Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
That's why it's called historic novel and not historic fact, June 25, 2000
I've just finished reading the whole book in Chinese for the XXth time. And everytime I read it, I get a different aspect of the book. I was first attracted by the television series on Romance of The Three Kingdoms, and started to read the book itself, it was fantastic, filled with action and tactics in military and politics. Then when I re-read the book again and again, it gave me a deep insight of the cunning of humans, and the philosophy of the Chinese at that time. But the author Luo Kwang Chung wasn't being fair to every character. ChaoChau was written as an evil conspirator and LiuBei was potraited to be a great hero. But was it really that way? In real history, the time of the Three kingdoms didn't had a clear distinct between evil and good, but the author wrote it in this way as in his own sympathy to Liubei, which in ancient China was more popular for his loyal to the Han dynasty and sympathy to the peasants. Nevertheless, that's why this is called a historic novel and not 'facts'. So any people reading this book: Read it as a novel and not a history textbook.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
My Personal Favorite History Novel, December 4, 1998
I am a Chinese and I have read this book for a thousand times(first time I was around 16). The characteristics of people in this book are so diversified and charming. I really think the author was doing a great job on this. Even though the "poems" in the novel cannot compare with the genuine Chinese poems, I still think it is a high-value history novel to read.Please notice that some of the characters don't exist and some stories in the novel are different from real histroy records. That's why we call it "Romance" instead of "Records". By the way, I am glad to know that people from Japan and USA also like this book.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Flawed, but Outstanding, January 20, 2001
There will always be varying degrees of satisfaction when text is translated; I don't see this book as an exception.I found the book to be very captivating, not poorly-written by any means. It has it's share of flaws, but only the most discriminating readers will be disturbed by them. Don't wait for a "perfect" translation of this great tale to come along; even the most harsh critics of these two volumes will acknowledge that an English translation doesn't get much better than this. A few errors shouldn't stop anyone from picking up this book. My fascination with this epic tale began with playing the video games. I eventually discovered this book, and have purchased the VCD movie set since. I'm glad I read this book before seeing the series. The series is *superb* to see, but the English subtitles leave much to be desired. Therefore, I highly recommend this book to anyone who has experienced the series or video games. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves epic, classic literature.
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