I've got to find a real good translation for ROTK. Been playing the games, but want to read it myself. Given my interest in the time period as well as this novel, I'll probably prefer ROTK over the LOTR.
ROTK vs. LOTR
- Thread starter Dida
- Start date
Dann
Green bug
To those who loved the games but haven't read the book, go look for it and read it. Trust me, the game becomes even more interesting afterwards. You will know the characters and all their strengths and weaknesses. It becomes almost.... personal.
Just like killing Zhang Liao every time!
Timko
King
Ok, so I read the thread, and decided that since you rate it so highly I should read it (in English). So can you explain what this talk of different versions is about, and which to get. Thanks.
Edit: how many books is it in too?
Edit: how many books is it in too?
Dann
Green bug
Only one. But it's very long. Spanning like 70+ years, at least 3 generations and 100+ characters.
Timko said:
It's all explained here:
http://www.threekingdoms.com/
They have the entire English translation online for free if you want a "test run". It's the older one by C.H. Brewitt-Taylor. The one most common now in stores seems to be the one by Moss Roberts.
Brewitt-Taylor has an older style that some people claim is more lyrically and others claim just make it harder to read. Moss Roberts has a more modern style of English. Brewitt-Taylor is out of copyright which is why they can put it all on the web. The website says that they think Moss Roberts is better. Still Brewitt-Taylor is free so you can take it for a test-read for free.
If you want to buy the paper book, the Moss Roberts comes in 4 volumes (full version) and has the advantage of containing a lot of historical notes.
Whatever you do don't get the abridged version. Apparently it really sucks.
Dida
YHWH
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- Sep 11, 2003
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Dann said:
The story begins around 185 AD with the outbreak of Yellow Turban Rebellion and ends around 263 AD with the fall of Shu Kingdom. It contains more than 500 characters, the most sucessful among these I would say is Guan Yu, who is now a symbol of loyalty, honesty and power and worshipped by gangsters, policemen and businessmen alike.
Those variations in how Chinese names, places, etc. are spelled comes from two different kinds of transliteration systems, Wade-Giles and Pinyin, with Pinyin being the newer one of the two.Uiler said:
Well, if you ever see Guan Yu with his long beard and his spear in the games, you would see why they revere him!aussieboy said:Gangsters and buisnessmen valuing honesty?
I'm also interested in the period after the Three Kingdoms, start of Jin, etc, but there does not seem to be much on the era.
Yeah, doesn't seem to be anything in English (or even Chinese) listed with the online retailers. I'd love to fill in the gap of history between the Jin usurping Wei to the Sui/Tang era.
The Yankee said:
I'm not sure it's all that interesting. Jin fell, retreated to the former Wu territory (Chinese dynasties always retreat south). Eventually fell. What was the exact division again? I think it was 10 Barbarian kingdoms in the north and 5 Han Chinese kingdoms in the south? No, looking at Wikipedia it was the East Jin and 16 Kingdoms. And then after that was the North and South Kingdoms. My favourite line was when East Jin eventually fell. There was a very smart scholar in a high position. He told the barbarian (?) leader that it wasn't his fault that Jin fell from the inside. He could do nothing because he would have been executed by the corrupt officials. To which the leader said (I'm paraphrasing here as I can't remember the exact lines), you are very smart, one of the smartest men of your generation and you are in a high position. And you say that you could do nothing! Well you should either have resigned your position and left behind its wealth and power or you should have done your best and met your fate. You are as much to blame as the corrupt officials for the fall of the Jin. In disgust he ordered the execution of the official. That was pretty cool.
Dann
Green bug
Yeah but not all of them are major characters. Some are just officers who appeared for only one scene and then die immediately.Dida said:
I didn't want to scare the newbies so gave a lower number, concentrating only on major characters.
Dann said:Yeah but not all of them are major characters. Some are just officers who appeared for only one scene and then die immediately.
I didn't want to scare the newbies so gave a lower number, concentrating only on major characters.
The scary thing is even *they* have official biographies! I'm talking about the real people here and real historical biographies.
Dann
Green bug
Uiler said:
That's what you get for writing an epic novel based on people who really existed in history.
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