Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove

[Iskariot]

I've read the complete series three times. It is absolutely magnificent. Book eight is indeed weak. And Wingrove is not to blamed for that. The publisher f*cked up.

The first release looked like this:

The Middle Kingdom (1989)
The Broken Wheel (1990)
The White Mountain (1992)
The Stone Within (1993)
Beneath the Tree of Heaven (1994)
White Moon, Red Dragon (1994)
Days of Bitter Strength (1997)
The Marriage of the Living Dark (1999)

The rerelease will look like this (source wikipedia):

In February 2011 Corvus / Atlantic Books will begin an ambitious re-release of the entire Chung Kuo saga, recasting it as twenty books with approximately 500,000 words of new material. This includes two brand new prequel novels, Son of Heaven and Daylight on Iron Mountain and a significant restructuring of the end of the series to reflect Wingrove's original intentions. The two prequels will cover events between 2045 and 2100 AD, telling the story of China's rise to power.

Son of Heaven
Daylight on Iron Mountain
The Middle Kingdom
Ice and Fire
The Art of War
An Inch of Ashes
The Broken Wheel
The White Mountain
Monsters of the Deep
The Stone Within
Upon a Wheel of Fire
Beneath the Tree of Heaven
Song of the Bronze Statue
White Moon Red Dragon
China on the Rhine
Days of Bitter Strength
The Father of Lies
Blood and Iron
King of Infinite Space
The Marriage of the Living Dark

I think this deserves much more attention than it gets. Personally I can not think of anything in science fiction that pleases me more than this. With the release of the prequels (written by wingrove himself) and the rewriting and restructuring of the final books I believe this series is one of the holy grails in scifi.

[ardeegee]

I tried reading the series on the recommendation of a friend, but quit before finishing even half of the first book. The constant misogyny was just too repulsive to me.

[PKFFW]

Well I finished the first prequel book. Must say it didn't completely grab me. Though I'm not sure if that wasn't because I didn't get much chance to actually read big chunks at a time. I've been very busy lately and that has meant my reading has been very stop/start choppy if you know what I mean. That could well have been the problem.

Overall the story seemed interesting and the characters well drawn. The writing did seem a little stilted and the book seemed to lack a good pace and flow. However, the author did enough to make me want to give the second book a shot when it comes out and and see how it goes.

Cheers,
PKFFW
P.S: I did notice a bit of misogyny(a guy wants to "buy" a wife, another characters wife decides she has to hop into bed with her husbands best mate the night after hubby dies because "it's a harsh world and they have to do it") but it sort of seemed in keeping with the idea of the semi post apocalyptic world.

[DiapDealer]

Never, ever start with a prequel.
I loved the series, but the prequel (the first one at least) did absolutely nothing for me.

The constant misogyny was just too repulsive to me.

Saying the misogyny in Chung Kuo repulsed you is like saying you couldn't watch All In the Family because Archie Bunker was such a bigot.

[Couchchicago]

Well....for those of you who didn't like Son of Heaven, all I can say is...too bad.

I enjoyed it thoroughly!! However...I cannot imagine ANYONE truly enjoying it who hasn't read the whole series from the 90s like I did. And I did it TWICE!! Well...to be honest...I stopped at book 05 because I couldn't find books 06 or 07 (I actually thought that they cancelled his contract because all the bookstores I went to could never seem to find who I was talking about...or the books!! Weird. Of course, I wasn't using computers back then...so that's also my fault.) and book 08 had yet to be written..

By the by...I enjoyed book 08 a lot...even though it was apparent that a whole bunch of stuff was totally skipped over...or explained rather hastily...so I can see why people said it was weak. However...as weak as it was, it was 10 times better than the vast majority of sci fi that's either been written or is being written today. As a matter of fact, it seems sci fi has taken a HUUUUGE step back and just caters to caterwauling teenyboppers. Outside of Alastair Reynolds, nobody is writing good sci fi. I had hopes for Peter Hamilton...but his last series was a bit strange for me... of course, I haven't finished it...yet. So, I have hopes it will turn around as I'm about 50% through book 02...and I AM enjoying it...but not nearly as much as I enjoyed The Commonwealth Saga...which was awesome.
And I guess a nod goes to Dan Simmons...but he hasn't written any sci fi for years and years. He's Mr. History now, for some reason...which is fine. I like his Joe Kurtz series and wish he'd write more of those...

Well...that's all I have to say.
I'm looking forward to reading the whole thing...again..but with 13 new books..or 12? Whatever it is...should be fun!

But, really, I know it's impossible for anyone to do...but if you have a chance, read the first series...and THEN read this upcoming revision...because, to be honest, I probably wouldn't be as excited as I am without knowing the whole story as I do...

Couch

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Couchchicago

I'm looking forward to reading the whole thing...again..but with 13 new books..or 12? Whatever it is...should be fun!

You do know it's only two new books (the prequels) and an overhauled ending, right? The rest is just being re-released in smaller chunks.

All new covers, though!

Glad you liked it. I liked the original series too, but I thought the recently released prequel (Son of Heaven) was pretty lackluster. I tend to frown on prequels in general, though.