really well and I would enjoy watching it (I am sure with it having been popular in the original language for so long it has already been adapted into non-english formats). I would also recommend not reading the introduction as it doesn't do a great job of setting you up for the story, it only served to confuse me. With that said, now that I have read it once and kind of understand the characters and the story a little more, I believe a re-read would be vastly more enjoyable.

My Rating: I feel if this book would have been broken up into 2 smaller books it would have been more enjoyable. It is clear that it follows 2 different generations and character groups with a large bit of time missing in the middle.  It made it a bit confusing to jump from Charity and Lily Li's story to their sons' story without really knowing.  I give it a rating of Two Paws and a Stump Wag. It is clear that this is quite the saga and it is suited to a particular audience, I would need to re-read it a few times to be able to fully grasp and appreciate the story.

I received a complimentary copy via Netgalley. The above is my honest review and opinion.

You can check out A Hero Born and the rest of the Condor Heroes series on Jin Yong's Goodreads Page.

A Hero Born has just been released in the US though it has been released throughout the world in previous years.  You can now obtain this new translation in print or digital format from Amazon or Barnes and Noble or check at your local library.