We’re wishing The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang the happiest of book birthdays!
The Chinese classic Water Margin is reimagined through a queer, feminist lens in this lush wuxia epic that will delight fans of She Who Became the Sun and The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi.
In the jianghu, you break the law to make it your own.
Lin Chong is an expert arms instructor, training the Emperor’s soldiers in sword and truncheon, battle axe and spear, lance and crossbow. Unlike bolder friends who flirt with challenging the unequal hierarchies and values of Imperial society, she believes in keeping her head down and doing her job.
Until a powerful man with a vendetta rips that carefully-built life away.
Disgraced, tattooed as a criminal, and on the run from an Imperial Marshall who will stop at nothing to see her dead, Lin Chong is recruited by the Bandits of Liangshan. Mountain outlaws on the margins of society, the Liangshan Bandits proclaim a belief in justice―for women, for the downtrodden, for progressive thinkers a corrupt Empire would imprison or destroy. They’re also murderers, thieves, smugglers, and cutthroats.
Apart, they love like demons and fight like tigers. Together, they could bring down an empire.
“S. L. Huang doesn’t put a foot wrong in this magisterial epic.”—Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun
“This queer retelling of a Chinese classic is a fantastic and entertaining blend of action, humor, profanity, social justice, delightfully larger-than-life characters, and so many magnificent fight scenes!”—Kate Elliott, bestselling author of Unconquerable Sun
“A refreshing, engaging interpretation of a cornerstone of Chinese literature for contemporary readers around the world.”—Xueting C. Ni, editor of the British Fantasy Award-winning Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction
